LEHIGH VALLEY 12, PAWSOX 0

The highlights: It was all IronPigs, beginning with starting pitcher Drew Carpenter (8-2). Carpenter, who is one of the top-rated prospects in the Philadelphia Phillies chain, was masterful in throwing seven scoreless innings of two-hit ball. He fanned nine PawSox while walking just one. He flirted with a no-hitter until Bubba Bell smacked a two-out, fifth-inning double into the gap in right center.

Keys to the game: The die was cast in the bottom of the first, when PawSox starter Kris Johnson (3-9) walked the first three hitters, then paid dearly when each of those runners eventually scored. Johnson wound up throwing 41 pitches in that inning, just 19 for strikes, and didn't survive the fourth inning. The deficit had ballooned to 5-0 when LV catcher Lou Marson kayoed the PawSox with a fifth inning three-run double.

Prospect watch: It may be a while before Casey Kelly, Boston's top draft choice in 2008, arrives in Pawtucket. And when he does get there, it could be as a pitcher, or as a shortstop.

Kelly, who has big league potential at both positions, will head to the Futures' Game as a pitcher.

Then, according to Rob Leary, Boston's Minor League Field Director, who has been with the PawSox on this trip, Kelly will head back to the Sox' Fort Myers complex to begin work at short.

They said it: "I was throwing strikes and keeping them off balance. Everything was working. You get them (the PawSox) in a defensive mode, and you keep attacking them." -- Lehigh Valley starter Drew Carpenter.

"I stiffened up a tad. When I got back out there and started throwing, I was alright. From a pitching standpoint, you kind of want to sit for a little bit. But you always want those runs, too. It's kind of love/hate, I guess. You just go with it." -- Carpenter, on the 40-minute turn at bat by his teammates in the bottom of the first, which produced a 3-0 Lehigh Valley lead.

Odds and ends: Rehabbing SS Jed Lowrie is slated to rejoin the PawSox Thursday, after having spent the last three days at both Double-A Portland and Short-Season Lowell . . . Elsewhere, the ongoing drainage problems at PNC Field in Scranton are getting worse. The IronPigs were to have played the SWB Yanks there Thursday and Friday. Instead, those games have been shifted to Allentown because of the poor outfield turf conditions in Scranton. The PawSox experienced those problems first-hand, when games slated for July 4 and 5 had to be scrubbed. Pawtucket is scheduled to make one more trip to PNC Field, but one brief cloudburst at the wrong time could force those games to be played somewhere else . . . Attendence was announced as 9,670 . . . The PawSox equalled their most lopsided shutout loss of the season, matching the 12-0 rout they suffered June 30 against Syracuse . . . Pawtucket collected just three hits.

Up next: The PawSox will return home to begin a two-game set with the Buffalo Bisons. Lefty Billy Traber (5-3, 2.19) will get the start against Bison RHP Nelson Figueroa (4-4, 2.63). First pitch is slated for 7:05 p.m.