•KEY TO THE GAME: Jonathan Van Every hammered his 23rd home run of the season with one out in the 10th inning for the PawSox, who are hitting only .171 through three games of the four-game series against the International League’s worst pitching staff (ERA 4.52). Van Every’s homer made a winner of Hunter Jones, the PawSox’ third pitcher, who followed David Pauley’s seven innings and a perfect eighth by Justin Masterson.

•HIGHLIGHTS: PawSox manager Ron Johnson was tossed in the third inning when a shot over the left-field wall by Van Every was ruled a home run by third-base umpire Manny Gonzalez, then a foul ball by plate umpire Rob Healey. “It was foul,” Johnson admitted later.

“Rob Healey is one of the best umpires in the I.L., and he got it right. But we were struggling in the third game of the series and I had to do something.”

Between the rulings, Tides manager Gary Allenson — himself a PawSox alumnus — offered his opinion of the foul.

“It was a case of one of us were going to get tossed, him or me,” Johnson said. “He won the case.”

After Johnson was ejected for the second time this season, Van Every singled to right field, went to third on Jeff Bailey’s single to right and scored on Chris Carter’s infield out. The run was matched when Norfolk’s Luis Terrero tripled home Oscar Salazar in seventh.

•BACK TO THE FUTURE: Yes, Justin Masterson is being converted to a reliever by the Red Sox, but it’s more of a case of being converted back. “I was a closer in the Cape Cod League in 2005,” he said. “It was kind of like it was in Boston. The starters were all doing well, and they needed somebody in relief, so I was it.”

So how well did he do? “I don’t remember,” he said. “OK, I think. I can remember one game where I gave up a walk-off homer to a kid that the other team was ready to send home. After the homer, he stayed for the rest of the season.”

For the record, Masterson had a 1.15 ERA and 10 saves for Wareham and blew only one save, when Babson College’s Teddy Dziuba homered to win for Bourne. Already packed to leave, Dziuba stayed the rest of the season and all of 2006 with Bourne, then was drafted by the Mets. He recently was released.

•NOTES: Outfielder Bryan Pritz was activated from the disabled list just before the game and batted fifth against the Tides. He replaced Bobby Kielty, who was released by Boston. … Gil Velazquez was at shortstop for the PawSox, replacing Jeff Lowrie, who was playing for Boston against Baltimore.

•UP NEXT: The PawSox send Charlie Zink (10-2, 2.28) against Norfolk’s Craig Anderson (2-7, 7.88) in the final game of the four-game series at 6:15 tonight. The game is also the final one before the All-Star break.