Pawtucket Red Sox
Bulls 3, PawSox 0: Hansack's fine outing wasted
08:47 AM EDT on Wednesday, May 7, 2008
•THE HIGHLIGHTS: The Durham Bulls’ pitching staff continued its dominance of the PawSox, giving up only three hits to a Pawtucket lineup that came into this series hitting .274 over its previous 10 games. And Durham did it with a thin staff. Starter Ben Hendrickson was pulled after an inning with shoulder tightness, and the four pitchers that followed him were all that Durham manager Charlie Montoyo had available to use. But the skeleton crew had it going. They were working on a perfect game through six innings. Jeff Bailey broke up the no-no with a bloop single to lead off the seventh.
With Monday night’s 1-0 loss, it is the first time Pawtucket has suffered back-to-back shutout losses since June 2-3, 2006 in Louisville.
•PROSPECT WATCH: Pawtucket starter Devern Hansack should have been the story of the game. The 29-year-old right-hander had by far his best outing of the year, going 6 1/3 innings and giving up one first-inning run and two hits. Hansack was hit by a line drive on his pitching arm during his second start of the season, on April 11, and has been on a pitch count since then. Though he still looked strong, he was pulled after 82 pitches last night.
Though Hansack has given up just three earned runs over his last two starts (11 innings), his record fell to 0-4.
•THEY SAID IT: “I know how good he is and I expect so much from him,” Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson said of Hansack. “Today Devern was getting into one of those rolls; his changeup was outstanding. … I’d like to say we are [in a hitting slump], but I can’t. I have to give all of the credit to the opposition — this club has thrown the highest percentage of off-speed stuff, early in the count, for strikes, of any team we’ve seen all season. They have kept our batters off-balance with very, very few hitters’ counts,” Johnson said.
•TONIGHT: Pawtucket wraps up the series with the Bulls tonight at 6:15 with Kyle Snyder (0-1, 4.08 ERA) facing Kevin Lynn (0-1, 2.63), who will make a spot start due to injuries on the Durham staff. … Alex Cora (sprained right elbow) is scheduled to make the first of three rehab appearances and is expected to play at second base.
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