MOOSIC, Pa. — Heavy rain that swept through northeast Pennsylvania yesterday short-circuited the Pawtucket Red Sox’ hopes of getting back on the winning track.

The PawSox’ game against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees at PNC Field was washed out. No makeup date has been announced.

Pawtucket’s next trip here will be July 4-5, so it’s possible the teams will wait until the PawSox’ final visit of the season, Aug. 8-9, to schedule a makeup doubleheader.

Also up in the air was who will start for Pawtucket tonight (7:05 ), when the team begins a four-game set at McCoy Stadium against the Toledo Mud Hens.

Knuckleballer Charlie Zink (no record), just up from Double-A Portland, who was to have started last night, is one possibility. Left-hander Abe Alvarez (1-3, 5.61 ERA), who was originally slated to go tonight, is another.

“I would think we’d push them back,” said PawSox skipper Ron Johnson, sporting a football-size bruise on his stomach a day after taking the full brunt of a Jeff Bailey line drive, “but I probably won’t know until we get home.”

Right-hander Zach Miner (0-4, 6.69 ERA) is slated to go for the Mud Hens.

Toledo manager on leave

When Toledo, the two-time defending Governor’s Cup champion, arrives in Pawtucket it will do so without the man who guided the team to those titles, manager Larry Parrish.

Parrish is on the mend in his Georgia home after undergoing surgery about a month ago for an old ankle injury.

In the interim, the Hens are being managed by Mike Rojas, who is the Detroit Tigers’ minor-league catching instructor.

Overcoming adversity

Pawtucket is in the throes of one of its most dismal stretches in years, having dropped 12 of its last 13 contests.

The losing is providing the PawSox with a character test.

“Our record (10-21) isn’t great right now,” said rookie right fielder Brandon Moss. “But we’ve got a good team, and I think things will turn around pretty soon.”

The PawSox’ losing ways reminds Moss of a similar string of futility he experienced last year while with the Portland Sea Dogs.

That club endured a 10-game losing streak just as the Eastern League playoff race was heating up.

Moss said he learned an invaluable lesson from that string of adversity.

“Just knowing that it’s part of baseball,” he said. “Some of the stuff that happened the last few games is the same way it was going last year in that 10-game losing streak. We’d score 10 and let in 11. And if we only gave up three, we’d only score two. It’s just one of those times that you’ve got to battle through and know that it’s [not] going to get much worse.”

Oh, by the way, the Sea Dogs snapped that free-fall and went on to win the Eastern League championship, with Moss being named the playoffs’ Most Valuable Player.

Memorializing Hancock

It appears, at first glance, to be out of place, draped over a hanger in an empty locker at the end of the PNC Field visitors’ clubhouse.

But after closer look, one realizes why the No. 29 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons jersey once worn by the late Josh Hancock hangs in tribute.

It was placed there in his old locker in what used to be the home quarters by clubhouse manager Paul “Red” Brower soon after Hancock was killed in a traffic accident on April 29 while a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The jersey bears the inscription, “To Red: Josh Hancock.”

Hancock played for Pawtucket in 2002 before being traded to the Phillies and spending part of the next two seasons in Scranton.