PAWTUCKET -- Michael Bowden returned to form Sunday, which is good news for the Pawtucket Red Sox.

 The rugged right-hander, one of the leading pitching prospects in the deep Boston organization, went six strong innings. His work, allowing six hits and one run, with one walk and three strikeouts, went for naught. The Pawtucket bullpen allowed four runs in the ninth and Durham came away with a 5-4 victory at McCoy.

 No one in the parent organization will consider it a loss, though, because of the way Bowden threw. Mike Hazen, the organization’s farm director, was among those who took it in.

 ``He went back to the way he was throwing,’’ said manager Ron Johnson. ``He pounded the strike zone. He got a lot of mis-hit balls.’’

 ``I was in a little funk from my last three starts, out there pressing, trying to do a little bit too much,’’ Bowden offered. ``Today I went back to basics. . . I was very happy with the start.’’

 After giving up only four earn runs (and getting his earned run average to 0.86) through seven starts, Bowden had allowed 11 earned runs in his last three outings, six in his most recent start against Louisville, getting his ERA to 2.58. He concentrated Sunday on getting into a rhythm.

 ``I felt good. I was commanding my fastball real well today, using both sides of the plate. I was throwing the curve ball and change-up both for strikes. That helped me out a lot,’’ he said.

 He threw 87 pitches, 61 for strikes, an outstanding ratio. He estimated that he threw about 20 off-speed pitches, most of those for strikes.

 ``I was throwing strikes when I needed to,’’ he said.

Busy day for Denker

 Travis Denker had a wild day, with lots of good work fouled up by a critical late error.

 The Pawtucket third baseman had his team’s biggest hit of the day, a two-out, three-run double to right-center that broke a 1-1 tie and gave his team a 4-1 lead in the seventh.

 He also had two nice defensive plays, one ranging near the line on a ground ball, the other racing into the Pawtucket dugout as he caught a pop-foul.

 In the ninth, though, Denker could not handle a bases-loaded ground ball by Ray Sadler that allowed the tying run to score.

Notes

 Chris Carter sat out for the second game in a row with a tight hamstring. Carter said he expected to return to the lineup Monday night. . .

 Bat Night was supposed to be Friday night at McCoy, but for one pair of fans it turned out to be Sunday.

 Durham leadoff hitter Jon Weber, a lefty, swung and missed at a Bowden pitch in the fifth inning. His bat went flying out of his hands and sailed into the second row of the box seats in section two. As anyone who has been to McCoy knows, that is hard to do. It is a long throw.

 A couple in the second row caught the bat on a bounce. The fans were not happy when Weber went over and asked a security guard to retrieve the bat. However, the booing subsided when the bat was exchanged for another model.

 Weber obviously wanted that one. He lined a single to center on the next pitch. . .

 Monday night is Cox Legends Night at McCoy. Former Sox pitchers Bill Monbouquette and Brian Rose will be signing autographs from 7-8:30 in the Cox Communications Fan Center on the main concourse.