Article published July 26, 2009
Mud Hens, Scranton split another doubleheader
Toledo's Jeff Frazier blasts a solo home run in the fifth inning of the second game of yesterday's doubleheader against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The Hens also got a homer from Jeff
Larish in the second inning in a 2-1 win.
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THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER
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By JOHN WAGNER
BLADE SPORTS WRITER
For the second straight day, the Mud Hens split a doubleheader with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at Fifth Third Field.
But unlike Friday night, when the "visiting" teams won both games, last night the home teams claimed the victories.
The Yankees, the "home" team in the first contest, since it was a make-up game played because of a June rainout in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, claimed a 7-2 victory.
The Hens won the nightcap by a score of 2-1 in the closest game of the series thus far.
In that second game Toledo's Ruddy Lugo held the Yankees scoreless on four hits through 52/3 innings to claim his second win in as many starts.
"He shut them down," Hens manager Larry Parrish said of Lugo. "That's a pretty good hitting club over there - and he threw zeroes at them."Lugo pitched out of a two-on, one-out jam in the third by getting Ramiro Pena to ground into a double play, then pitched around a leadoff double by Yurendell deCaster in the fifth.
"I was trying to make as few pitches as I could, because I knew we had a tight bullpen," Lugo said. "But those are good hitters over there.
"They're a great fastball-hitting team, so we tried to keep them off-balance by mixing things up."
The first challenge to the shutout bid came in the sixth inning of the seven-inning game, when Kevin Russo drew a leadoff walk and moved to second on a single by Pena.
Lugo got Austin Jackson to fly out, then left fielder Jeff Frazier caught a high fly by Shelley Duncan at the fence for the second out.
"When Duncan hit that ball, I was praying the ball would just hit the wall so we could stay in the game," Lugo admitted.
When Lugo walked Juan Miranda to load the bases, Freddy Dolsi came out of the bullpen to get the final out. Dolsi got deCaster to hit a liner off the pitcher's right hip, and Dolsi threw deCaster out at first to end the threat.
"I brought in Dolsi to give
deCaster a different look - and he hit a stinking bullet," Parrish said. "But it worked, because he got the out.
"Dolsi said he was all right, so he went back out there. He threw the ball great to the first hitter, then he was all over the place."
Dolsi allowed three walks to load the bases in the seventh, then walked Jackson to force in a run. But he also struck out the side - including Duncan for the final out with the tying run just 90 feet away from scoring - to claim his fifth save.
The Hens got the victory despite collecting just four hits. Two of them were home runs: Jeff Larish hammered his fifth of the season in the second, while Frazier hit his sixth to lead off the fifth.
"That's the best swing I've seen Larish take in two years," Parrish said. "He really stayed on the ball, and he drove it out to left-center. I've never seen him hit the ball that well the other way.
"And Frazier just keeps getting big hits for us."
In the first game, the Yankees struck quickly for three first-inning runs off Toledo starter Matt Rusch. Jackson had an RBI single for the first run, and Miranda slammed 0-2 pitch well over the fence in right for his second home run in as many days.
Toledo got two of those runs back in the second when Jackson, playing centerfield, dropped Brent Clevlen's fly ball for an error, and Ryan Roberson clobbered his seventh homer of the season.
Dane Sardinha followed with a double, but Scranton/Wilkes-Barre starter Romulo Sanchez promptly shut down the Hens, retiring the next 12 hitters in a row before Mike Hessman and Wilkin Ramirez hit back-to-back singles with one out in the sixth.
Kevin Whelan came on and struck out Frazier and Roberson to end that threat, and Damaso Marte retired all three Hens he faced in the seventh.
Meanwhile the Yankees used the long ball to give themselves some breathing room. In the fourth inning Colin Curtis pounded an 0-2 pitch from Rusch over the right-field fence for a three-run homer; then in the sixth Curtis led off by drilling an 0-2 pitch from Toledo reliever Jay Sborz over the fence.
"Hitters shouldn't be able to take a home run swing on an 0-2 pitch," Parrish said. "We just didn't make some pitches right there."
NOTES: Both Scott Sizemore and Frazier saw seven-game hit streaks end in last night's first game. … Last night's crowd of 10,700 was the Mud Hens' 17th sellout this season and the 228th full house in the eight-year history of Fifth Third Field.
Contact John Wagner at:
jwagner@theblade.com
or 419-724-6481.
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