AUGUST 29Th LEHIGH VALLEY (80-54) at PAWTUCKET (64-69) 7:05 Pm
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AUGUST 29th LEHIGH VALLEY (80-54) at PAWTUCKET (64-69) 7:05 pm Lehigh Valley IronPigs RHP Enyel De Los Santos (10-4, 2.43) vs.Pawtucket Red Sox RHP Mike Shawaryn (2-1, 4.32) Tragic Number is 1 - The Pawtucket Red Sox host the International League Northern Division Champion Lehigh Valley IronPigs (AAA-Philadelphia) in the middle game of their 3-game series tonight at 7:05 pm at McCoy Stadium. Last night in the series opener, the IronPigs scored 6 unearned runs in the top of the 9th to snap a 3-3 tie en route to as 9-3 victory. As a result, Pawtucket now trails in the wild card race by 5½-games with 6 games so one more PawSox loss or one more Indianapolis win would officially eliminate the Sox from playoff contention for the 4th year in a row. The PawSox had qualified for post-season play in four straight years (2011-14) but are now in danger of four consecutive non-playoff years (2015-18). It would be Pawtucket’s longest playoff drought since a five year stretch from 1998-2002 when the Sox failed to make the IL Playoffs. A Wild Race Indeed - Lehigh Valley, who clinched their first-ever IL North division title at home this past weekend with a walk-off winner vs. Scranton/WB, can’t make any post-season travel arrangements quite yet as they must still await their playoff foe for a semi-final series that will begin one week from tonight at the eventual wild card winner. The first two games will be played in either Indianapolis, Toledo, Scranton/WB, Norfolk, Gwinnett, or - in the longest of longshots - Pawtucket before the best of 5 series shifts to Allentown for the final three game as necessary over the weekend. The IL wild card race is among the best in all of baseball right now as Indianapolis currently leads but by just a ½-game over fellow IL West foe Toledo, 1-game over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 1½- games over Norfolk, 3½-games up on Gwinnett, and 5½-games over the PawSox. Six Pack - The PawSox – who had their 3-game winning streak snapped last night but have still won 12 of their last 20 games - are down to just 6 games remaining in 2018 (4 here at home and 2 on the road) while the IronPigs, owners of the best record in the entire IL, also have 6 regular-season games left. The clubs will conclude this series and Pawtucket’s penultimate homestand of the season tomorrow at 7:05 pm on Team Poster Night at McCoy (fans will allowed on the field for photos and autographs with the players from 5:00 – 6:00 pm). Six out of Six – Pawtucket needs to win each of their 6 remaining games to finish above .500. Since they are only playing 139 games this season they can not finish exactly at .500 so winning all 6 would put them at 70-69. The PawSox are currently 64-69 – on Monday they were 4-games below .500 which was the closest they had been to .500 since August 17 (59-63). They have not been within 3-games of the .500 mark since all the way back on July 17 (at 45-48). Red Sox Rehabbers at McCoy – Three key members of the Boston Red Sox, all currently on the Red Sox disabled list, have begun injury rehab assignments with the PawSox this week. Pitcher Steven Wright, who has been on the DL since June 23 with left knee inflammation (related to his knee surgery a year ago May), started for Pawtucket last night and tossed 2 hitless innings. Wright is 2-1 with a 3.38 ERA in 10 games (4 starts) for Boston this season (from May 15 – June 22) and is 0-0 with a 4.30 ERA in 4 games (2 starts) during a rehab assignment with the PawSox from April 20 – May 11. Rehabbing Red Sox catcher Christian Vazquez was behind the plate for the PawSox last night going 0-for-3. He is slated to DH and bat third for the PawSox tonight and then catch tomorrow night. He has been on the Sox DL since July 8 with a fractured right pinky finger suffered on a head-first slide while stealing 2nd base on July 7 in Kansas City. Vazquez, who went 1-for-2 with a SF while catching rehabbing Red Sox LHP Eduardo Rodriguez on Monday night in Portland, was hitting .213 in 60 games (59 as catcher) for Boston with 3 HR & 14 RBI. He was coming off a fine June, however, when he batted .298 during the month. Tonight the Red Sox will send 3B Rafael Devers to Pawtucket to play at McCoy tonight (batting second and playing third) and possibly beyond. Devers has had three stints on Boston’s disabled list this season with this most recent coming on August 16 when he was placed on the DL with a recurring left hamstring strain. Rafael has also been on the DL from July 11-21 with left shoulder inflammation and from July 29 – August 8 with the left hamstring strain. In 102 games for the Red Sox this season (100 at 3rd base) he is batting .242 with 22 doubles, 16 HR & 55 RBI. He also rehabbed for one game with (short-A) Lowell on August 6 and went 1-for- 4 with a 2-run HR in that game and then rejoined the Red Sox on August 8 for six games before going back on the DL. NEXT ON TAP - The probable pitching match-up for the remainder of the series vs. Lehigh Valley at McCoy: Thur. 7:05 pm RHP Jerod Eickhoff (0-0, 1.32) vs. RHP Justin Haley (6-8, 3.89) The probable pitching match-ups for the upcoming series in Moosic, PA vs. Scranton/WB and then back at McCoy: Fri. 7:05 pm @ SWB TBA vs. RHP Chandler Shepherd (7-9, 3.93) Sat. 6:35 pm @ SWB TBA vs. RHP William Cuevas (10-7, 3.39) Sun. 6:15 pm @ PAW (myRITV) TBA vs. TBA Mon. 1:35 pm @ PAW TBA vs. TBA Not Much Left – After tomorrow night’s series and homestand finale, the PawSox will travel to Moosic, PA to play a pair of games against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Friday at 7:05 pm and Saturday at 6:35 before quickly returning to McCoy to host the RailRiders (Yankee affiliate) for the final two games of the season on Sunday evening at 6:15 pm (with post-game fireworks) and Labor Day Monday at 1:35 pm. PawSox Chase the Pigs – Pawtucket trails front-running Lehigh Valley by 15½-games in the IL North and some of that deficit can certainly be traced to the fact that the IronPigs have won 11 of the first 15 meetings between the clubs this year. Pawtucket is hitting just .210 in the 15 games vs. Lehigh Valley this season (97-for-462) with 6 HR (2 by Sam Travis and 1 each from Castillo and De Jesus among active PawSox). Pawtucket has scored only 32 runs total in the 15 games vs. the Pigs (2.1 runs/game). They have been shutout once, held to 1 run in six games (including a 1-0 win on May 27), limited to 2 runs three times (including in a 2-1 win on June 15), 3 runs twice, scored 4 runs twice, and 6 runs once (in a 6-1 win on May 28). PawSox pitchers are 4-11 with a 3.89 ERA vs. the IronPigs (54 ER in 125 IP). The Pigs have out-scored the Sox by a 65-32 margin in the season-series thus far. Pitching in for Offense – Back in early-August, Pawtucket took over the International League lead in Team Pitching when they surpassed Rochester. The PawSox had remained on top of the league until the last weekend in August when the Red Wings moved back ahead. However, the PawSox are back on top as they are currently 1st with their 3.45 ERA ahead of Rochester at 3.47. Pawtucket has also gone on a big upswing this month offensively and they are now all the way up to 7th in the IL with their Team Batting average of .252 (a season-high). Records are Made to be Broken – PawSox pitchers have already established a new franchise-record for Most Strikeouts in a season as Sox hurlers have 1177 strikeouts on the year (previous record was 1118 SO in 2011). Two other club-records to keep an eye on come in the “fewest” category. Pawtucket has hit 10 triples this season…their record for fewest triples is 12 in 2015. And PawSox pitchers have just one complete game this season (Mike Shawaryn a 7-inning CG on August 14 in G2 vs. Norfolk). The team mark for fewest CG is 1 set in both 2005 & 2011. Battling for a Batting Title – PawSox All-Star outfielder Rusney Castillo currently has an 8 point lead in the International League batting race as he looks to become the first Pawtucket player to win the IL Batting Title in 37 years…since Wade Boggs hit .335 in 1981. Rusney, who is hitting .323 on the season, has the lead in the race over Joey Meneses of Lehigh Valley who is at .315 with six games remaining for both players. Castillo (150) also leads the league in hits over Meneses (147).