AEROS EVEN CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES AT 1-1
Akron becomes first road team to win in EL playoffs

By Kevin T. Czerwinski / MLB.com
The sense of deja vu was not lost on Torey Lovullo, yet there was no
sense of panic.
The Akron Aeros manager watched as his team grabbed an early lead in
Game 2 of the Eastern League Championship Series only to see it
disappear as quickly as it materialized, a scenario that also played
itself out 24 hours earlier in the series opener. But while the Aeros
were unable to regain the lead once they lost it Game 1, they had no
such problems on Wednesday night.

Akron starter Rafael Perez danced in and out of trouble all evening,
but he and a pair of relievers didn't cough up the lead once it was
handed to them in the fifth inning, hanging on for a 4-3 victory over
the Portland Sea Dogs before 5,307 fans at Hadlock Field.

The victory not only knotted the series at a game apiece, it marked
the first time in 12 Eastern League playoff games this season that the
road team won. The series shifts to Akron for Games 3, 4 and, if
necessary, 5.

"It was very similar to what happened last night," Lovullo said. "But
they (the Sea Dogs) are a team that is well managed and prepared, and
we knew that they weren't going to shut down by any means and we
didn't expect them to. But that's playoff baseball. We have three more
games left in this series and we expect more of the same."

Nathan Panther's solo homer in the fifth, a shot off Charlie Zink's
3-1 offering that sailed deep over the fence before coming to rest on
the high school soccer field beyond the right-field wall, was the
difference.

"I was just trying to get a pitch that I could handle," said Panther,
who collected his first homer of the postseason. "It was a knuckle
ball and I just set out in front of it. But I didn't think that would
be the difference. I thought we would have to score more runs than
that. I really thought it would take more but our 'pen came up big.
But that's what we've been doing all year.

"Now we come back, 1-1. That's huge. This is one that we needed to
win, and we played good baseball and got the job done."

Chris Cooper pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings before Edward Mujica came
on to record the final four outs for his third playoff save (13th
overall). Mujica has not allowed a run in 11 consecutive appearances,
a stretch of 11 2/3 innings.

Zink (0-1) allowed all four Akron runs on seven hits over five
innings. Though the Sea Dogs bullpen again was strong, holding the
Aeros scoreless, the offense couldn't mount much against Perez (1-1),
despite having runners on base in every inning against the young
right-hander.

The knuckle-balling Zink saw his scoreless streak snapped at 24 1/3
innings in the first. While Zink took a no-hitter into the sixth on
Saturday against Trenton, there was no such suspense Wednesday as
Eider Torres led off with a double and scored two batters later on
Brad Snyder's two-base hit. Pat Osborn's single brought home Snyder to
give the Aeros a two-run, first-inning bulge for the second
consecutive evening.

And for the second consecutive evening, the Sea Dogs answered in the
bottom half. Chris Durbin led off with a single, moved up on a wild
pitch, went to third on Scott Youngbauer's single and scored on a
passed ball. Portland tied it up an inning later. After Hanley Ramirez
singled and stole second, Jared Sandberg singled to put runners on the
corners. Alberto Concepcion followed with an RBI base hit.

The teams traded runs in the third -- an RBI double by Akron's Ryan
Mulhern and a run-scoring grounder by Chad Spann -- setting the stage
for Panther's game-winning shot.

"I was confident the whole game," said Perez, who struck out seven and
scattered nine hits. "I was confident in all my pitches from the
beginning until I walked off the mound. I know how big this game was.

"That they kept coming back affected me a little bit, but that's
natural. We put up a run and then I give the run back. Either way,
though, I felt confident. It was just a matter of time before we broke
through."

Lovullo said he wasn't worried about Perez's psyche when he was unable
to hold the lead. He said his young hurler was "battle-tested" and
that once he established his fastball and was presented a lead in the
fifth, he got a second wind.

And now, for what it's worth, the Aeros have the momentum. But as the
teams have demonstrated through two games, momentum is fleeting.