Rochester blasts PawSox to snap five-game skid

Jim Mandelaro
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

Slump? What slump?

The Rochester Red Wings woke up their bats and put the Pawtucket Red Sox
to sleep Monday night with a dazzling offensive display at Frontier Field.

Garrett Jones and Jason Kubel each hit towering home runs to lead a 12-hit
attack as the Wings rolled 9-4 and snapped a season-high five-game losing
streak.

"We need a way to stop the bleeding and we found it," Red Wings manager
Stan Cliburn said.

Jones drove in five runs and Jason Bartlett went 4-for-4 with an RBI
triple, but it was Kubel's two-run shot in the bottom of the first that
set the tone.

It came after Pawtucket had scored three runs off Henry Bonilla with two
out.

"That 3-spot was a blow to me and the team," Bonilla said. "But Stan said
'Hang in there, we're going to get them back,' and the guys kept saying it
too."

Get them back, they did. Rochester (17-12) added four in the third and
three in the fourth to take command. Bonilla settled down and retired 13
in a row before Ron Calloway singled to open the sixth.

Bonilla was relieved by Ricky Barrett with one out in the sixth and
runners at first and second.

"He didn't want to come out," Cliburn said. "I call him my warrior. He
pitches in games we need most."

Barrett tossed 2 2/3 scoreless innings and Pat Neshek mowed the PawSox
down with three swinging strikeouts in the ninth. That gives the
side-armer an amazing 39 strikeouts in 19 innings.

PawSox manager Ron Johnson said sweeping the Wings would have been quite a
feat.

"They're a good team, and you're not going to keep them down forever," he
said.

Kubel's homer in the first marked the first time in 39 innings that
Rochester had scored more than one run in an inning. The previous time was
May 3, when Andres Torres hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning
against Ottawa.

The Wings took control with four runs in the fourth. Bartlett ripped his
triple into the left-field corner, and Jones followed two batters later
with a mammoth home run that cleared the railing behind the right-field
billboards, his fourth this year.

That made it 6-3, Rochester's first lead in 28 long innings.

The Wings kept it coming in the fourth, scoring on Jason Tyner's double
and a two-run single by Jones. That gave Jones five RBI in two innings and
pushed Rochester's lead to 9-3.

Tyner made the defensive play of the season at Frontier with one out in
the fifth, snaring Adam Stern's fly and then tumbling onto the warning
track.

He was smothered in a sea of high fives when he reached the Wings dugout
at the end of the inning.

"This was a huge win," Bonilla said. "We've got Buffalo coming in and it's
great to get the kinks out now. We think we're a better team than they
are."

May 9, 2006