Scott Diamond pitched six dominant innings of scoreless ball to lift the Red Wings to a 2-1 win over the Pawtucket Red Sox Wednesday evening at Frontier Field. The two teams play again tomorrow at 7:05.
The Wings struck first with two outs in the bottom of the first inning, before adding their only other run in the bottom of the third. In the first, Matt Carson doubled and was immediately knocked in on a long single by Aaron Bates. Then in the third, Michael Hollimon hit a single then advanced to second on a throwing error by PawSox shortstop Jose Iglesias. Tsuyoshi Nishioka followed with a short single to left field, putting runners on the corners. After a sharp line drive from Joe Benson, Carson hit a sacrifice fly to right field to put the Wings up 2-0.
Diamond, who started the game for the Wings, got into trouble in the top of the fourth after allowing back-to-back singles to start the inning, putting runners on the corners with no outs. But Diamond responded with back-to-back strikeouts of Mauro Gomez and Lars Anderson before getting a fly out to center to end the PawSox's threat. Diamond allowed the lead-off batter to reach in three of the six innings he pitched but each time was able to stop them from scoring. He pitched six innings, and didn't allow a run to score on just four hits and three walks, with six strikeouts. He has now pitched a total of 12 and a third innings this season and has yet to allow a run to score. He earned the win, his second of the season.
Pitching continued to dominate the game even after Diamond came out. Esmerling Vasquez came on to pitch the seventh without allowing a base runner, in part thanks to a nice running catch by second baseman Brian Dozier on what would have otherwise been a bloop single. However in the top of the eighth, the PawSox finally got on the board with back-to-back doubles off Vasquez, to bring the score to a close 2-1 Wings advantage. Anthony Slama came in to pitch the ninth, and after two quick outs allowed consecutive walks before a force out ended the game and gave Slama his third save of the season.
The PawSox pitching staff was also great, but not quite as good as the Wings'. Their only blips were the two early runs allowed by starter Justin Germano. Tony Pena, Jr. came on in relief in the sixth and pitched three solid innings.
