Pawtucket Red Sox

PawSox Have Two All-Stars, Kelley And Runzler

Published

3 days ago

June 27, 2019

Tanner Rebelo

PawSox Have Two IL All-Stars, Trevor Kelley And Dan Runzler Earn All-Star Nod After Solid First Half Performance

While the Boston Red Sox bullpen has been lacking the Pawtucket Red Sox have had two standout performers in their pen.

Rhode Island Native Trevor Kelley and Journeyman Dan Runzler have both been tapped to the International League All-Star Team for the 2019 Triple-A All-Star Game.

The game itself will take place on Wednesday, July 10th at 9:00 pm ET taking place in El Paso, Texas.

Kelley was apart of the 13 elected players through managers/coaches, media, and fan voting while Runzler was one of the 20 picked by the IL league office.

Kelley who is a 25-year-old righty brings an unorthodox pitching motion that throws hitters off at the plate. He has been lights out this season owning a 1.01 ERA in 26 relief appearances. His ERA is the lowest in the IL among al relief pitchers with a minimum of 30 innings pitched.

For Red Sox fans that are not familiar with Kelley he was drafted by Boston in the 36th round of the 2015 June draft out of the University of North Carolina.

Kelley who lived in Barrington, Rhode Island till 3rd grade has a 2.32 ERA in his 4 1/2 years in the Red Sox system with 145 games under his belt. Last season in Double-A Portland Kelley posted a 3.82 ERA in 28 games and then after his call-up to Pawtucket threw in 13 games with a 1.54 ERA posting a career high 41 appearances.

This season he has been lights out with Pawtucket earning higher leverage situations from Head Coach Billy McMillon and owns a 5-2 record and is 3-for-3 in save opportunities along with 4 holds and 11 games finished.

Kelley has tossed 35.2 innings and is holding opposing hitters to just .202 batting average and has only allowed a run in one of his last 14 appearances since May 16th.

As for Runzler, he is a veteran of 12 1/2 seasons ever since he was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 2007. Runzler, a 34-year-old lefty has big league experience coming with the Giants and the Pittsburgh Pirates with 97 big league games with a 3.89 ERA.

In the minors he has logged 373 games and owns a 3.77 ERA. For a Boston Red Sox organization that needed bullpen depth Runzler has been just that in Pawtucket.

He has made 18 relief appearances for Pawtucket in 2019 with a 3.63 ERA and holding opponents to a .220 batting average.

No positional players were selected this time around for Pawtucket which is the first time that has happened since 2013.

In other all-star news former Red Sox pitcher Josh D. Smith has been named an all-star in the Il pitching for the Columbus Clippers.

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Pawtucket Red Sox

PawSox Allow 6 Runs In 8th Inning In Loss

Published

13 hours ago

June 29, 2019

Tanner Rebelo

PawSox Allow 6 Runs In 8th Inning In Loss To Rochester RedWings

Everything was going according to plan for the Pawtucket Red Sox in Rochester, until the bottom of the 8th hit.

In the bottom of the 8th IL All-Star Dan Runzler allowed 6 runs on 5 base hits while only recording one out causing the PawSox to lose 9-6.

For Pawtucket this has to be a frustrating loss with starter Ryan Weber giving 5 quality innings allowing 2 runs on 7 base hits while fanning 7 batters.

Even the rehabbing Tyler Thornburg had a scoreless inning of relief followed up by a scoreless inning by Jordan Weems.

Offensively Pawtucket scored two runs in the third, but broke out in the top of the 5th with both Chris Owings and Gorkys Hernandez hitting home runs to make it a 5-2 game.

Hernandez came back in the top of the 7th with another RBI making it 6-2.

Runzler spoiled the road party with just one out recorded and 6 runs allowed in the bottom of the 8th inning. This makes back-to-back outings that Runzler has struggled with the veteran allowing 3 runs and just 2 outs recorded last time out. Tough for Runzler who was just named to the IL mid-season all-star team with his ERA now ballooned to 5.96 on the season.

Rehabbers Update And A Quick Look Ahead

The rehabbing Tzu-Wei Lin played in this one going 0-2 with 2 walks serving as the DH. Infielder Steve Pearce was once again out of the lineup for Pawtucket.

As for Thornburg he continues to make strides on the mound has he rehabs from a right-hip impingement.

With the loss the PawSox fall to 32-47 on the season and have one more game with Rochester on Sunday with Darwinzon Hernandez on the mound.

Pawtucket Red Sox

Chris Owings Looking Like A Viable Option For Boston

Published

20 hours ago

June 29, 2019

Tanner Rebelo

Chris Owings Looking Like A Viable Option For Boston With Utility Player Proving He Still Has It With Pawtucket

Back on June 17th the Boston Red Sox made a move to add some roster depth to their infield.

That move was the signing of infielder Chris Owings to a minor league deal where he was then stashed in Triple-A Pawtucket for safe keeping. Boston has had a number of injuries to their infield in 2019 with Dustin Pedroia out indefinitely, Tzu-Wei Lin and Steve Pearce on rehab, and the injury list stint Brock Holt had earlier this season.

With Owings came a boatload of Major League Experience with the former Compensation A pick in 2009 by Arizona having just over 2000 at-bats in the big leagues in over 600 career games. Owings who is now 27-years-old worked his way up to being an everyday player for the Diamondbacks before signing as a free agent with the Kanas City Royals this past off-season.

Owings, a Gilbert, South Carolina native played in just 40 games with Kansas City getting 135 at-bats before they designated him for assignment which resulted in an outright release on June 4th. His time with the Royals was a rather lack-luster one batting .133 and driving in 9 runs with an OPS of .415.

But if history is any indicator Owings is a solid big league option with a career batting average of .242 with 33 home runs and 205 RBIS with a respectable OPS of .653. So on June 20th when he was assigned to the PawSox, it was time for a fresh start.

Owings has only appeared in 7-games with Pawtucket but his impact has already been felt on the team. He has gone 9-for-28 with 3 RBIS and an OPS of .738.

Owings comes from a baseball family with two of his brothers playing professional baseball in the past and for Boston he brings versatility defensively with the ability to play 3B, SS, and 2B in addition to being able to play in the outfield with considerable amount of time spent in right and center field.

Thus far through 7 games with Pawtucket Owings has spent time in right, shortstop, and second base with no errors committed.

Pawtucket Red Sox

PawSox Win With Trevor Kelley Continuing To Be Nails

Published

1 day ago

June 28, 2019

Tanner Rebelo

PawSox Win At Rochester With Trevor Kelley Continuing To Be Nails With A 1-2-3 9th After Pitching Back-To-Back Night’s

The Pawtucket Red Sox have bounced back and in large part due to relief pitcher Trevor Kelley.

Friday night’s dramatic 7-to-5 victory over the Rochester RedWings had plenty of hero’s on the PawSox side of the ball, but Kelley seemingly edges out the rest.

The Rhode Island native who has already earned an All-Star nod continues to impress as Kelley came on in a 7-5 game and provided Billy McMillon with a 1-2-3 bottom of the 9th to pick up his 4th save of the season as his ERA drops to .96 on the season. Kelley’s outing on Friday comes on the heels of a Thursday night outing where he had a similar scoreless effort which has been the standard for the sidearms 2019 season.

The starter in this one for Pawtucket was Teddy Stankiewicz who battled going 5 innings allowing 5 runs on 9 base hits. With Teddy giving up 2 blasts on the night it was up to the offense to battle.

It started in the top of the 1st inning with Bryce (Don’t Let Him Get Hot) Brentz belted a 2-run shot for his 15th homer of the season. The rehabbing Tzu-Wei Lin had an RBI single in the top of the 2nd to make it 3-0 before Stankiewicz was touched for 3 runs in the 3rd, and 2 in the 4th.

Pawtucket got one back in the top of the 6th with an RBI double in the top of the 6th, tied the game in the top of the 8th on a wild pitch, and took the lead on a Juan Centeno sacrifice fly in the top of the 9th. The icing on the cake was another wild pitch run in the 9th making it 7-5.

In order to set up this comeback the PawSox had the solid outing by Kelley, but had two stellar performances to bridge the gap to the newly minted closer. Jenrry Mejia went 2 scoreless and then Bobby Poyner picked up the win with an inning of work bridging tight gap to Kelley’s 1-2-3 9th inning.

There was only 1 rehabber in this one for Pawtucket with Tzu-Wei Lin leading off and playing second base for McMillon. Lin went 3-for-4 with an RBI and struck out once while playing 7 innings in the field.