Nava’s Return will Greatly Impact Pawtucket
By Eddie Pannone
The 2010 Pawtucket Red Sox offense may be doing better than last year’s, but not much. They are last in many important categories such as average, runs, and hits. But, they have gotten a big key to their offense back. Daniel Nava returned from an impressive stint in Boston last night, and helped end Pawtucket’s 5 game losing streak. Down by 3, Nava blasted a 3-run homer to tie the score. He scored the winning run in the 10th inning and was on base 3 times in the game. Nava, despite his call up, is still tied for the team lead in homeruns and leads the team in RBI. He is also batting an even .300 on the year. With the Red Sox getting healthy again, more and more players will be making their return. Fernando Cabrera, Robert Manuel, and Dustin Richardson have all returned to the bullpen for Pawtucket, which is good because the PawSox bullpen hasn’t been productive recently. With the return of Josh Beckett and Victor Martinez coming soon, it is likely the PawSox will get Michael Bowden and Dusty Brown back as well. While it is great that Pawtucket is finally getting its team back, these returns could cause some problems.
With the return of Nava, the PawSox have 4 outfielders all deserving of playing time, Nava, Kalish, Reddick, and Bell. Nava obviously will be playing. Josh Reddick, though having a poor year, is Boston’s 3rd rated prospect and has been to Boston on multiple occasions. Ryan Kalish is the number 5 prospect and is having great success as Pawtucket’s lead off batter. Kalish is batting .318 with 3 HR in just 29 games. Those three will get the outfield playing time. This leaves all-star Bubba Bell without an outfield spot. He will most likely be the everyday DH after he comes off the DL next week. Bell is 11th in the I.L. in batting average, currently .294. He is also second on the team in RBI. The odd men out are 1B/OF Aaron Bates and INF Tug Hulett. Both have shared time as the DH this year, but with Bell likely taking that position, ABs will be hard to come by. It will be interesting to see how they are used for the remainder of the season. Whoever plays, Pawtucket will need to turn it around quickly. They are 12.5 games out of first place and 9.5 back in the wild card with just 44 games to go.
Over the past two weeks, many rehabbers have played for Pawtucket. Pitcher Josh Beckett completed his rehab assignment, pitching in two games. He had no record and an ERA of 4.50 over 8 IP. Beckett will pitch in Seattle tonight. Clay Buchholz only started one game for the PawSox. He went 3.2 IP, giving up 2 runs, striking out 2. Infielder Jed Lowrie played in 4 games, batting .333 with a HR and 4 RBI. Outfielder Jeremy Hermida only had 8 ABs in his rehab, batting .125. Currently rehabbing is 3B/1B Mike Lowell. The plan for Lowell is for him to play 5 games, 2-3 games at first base or third base, and the rest as the DH. As the DH last night, Lowell went 1-5 with a single in the 10th inning.
Pawtucket begins an 8 game road trip tonight in Columbus at 7:05.
