THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 28, 1996 TAG: 9604280262
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
Juan Acevedo chalked it up to a bad night, adding that breaking down his Saturday night performance any further might cause significant damage to his psyche.
Making his fourth start while on a major league rehabilitation assignment, Acevedo gave up eight hits and seven runs in four-plus innings and unleashed four wild pitches as the Norfolk Tides fell to the Pawtucket Red Sox 9-2 at Harbor Park.
Five of those PawSox hits were for extra bases and three of the wild pitches allowed runners to score.
`I really don't want to get too mental with it,'' said Acevedo, whose record is now 0-2 with an earned run average of 7.94. ``Otherwise I'll go out there thinking about a lot of stuff I shouldn't be thinking about. Then you end up not throwing your game. It's just a bad day. That's what I'm going to leave it at. Tomorrow I'll go back to work.''
Acevedo's night imploded in the fifth when he gave up a single to Tony Rodriguez, followed by a double to Rudy Pemberton. He then threw two wild pitches in the dirt to Bo Dodson, allowing both runners to score and drawing hearty boos from the crowd of 9,424.
The Harbor Park crowd then did something rare: It sarcastically cheered the appearance of pitching coach Bob Apodaca, who went to the mound to get Acevedo, who is here to rehabilitate a pulled hamstring.
The PawSox, in moving into the International League East Division lead at 11-7, finished with 12 hits and offered more than enough support for starting pitcher Nate Minchey, who went seven innings and won for the first time this season after two losses.
The Tides fell to 11-10 and remained one game behind Charlotte in the West Division.
In Friday's late game, Pawtucket's Tony Rodriguez led off the ninth inning with a home run off reliever Joe Ausanio as the PawSox won 5-4.
Pawtucket's Vaughn Eshelman, on a major league rehab assignment after burning his fingers putting out a fire at his condo during spring training, went seven strong innings, giving up four hits and two runs, but did not get a decision.
The Tides scored twice in the eighth to tie it, the second run coming on a single by Roberto Petagine. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY C. KNAPP
Kevin Flora of the Tides, right, is safe at second base as Pawtucket
shortstop Tony Rodriguez is unable to come up with the ball.
by CNB