Sox dump on the Twins

By Mississauga News - Thursday, June 24, 2010

The Brantford pitching staff has a knack, on most nights, of making good baseball teams look very average.

The Red Sox did it to the Mississauga Twins tonight in Meadowvale.

The Twins have been more than respectful in this, their second year in the Intercounty Baseball League. But like many other teams in the league, the Brantford pitchers seem to give them fits.

“They make you look like you’ve got nothing,” said Twins manager Scott Vandevalk after Mississauga lost 8-4 to the Sox at the Meadowvale North Sports Park.

“We seem to have trouble with the whole Brantford pitching staff, except maybe (Colin) Buckborough,” continued Vandevalk. “We’ve beaten him once (earlier this season) and we got another three runs against him tonight.”

Unfortunately for the Twins, they had to face Brantford starter Marc-Andre Major and one other Red Sox pitcher before getting a crack at Buckborough.

“They’ve (Red Sox) got a lot of guys that if you fall behind the eight ball or make a mistake, it’s tough to come back,” said the Mississauga manager.

The Twins got off to a good start by loading the bases against Major in the bottom of the first inning. But he struck out catcher Greg Densem to end the threat and then retired the next 10 batters in a row. Major allowed just two hits, including a solo home run by first baseman Derek Gordon to lead off the home half of the seventh inning.

Major picked up his first win of the season after working seven innings, striking out seven and walking five.

Gordon’s homer was Mississauga’s only glimmer until Buckborough came on to pitch the bottom of the ninth for the Red Sox. Buckborough got an out but then walked pinch hitter Eitan Maoz and centre fielder Branson Joseph. Mississauga shortstop Chad Marshall followed with a three-run home run over the right field fence.

Adam Kudryk started on the mound for the Twins but he didn’t have his best night of the season.

“He wasn’t great, but he hasn’t thrown in nine days,” Vandevalk said in defence of Kudryk, who suffered his first loss after winning three in a row. “Our guys want to work, they want to play. But the rain outs we’ve had kind of throws off the schedule.”

Kudryk allowed six runs (five earned) on four hits. He walked six batters and struck out only two in five innings.

Adam Banski relieved Kudryk and he gave up a two-run home run to second baseman Tyler Burnell in the sixth inning.

The Twins, now 11-10 on the season and in fourth place in the standings, are back at the Meadowvale diamond on Saturday when they play the expansion Ottawa Fat Cats in a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m.