PawSox fall at Fenway Futures

(WPRI) - The Pawtucket Red Sox scored a run in the first inning for the ninth time in their last 17 games, but that was all the offense they could muster in a 3-1 loss to the Syracuse Chiefs Saturday evening at Fenway Park.

It was a crystal-clear 83-degree late summer night, and things started well for the PawSox on Daniel Nava's ninth homerun of the season. He began the scoring for Pawtucket with a two-out, solo homer in the home half of the first inning, but single runs in the second, fifth and sixth innings proved to be enough to carry the Chiefs to victory.

Brad Meyers (5-4) scattered five PawSox hits and held them at bay over six innings of work to earn the victory. The lone blemish on his evening was the Nava homerun as Meyers lowered his season ERA to 3.62.

"They pitched well," said Pawtucket manager Arnie Beyeler. "They worked ahead in the count and we didn't have many chances. When we got guys on we didn't get too many of them past second base, and didn't make much solid contact."

Kyle Weiland (8-9) toed the rubber for the PawSox and allowed three runs to the Chiefs. He allowed one run through four innings before running into trouble in the fifth and sixth. "In the fifth and sixth I started to get a little bit of a cramp issue in my calf and when you get something like that it throws you off a little bit," he said. "Unfortunately I wasn't able to overcome it, and that's why they put up two more runs and why they won the game."

Weiland had pitched at Fenway Park once already this season as a member of the Boston Red Sox on July 10. He gave up six runs on eight hits before being ejected in the fifth inning while earning the loss in that outing against the Baltimore Orioles.

Just as he did in his first at-bat in Fenway Park a year ago- that time with the Boston Red Sox- Nava rocketed a ball to the bleachers beyond the home bullpen in his first Fenway at-bat of 2011 for an early 1-0 PawSox lead. With the right-centerfield homerun Nava, the switch hitter batting lefty against Syracuse's starter Meyers, continued his recent power-surge with six homeruns in his last 43 at-bats.

The Pawtucket Red Sox are now 2-2 in Futures at Fenway games, having lost their last two appearances including their 7-4 defeat in 2009 to the Norfolk Tides. The Portland Sea Dogs (AA) played Binghamton in the first game of Saturday's double-header at Fenway. The game went into extra innings and Binghamton scored four times in the top of the 10th inning, but the Sea Dogs could only score twice in the bottom of the inning to lose 6-4. The two games were played in front of a combined attendance figure of 29,030. The previous high for attendance at a PawSox game this season came on June 24 when the PawSox played at Indianapolis in front of 14,481 fans.

The PawSox and Chiefs will continue their four-game series Sunday at McCoy Stadium.