Beavers call on veteran to stop Rainiers’ run
IAN RUTER; For The News Tribune
PORTLAND – The Portland Beavers hadn’t beaten the Rainiers in their last 10 tries, so Wednesday night they tried something new.
Well, not exactly new.
Before the game, the Beavers signed 33-year-old major league veteran Brian Lawrence out of a Southern California independent league, gave him the start and then rode his solid outing to a 5-3 win.
The Portland win snapped the Rainiers’ 10-game series streak dating back to last season and denied Tacoma its first series sweep of the season. Manager Daren Brown said he wasn’t even aware of the streak until someone told him after Tuesday’s win. He said he was more focused on Wednesday.
“I thought we had a chance to win today’s ballgame,” he said. “Lawrence pitched pretty well and did a nice job of changing speeds, and he didn’t give us a whole lot of pitches to hit. We didn’t swing the bats as well as we did the last few nights and that’s going to happen.”
Lawrence kept Tacoma off balance with the same assortment of off-speed pitches that earned him 50 wins in his six years in the majors. Despite not pitching in the minors since last year, Lawrence held Tacoma to two runs, one earned, in six innings.
“He did a nice job, and sometimes you’ve got to tip your cap to the other guy,” Brown said.
Like they had in the first two games of the series, the Rainiers jumped out to an early lead. This time the Beavers fought back.
Brad Nelson put Tacoma up in the first by singling home Jeff Clement, who had reached on a two-out error.
The Beavers (33-34) came right back in the bottom of the inning with a double by Everth Cabrera and a pair of sacrifices to tie the score at one. They then added solo runs off Ryan Rowland-Smith in the fourth and fifth innings to make it 3-1.
Chris Shelton’s solo home run in the sixth cut the Rainiers’ deficit to 3-2 before Mike Baxter countered with a two-run home run in the sixth – his first homer of the season – that bounced off the top of the left-field wall and put the Beavers up 5-2.
Tacoma (34-32) got one run back on an RBI-double by Shelton in the eighth inning but got no closer.
In his fifth rehab start with the Rainiers, Rowland-Smith lasted a season-high 6 innings but allowed five runs on nine hits.
“I though (Rowland-Smith’s) stuff was a little crisper tonight,” Brown said. “I thought he threw the ball pretty good, probably as well as he’s thrown since he’s been here.”
Carp gets the call-up
The parent-club Seattle Mariners called up first baseman Mike Carp before to the game to fill the spot opened by Erik Bedard going on the DL. Carp walked in his only appearance during the Mariners’ 4-3 win in San Diego.
On tap
The Rainiers open a four-game home series with the Reno Aces at 7 p.m. today. Probable pitchers:
Chris Seddon (4-4, 4.76 ERA) vs.
Yusmeiro Petit (0-1, 9.64).
