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Francia, Raul Chavez pace 13-hit attack; Igawa gets second straight victory.
FORT MILL, S.C. — For a team that started the day with a 5 a.m. wake-up call, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees woke up quickly when they got to the plate Thursday night.
Yankees batters pounded out 13 hits, including seven for extra bases, in a 9-3 victory over the Charlotte Knights in front of 3,743 fans at Knights Stadium. And the pitching wasn’t bad, either.
Left-handed starter Kei Igawa (2-2) baffled the Knights for six innings, scattering four hits and striking out four. “He was the perfect guy on the mound for a long day like we’ve had,” Yankees manager Dave Miley said. “We got him a couple of runs early and he held them until we could get him some more.”
Igawa won his second straight start, following up on a five-hit, one-run performance in seven innings against Buffalo on June 8.
“He gets better with every outing,” Yankees pitching coach Dave Eiland said. “He isn’t allowing the batters to sit on his pitches in one location.”
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre scored in six of the nine innings, while the Knights didn’t score until Kenny Kelly’s solo homer in the sixth – their only run off Igawa. But by that time the game was well in hand.
Juan Francia was 3-for-4 with a double and three RBI for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (34-31), and Raul Chavez was 2-for-5 with a pair of doubles. Francia drove in two runs in the second inning with his first double, and Angel Chavez drove in another run with an infield out in the third.
The Yankees took control of the game with three runs in the sixth. Angel Chavez hit a solo homer with one out, Raul Chavez had an RBI double and Francia drove in another run with a single.
“We had some good at-bats in this game,” Miley said. “We’ve been up and down and we just need to get a little consistency going. A game like this could help.”
The Knights scored single runs in the eighth and ninth off Chris Britton, who pitched the final three innings to earn his sixth save.
NOTES: Charlotte manager Marc Bombard, who led the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons teams from 1997 to 2004, will miss the first three games of this series. He’s taking some personal leave time, Knights officials said
The Knights and Yankees play again at 7:15 tonight. Scheduled starting pitchers are left-hander Heath Phillips (4-5, 6.21) for the Knights and right-hander Steven White (0-1, 6.75) for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.