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By BILL SAVAGE; Times Leader Sports Writer
Saturday, April 30, 1994     Page: 1B QUICK WORDS: RED BARONS RELIVE
PAWTUCKET NIGHTMARE

MOOSIC — Mike Quade was managing somewhere in the Midwest League on the
afternoon of April 29, 1989, when just over a dozen Class AAA ballplayers
journeyed up to Pawtucket, R.I. for an International League baseball game.
   
If he read in the paper the next day that the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red
Barons lost that game, 26-3 to the Pawtucket Red Sox, he can’t recall it.
    This morning, if Quade cares to read the newspaper, he’ll see a story he
won’t want his Red Barons players to forget for a long time.
   
“We stunk, we just stunk, there’s no way getting around it,” said Quade of
his team’s 21-3 loss to Pawtucket on the fifth anniversary of that 1989 game
Friday.
   
“I was surprised at this group, I thought we had been playing OK. I’m just
disappointed.”
   
Pawtucket, 17-5, set Lackawanna County Stadium records for runs scored by a
visiting team (21), hits by a visiting team (22) and runs in an inning by a
visiting team (nine).
   
Andy Tomberlin drove in eight runs with a three-run home run in the first
inning and a ninth-inning grand slam against Rick Bottalico.
   
In fact, he had five RBI in the ninth inning, had doubled earlier in the
inning before the grand slam.
   
“We’re playing good ball right now for this early,” said Tomberlin. “Still,
you’re looking at a 142-game schedule.”
   
The virtual pillaging of Bottalico, who gave up nine runs in the ninth and
saw his ERA soar from 2.57 to 6.75, was indicative of what sort of night the
Red Barons had in falling to 8-10.
   
Bottalico only entered the game in the ninth to get some work in. He ended
up being replaced by catcher/outfielder Steve Bieser, who got the last out of
the inning.
   
“On paper, it was a great-looking move,” said Quade. “But all of a sudden,
you end up in a situation where you have to put Bieser in.”
   
The PawSox scored four runs against Mike Williams, 0-2, in the first inning
before they even made one out.
   
They added two more in the third and had three each in the sixth and
seventh.
   
Greg Blosser and George Pedre each had three RBI and Blosser had four hits.
Tomberlin, Greg Litton and Carlos Rodriguez each had three.
   
Around all this scoring, the PawSox somehow managed to leave 10 runners on
base — including three in the sixth inning against Pat Combs — and hit into
three double plays.
   
Gar Finnvold, Pawtucket’s starter, had so much support that he almost
couldn’t help raising his record to 5-0, making him the IL’s first five-game
winner.
   
Finnvold did give up three straight doubles in the sixth inning to allow
two runs to score, and also gave up one more run before Don Florence finished
things up in the ninth.
   
“It would have been wonderful if you could anticipate something like this,
head it off at the pass,” said Quade, whose team had won three of four games
against Toledo going into Friday’s game.
   
The PawSox did all this damage without two starting infielders. Second
baseman Jose Munoz and third baseman Luis Ortiz were each suspended for two
games Friday by IL President Randy Mobley for leaving their positions for an
altercation.
   
The Red Barons’ pitching staff underwent a rotation of its own Friday.
   
Left-hander Andy Carter, who pitched a scoreless inning of relief against
Toledo on Thursday night, was called up to Philadelphia when 40-year reliever
Larry Andersen was placed on the 15-day disabled list by the Phillies.
   
Andersen, who injured a knee pitching at the Phillies’ minor league camp in
spring training, earlier in the year rehabilitated at Class AA Reading, then
joined the Phillies.
   
Pitcher Mike Dunne was placed on the Red Barons’ disabled list and Roger
Mason, who accepted an assignment to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Thursday, was sold
to the New York Mets.