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IL baseball

BRUCE WELLS Special to The Times Leader

RICHMOND, Va. – There’s an old saying in baseball that good pitching wins ballgames.

If the game between Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Richmond on Sunday was any indication, that old saying is true.

Three Yankees’ pitchers combined to scatter four hits; allowing Richmond just four runs, while Scranton/Wilkes-Barre established season highs in both runs and hits as the Yanks throttled the Braves 13-4 in front of 10,224 at The Diamond.

The win was the second in as many days for the Yankees (22-20).

Richmond came into Sunday’s contest leading the IL with a team ERA of only 2.72 and was victimized by a tenacious Yankee lineup that pounded out a season-high 20 hits, five of which went for extra bases, including two home runs.

The Yankees now have 33 hits in the first two games of the four-game series in Richmond.

“I hope we didn’t use them [base hits] all up,” Yankees manager Dave Miley said with a smile after the game. “Really, I thought that we were real solid from the get-go. We had some timely hits and I thought that we were real aggressive on the bases and we made some things happen offensively.”

Kevin Thompson, batting in the leadoff spot for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, was one of those who made things happen on Sunday for the Yankees, going 4-for-6 at the plate with an RBI and two extra-base hits (including a triple), while scoring three times. He added two stolen bases and leads the team with nine steals.

“KT has been swinging it well for us,” said Miley. “It’s not just his speed but I thought he played a good center field for us with what was probably a tough sky out there.”

That tough sky may have contributed to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre jumping out to an early first-inning lead. With runners at first and third and no outs, Andy Phillips hit a routine popup to short that Richmond’s Yunel Escobar dropped, allowing Thompson to score from third. Escobar then picked up the ball and made a throwing error on the play, allowing the runners to move up.

Bronson Sardinha scored from third two batters later and the Yankees led 2-0. Richmond tied the game in the home half of the first on a Graham Koonce 2-run home run off Yankees starter Sean Henn.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre added two more runs in the second on a Raul Chavez 2-run home run, another in the third, and two more in the fourth, including Chavez’ second homer of the game.

Henn, who had pitched exclusively in relief for New York before being sent down May 17, pitched just two innings and was relieved by Colter Bean to start the third.

Bean, a burly right-hander who throws the ball from a sidearm position, managed to hit three Richmond batters in the fourth inning (one shy of the club record) allowing one of them to score, before finding his control. He allowed just one more run over the next 3 1/3 innings while striking out six and picking up his second win. Charlie Manning tossed a scoreless 1 2/3.