Barons sweep in Syracuse

The Red Barons shortstop was hitting .188 in his first Triple-A season. He had driven home 20 runs all year. He knew the jump from Reading to the Red Barons would be a challenging one, but Guiliano still was frustrated with his hitting.

"Everybody knows I've been struggling all season. It's been a battle," he said. "I was thinking today that everybody on this team has been getting clutch hits and it would be nice to get a clutch hit once in a while to feel like I'm doing something. I was thinking that today, and I ended up getting a big one."

Guiliano doubled twice -- the "big one" an eventual game-winning RBI shot to left-center in the sixth -- and the Red Barons bullpen withstood another Syracuse SkyChiefs rally in a 7-6 victory at P&C Stadium for the club's fifth straight win.

The Red Barons reduced their magic number for winning the International League North pennant to five. Pawtucket (72-66) remained three games behind after a 3-0 win over Rochester, while the SkyChiefs (71-67) fell four games back.

With eight games left, the Red Barons head to Ottawa for a two-game series tonight. The PawSox and SkyChiefs -- both with six games to play -- meet in Pawtucket for two games.

If the Red Barons win their next five games, they would clinch the IL title Friday night after the second game of a home doubleheader against Buffalo. Pawtucket losses would hasten the end of the race.

"We're excited," said second baseman Torey Lovullo, who drilled a three-run, first-inning home run, his 19th. "We're three games up, and we're in the driver's seat. We've got to continue playing the same tough baseball."

The Red Barons coughed up two unearned runs, allowed 12 hits and walked seven batters but somehow still stranded 14 Syracuse runners. The SkyChiefs had runners in scoring position in every inning but the first, fifth and ninth but scored just one run over the final five.

The Red Barons jumped out to a 5-0 lead, scored their first six runs with two outs, and relievers Barry Johnson, Jimmy Myers and Darryl Scott allowed one run in the final 5 after the SkyChiefs moved within 6-5 in the fourth.

Scott, who earned his eighth save, squandered a 3-1, ninth-inning lead Monday night before the Red Barons rallied for five runs in the 10th inning of an 8-3 win. Tuesday night, after Myers got out of a two-on, one-out jam in the eighth, Scott retired the side in the ninth, helping Johnson (6-9) earn the win.

"Scott really needed a day off, but he said if it was a short situation he'd go out," Red Barons manager Marc Bombard said. "Jimmy had thrown a lot of pitches to work out of the eighth with one run. Scott's got a lot of guts, as do all of these guys."

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