Colon Solid, But Knights Edge PawSox 3-1

The Charlotte Knights made the best of their hits in taking today's matinee, 3-1 at McCoy. It's the first win for the Knights in this four game series.

Charlotte scored their runs against the Pawtucket bullpen, scoring two runs in the fifth off Lincoln Holdzkom (5-5) on RBI singles by Jason Bourgeois and Jerry Owens.

Jose Vaquedano gave up an insurance run to the Knights in the eighth on Brad Eldred's 32nd home run of the season.

The PawSox' lone run came in the bottom of the third on Jeff Bailey's 25th homer of the year off Knights' starter and former PawSox' Tomo Okha.

Other than Joe Thurston's three hit performance, the rest of the PawSox offense could not string together enough hits to overcome the solid itching performance exhibited by the Knights.

Okha (4-10) picked up the win, going six innings giving up one run on four hits. He walked one and struck out four.

The Charlotte relief corps of Ehren Wasserman and Jason Childers shut out Pawtucket the rest of the way.

One encouraging sign for the PawSox was the starting pitching of Bartolo Colon, who was making his second rehab assignment for Pawtucket since being sent to the DL in June with a lower back strain. Colon pitched three scoreless innings, giving up three hits while striking out three and walking no one. He had command of all his pitches, with 27 of his 34 throws in the strike zone.

The two teams wrap-up their four game series tomorrow afternoon (12:05 pm) at McCoy. Jack Egbert (3-10) throws for Charlotte while Michael Bowden (0-2) will pitch for the PawSox.

NOTES: It will be interesting to see if one of the PawSox' starters are asked to make an appearance in Boston after it was announced today that Tim Wakefield will be placed on the disabled list with shoulder stiffness. Pawtucket's two best pitchers, Charlie Zink and David Pauley, are not scheduled to pitch until Wednesday and Thursday. Davern Hansack is scheduled to start for the PawSox on Tuesday. Stay tuned...