SOX ON DECK: PawSox rally to dispatch Yanks’ AAA club

The Pawtucket Red Sox gave another example Saturday night of why they own the best record in all of Triple-A baseball.

Pawtucket entered the bottom of the eight trailing the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees 3-1 in a battle for first place in the International League’s North Division - and exploded for six runs en route to a 7-3 victory.

Granted, the Yankees had a case of the “pitching shorts” — with Jeff Karstens and Dan McCutchen having been traded to Pittsburgh and Alan Horne sent to Tampa — and manager Dave Miley had to employ a “bullpen game.” But the Yankees stepped on the field with the lowest ERA (3.56) in the league.

Pawtucket began the eighth against Phil Coke (0-2) with Chris Carter and Keith Ginter sandwiching singles around an out.

Then, Jeff Corsaletti hit a shot that deflected off Coke and kissed off the glove of second baseman Chris Basak for a single that scored Carter and made it 3-2.

“If Coke doesn’t touch it, it’s a possible double play,” Yankees manager Dave Miley said. “It looked like Basak may have had a shot but instinct for a pitcher is to stick his glove out and try to make a play. And then (Scott) Strickland’s been lights out for us.”

Good point because Strickland was 9-for-10 in save opportunities (plus 3-0 with a 2.11 ERA). But on this night he wasn’t as fortunate because Gil Velasquez (who previously had struck out twice) smashed a two-run double to right center.

Jonathan Van Every and Jeff Natale walked to load the bases, and after Joe Thurston fanned, Jeff Bailey unloaded the bases with a double to left-center.

The sum total of the damage was six runs on five hits and two walks.

Just as impressive as Pawtucket’s late-game eruption was the pitching of starter Devern Hansack.

Hansack coughed up a two-run homer to Ben Broussard in the second and a solo shot to Juan Miranda in the sixth and that was it.

In fact, over the course of his seven-inning stint, Hansack allowed only three hits and permitted just one other Yankee to advance as far as second base. (Eric Hull earned the victory by pitching 1 2/3 innings of one-hit relief).

“I think you’ve got to give Hansack a lot of credit,” Miley said. “This guy’s still throwing 94 in the seventh. He was tough on us. We got a couple of home runs but other than that …”

One positive from the game was that Miley didn’t burn any of the five relievers he used.

“We did a pretty good job splitting it up,” he said. “Nobody was really taxed. We had three guys (starter Billy Traber, Steven Jackson and Mark Melancon) go two innings. But we’ll look at it tonight and (Sunday) morning and see who’s available (for this afternoon’s game).”

EXTRA BASES: Boston acquired infielder Josh Wilson from Indianapolis on Saturday and assigned him to Pawtucket … Wilson, who’s played primarily at second base and shortstop, hit .276 in 97 games with the Indians replete with 18 doubles, five homers and 11 stolen bases.