THE HIGHLIGHTS: Syracuse left fielder Travis Snider capped a two-run ninth-inning rally with a two-out RBI single that drove in Hector Luna with the winning run. Chris Smith (1-4) was the loser. Third baseman Keith Ginter had given Pawtucket a 6-5 lead with a two-run shot in the top of the ninth.

Syracuse scored the tying run on a pickoff play that went awry in the ninth. With Luna on first and Buck Coats on third, Smith faked a throw to third and threw to first. The ball hit Luna, got away, and allowed Coats to come home.

“He has one of the better third-to-first moves you’ll see,” said PawSox manager Ron Johnson. “That (attempt) was by design. It was going to be close. It was just one of those things.”

POWER OUTAGE: Pawtucket’s power surge was something of a surprise. PawSox outfielder Jeff Bailey was recalled to Boston yesterday, to fill in for the injured Mike Lowell. Bailey has 25 homers this year. Pawtucket was already hurting in the big lumber department, with outfielders Chris Carter (24 homers) and Jonathan Van Every (24 homers) both out with oblique injuries.

Tell first baseman Lars Anderson that his latest home run was his fifth as a member of the Portland Sea Dogs, and he smiles.

“Is it? Cool,” Anderson said.

Anderson is not keeping track of his long balls, nor is he sweating over the Eastern League standings.But Anderson, along with his Portland teammates, is measuring up just fine.

Anderson’s grand slam paced an 11-3 rout of the Altoona Curve on Thursday afternoon before a sun-loving crowd at Hadlock Field.

Mickey Hall and Ryan Khoury also hit home runs, and Dave Gassner (6-5) threw three-hit, shutout ball for six innings, keeping Portland in control of a playoff spot.

With 18 games to go, the Sea Dogs (65-57) are in second place in the Northern Division, 7 games behind Trenton and two ahead of Binghamton. The top two teams in the division reach the playoffs.

“People are not going too crazy about it,” Anderson said of the race for the playoffs. “We’re just trying to play like it’s a regular game.

“The intensity is up a little bit, but you still don’t want to get too excited and blow out. Keep an even keel and play solid baseball.”

The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes continued their hot play as they opened their final series of the season against the JetHawks. Three Quakes pitchers combined to throw a two-hitters as they beat Lancaster 4-1, their sixth win in a row. The teams will swap places in the standings as Rancho Cucamonga takes a half-game lead. The JetHawks magic number to clinch the #1 seed in the Southern Division stays at 13.

JetHawks starter Chris Province rebounded from a tough appearance against the Quakes last weekend with a very strong start last night. The right-hander allowed only on run and two hits through six innings and left with the game tied 1-1. The JetHawks run came in the fourth inning when Jon Still doubled and came in to score on a Luis Exposito sacrifice fly.

The Greenville Drive let a four-run lead heading into the eighth inning slip away and lost 5-4 in 10 innings to the Lexington Legends in front of 5,183 fans at Fluor Field Thursday night.

The Legends scored four to tie the game in the eighth and the Drive let a golden opportunity pass by when they had the winning run gunned down at the plate in the bottom of the ninth.

The Drive jumped to an early lead in the bottom of third when Matt Cooney and Zach Penpraise each drew a one-out walk.

Carlos Fernandez singled to score and Cooney and Jered Stanley followed with his 16th home run of the season, a three-run blast that easily cleared the Green Monster in left field.

Greenville starter Chad Povich was outstanding, allowing only one hit and striking out six in his five innings of work, but the Legends struck for four runs off Greenville reliever Kyle Foster to tie the game in the eighth inning.

Catcher Tim Federowicz drove in three runs, two of them with a sixth-inning single that put the Spinners ahead to stay, sparking the Lowell Spinners to a 5-4 triumph over Williamsport last night and giving them a three-game sweep of the series with the Crosscutters.

With the victory the first-place Spinners opened up a 4 1/2-game lead over Oneonta in the New York-Penn League's Stedler Division. It was the Spinners' 12th come-from-behind win of the season but the first in which they trailed by more than one run.

Luis Sumoza cracked his seventh homer -- the first by a Spinner in nine games -- and Federowicz also socked his first professional homer.

Cody Overbeck went 4-for-4 for the Crosscutters, including his ninth and 10th homers of the season, and knocked in all four of their runs.

NY-PL All-Star Stolmy Pimentel pitched five innings to raise his record to 4-2, and Stephen Fife logged the last four innings to record his second save.