•THE HIGHLIGHTS: Eric Hull, making a spot start on short notice for Pawtucket, more than doubled his longest appearance of the year while striking out seven and not walking a batter in five innings. Hull worked out of trouble in a two-run second inning by starting a stretch in which he retired the last 10 batters he faced. Jeff Corsaletti’s two-out single to right field in the seventh inning broke a tie and drove in two runs. Josh Wilson had a two-run single in the fourth, tying the score.

•KEY TO THE GAME: All of the scoring came on two-out, bases-loaded hits. T.J. Bohn had one for Lehigh Valley in the second inning before Wilson and Corsaletti came through for the PawSox. “That’s what we’ve done throughout the year,” PawSox manager Ron Johnson said. “The guys did a nice job to get four RBI with two outs.”

It seemed a perfect confluence of events, Clay Buchholz pitching for the Sea Dogs on the night they were giving away bobblehead dolls fashioned in his likeness.

Throw in a couple of shiny reminders from Boston's recent past, an ambassador from their Impossible Dream team and a balmy August evening with a packed house, and all that remained was to nail down their late-inning lead.

They couldn't do it.

Danny Valencia homered for the third day in a row, a two-run drive in the eighth inning to give the New Britain Rock Cats a 6-5 victory over Portland Monday night at Hadlock Field.

The loss left the Sea Dogs 1 1/2 games ahead of the Binghamton Mets in the race for the second playoff spot in the Eastern League's Northern Division. With eight games remaining, Portland's magic number remains seven.

"It's good to go against people who have played in the big leagues, for now and for the future," Valencia said, referring to Buchholz.

[...]

As for the game itself, Buchholz (after former Red Sox infielder Rico Petrocelli threw the ceremonial first pitch) fell behind 3-0 to the first batter, Matt Tolbert. But Buchholz didn't reach another three-ball count until completing his third trip through the Rock Cats' order. Only once in 25 previous outings this season with Boston and Triple-A Pawtucket had Buchholz failed to walk a batter.

"I was very impressed with what we saw," said Sea Dogs Manager Arnie Beyeler. "He's gotten a lot better since he left here.

"(He's) down here to work on some things, and this was a good steppingstone. When he missed, he missed down in the zone."

Buchholz struck out eight, walked none and allowed five hits, three of them crisp and in succession in the third inning as the Rock Cats took a 3-0 lead. He retired eight in a row after the third run scored on an infield chopper, and the Sea Dogs took a 4-3 lead with two runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth. A two-run triple by Josh Reddick put Portland on the board, a sacrifice fly by Zach Daeges tied the score, and an RBI double by Aaron Bates broke the tie.

"Tonight I just went after them a little bit more," Buchholz said. "I mixed my patterns a little bit better, and it turned out good."

The Boston Red Sox sent Clay Buchholz back to his 2007 roots, at homey Hadlock Field, to regain his command, comfort and confidence.

"After the second inning, I called (pitching coach Mike Cather) over," Buchholz said. "I said, 'Man, I feel so much more comfortable right now than I have in the last two months. It's unbelievable.' "

In the first phase of Project Refocus for Buchholz, consider it mission accomplished. Buchholz pounded the strike zone. He walked no batters over seven innings, throwing 93 pitches, 69 of them for strikes.

He went to a three-ball count against only two batters. Buchholz allowed five hits and four runs (three earned) while striking out eight.

Consider that Buchholz has not gone that deep into a game since April 26, when he lasted eight innings for the Red Sox in a 2-1 loss at Tampa Bay.

Since that April start, things have not been the same for Buchholz. With a 2-9 record and 6.75 ERA for the Red Sox, he found himself back in Double-A. Instead of chartered flights, Buchholz rode a bus from Harrisburg, Pa., on Sunday night, arriving in Portland at 3 a.m. Monday.

"It is what it is," Buchholz said with a smile.

For those looking for a complete overhaul of Buchholz's delivery, that's not the plan, said Cather. Cather, who worked with Buchholz in Class A at the end of the 2006 season, then again last year in Portland, wanted to watch Buchholz pitch without the burden of Red Sox Nation on his shoulders.

"Taking a breath, I think, is the big thing, and taking a step back," Cather said. "It's going to be good to just get a chance (for Buchholz) to get back to the way Clay is – and that is having that dominant feeling.

"He's the lead dog. There's no doubt about it. And I feel like he probably hasn't felt like the lead dog for some time."

Riding the crest of a nine-game winning streak the JetHawks were stopped by a hot hitting Modesto Nuts club and fall 10-3 in the final game of the regular season at Clear Channel Stadium in front of 2,642 on Fan Appreciation Night.

Modesto got the scoring started in the first, Daniel Mayora singled to center and eventually came home on a sac fly from former JetHawk Lino Garcia. In the second, Mike McHenry hit one of the two Modesto home runs on the night.

Down 5-0 going into the home half of the fifth, Lancaster tried to mount a rally. Kris Negron hit a triple and scored on a Aaron Reza ground out. The JetHawks plated two more runs in the sixth. Jason Place led off the inning with a single to left, Yamaico Navarro followed with his third hit of the night to put runners at the corners for Lancaster. Ryan Kalish lifted a fly-ball to left to score a run and Jon Still followed with a double putting JetHawks at second and third. Mike Jones singled to bring home Navarro but Still was thrown out at the plate for the second out. Lancaster never recovered allowing a three-run shot to Kade Simmons to account for the rest of the scoring.

The Greenville Drive pounded out nine hits in their home finale at Fluor Field on Monday night, but couldn’t overcome four Augusta home runs and fell 6-4.

“Our guys played hard, but we just left some pitches up in the zone early in the game and had a couple of mistakes on defense,” Drive manager Kevin Boles said.

Augusta started the offensive fireworks with two outs in the first inning when Juan Ciriaco drew a walk and Thomas Neal hit a laser off the New York Life building in left field.

The Drive took a 3-2 in their half of the first. David Mailman and Carlos Fernandez singled and were driven in by Jered Stanley’s triple to center. Stanley scored one batter later on Rafael Cabreja’s single to left field.

“We got better pitches to hit, better fastball-hitting counts,” Boles said, “and when we got the fastball we were able to take some quality passes at the ball.”

Augusta tied the score on a home run by Garrett Baker and took a 4-3 lead on Nick Noonan’s homer in the third.

Ryan Lavarnway took the first pitch he saw Monday afternoon over the left-field wall for a grand slam to give the Lowell Spinners a lead they would not relinquish en route to a 6-3 victory over the Staten Island Yankees, the Spinners fourth consecutive win and their 11th win in their last 12 games.

The win lowered the Spinners magic number to claim the Stedler Divison title and the franchise’s first ever playoff berth to five games. After losing the first game of the season to the Yankees, the minor league affiliate of the dreaded “Evil Empire,” the Spinners have now won four straight over the Baby Bombers.

For the second consecutive game, Lowell (36-26) was able to jump out to an early lead on the first home run of Lavarnway’s professional career. After Ronald Bermudez reached base on another Staten Island error (their third first inning error in two games), Mitch Dening and Luis Sumoza walked to set the stage for Lavarnway, the game’s TD Banknorth Player of the Game. With two-outs, Lavarnway deposited the first pitch he saw from Nick Montgomery over the left-field wall to give the Spinners a 4-0 lead.

Staten Island (40-24), who entered the day with the league’s best record, winners of 9-of-10 games, was able to get on the board in the third inning, on back-to-back hits by David Adams and Brad Baisley, but could muster little else against Spinners starter Hunter Strickland.

The Spinners were able to get the run right back in the top of the sixth inning, when Luis Sumoza took an offering from Bedford, N.H. native Nick Asselin over the right field wall for his 11th home run of the season, one short of the Spinners team record (12) set by Carlos Rodriguez in 1999, to give the Spinners a 5-1 lead.