Pawtucket's Haviland hurls first career shutout
In his ninth professional season, Shawn Haviland figured it was about time to finish the ninth inning.The 31-year-old tossed a four-hitter Thursday -- the first complete-game shutout of his career -- in Triple-A Pawtucket's 11-0 rout of Buffalo at McCoy Stadium.
In his ninth professional season, Shawn Haviland figured it was about time to finish the ninth inning.
The 31-year-old tossed a four-hitter Thursday -- the first complete-game shutout of his career -- in Triple-A Pawtucket's 11-0 rout of Buffalo at McCoy Stadium.
"I guess it's a little overdue," Haviland (3-4) laughed. "I haven't pitched in the ninth since college probably. It was definitely exciting."
Gameday box score
The right-hander retired the first eight batters, including a stretch of five strikeouts in a row after the initial out in the first inning. Ian Parmley roped a two-out double in the third, then Haviland set down 14 of the next 16 Bisons.
"I just knew they were a very aggressive team," the Middletown, Connecticut native said. "We had seen them a couple weeks ago. I was able to get ahead and then throw the ball out of the zone to get them to chase early. After that, I was able to keep the ball down and get them to hit it on the ground and keep it out of the middle of the field."
Parmley led off the ninth with a single and Roemon Fields reached on a fielding error by shortstop Ryan Court. After Blue Jays No. 5 prospectRowdy Tellez popped out, Haviland hit Jason Leblebijian to load the bases. But the Harvard product bore down, striking out Dwight Smith Jr. and getting Mike Ohlman to pop out to Court to end the game.
"Ryan Court made a really nice play on a blooper over at shortstop," Haviland said. "I just wanted to make sure if I got beat, it was with my best pitches. So I went mostly curveballs and tried to mix up the angles a little bit."
Haviland finished the outing at 96 pitches, 66 of them strikes. Drafted by Oakland in the 33rd round in 2008, the 6-foot-2, 200-pound righty made 201 appearances spanning 999 1/3 innings with three organizations before his first complete-game shutout.
"It's tough with the pitch counts. It's hard to go nine in only 100 pitches," Haviland said. "I mean, I haven't even been in the eighth very often. Sometimes when you're out there, you don't have to think about it too much, it just happens. I was just trying to ride that tonight."
For Pawtucket, Mike Miller doubled and drove in three runs while Rusney Castillo plated two runs with a pair of singles. Allen Craig went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI, and Court added a solo blast.
Starter TJ House (5-5) surrendered six runs on eight hits and four walks with two strikeouts over 5 2/3 frames for Buffalo.
Alex Kraft is a contributor to MiLB.com. Follow and chat with him on Twitter @Alex_Kraft21.
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