Hens hold on as Wise hits for cycle
5/15/2005PAWTUCKET, R.I. - Toledo's Dewayne Wise hit for the cycle, including a grand slam last night, and drove in five runs.
And the Mud Hens needed everything Wise gave them.
Nearly letting a seven-run lead slip away, the Hens hung on for a 12-11 win over the Pawtucket Red Sox.
"I just wanted to come out and have some good at-bats," said Wise, who is rounding back into shape after missing a month with a foot injury, "and hoped I could get some hits, here and there."
As it turned out, he got one of each.
Wise began his night with a bases-loaded homer in the first inning. He finished it with a double off the wall in the seventh. In between, he singled and had an RBI triple.
It was the Mud Hens' second cycle in less than a year. Dmitri Young, who was with the club on an injury rehab assignment from Detroit, accomplished his on May 29, 2004, against Rochester.
"Other than today, I hadn't been getting too many hits," Wise said. "I wanted to come up with some big hits in clutch situations."
This one was a roller coaster ride from the very beginning.
Toledo jumped on Lenny DiNardo for five runs in the first.
Wise's homer was his second of the season. He yanked a 1-0 hanging curveball over the left-field wall.
"I was out in front of it a little bit," Wise said. "This is a good hitters park, and the ball flies out of here pretty good."
But Hens starter Andrew Good was anything but sharp, and by the end of second inning, the Sox had tied the score at 5-5.
Pawtucket's George Lombard tripled and scored in the first, then doubled in Tim Hummel in the second.
But Toledo scored twice in the third, and added five more runs in the fifth.
Chris Shelton plated three of those with a bases-loaded double. Wise tripled in Shelton to expand the Hens' lead to 12-5.
Good left with two outs in the sixth and a 12-7 lead.
It seemed the only remaining mystery was whether Wise might be able to complete the cycle, as he came up in the seventh.
"It was in the back of my mind," Wise said. "But I just wanted to go out and get another hit. I didn't care what it was."
Reliever Mark Woodyard served up a three-run double to Hummel in the eighth, and Dave Berg followed with an RBI single off John Ennis that cut the lead to 12-11.
Jason Karnuth came on in the ninth and picked up his fifth save of the season.