Baseball: Pasadena Pieces Together a Win Over Burbank

Pasadena coach Mike Parisi was all set to start William Yost on Friday at Burbank and lean on the senior right-hander and his 3-0 record on this season in a pivotal Pacific League showdown.

But a day before the game, Yost told Parisi he might not be able to pitch after receiving an injection in his right shoulder during an MRI exam. So Parisi had to piece together a gameplan on the fly. Out went Yost; in came starter Robert Lain. Lain would pitch three innings, Angelo Robledo would come in for two, and Ives Brown would close the deal in the sixth and seventh.

That was the plan, and it worked like a charm. The Bulldog trio combined to limit Burbank to just three hits in a 1-0 win.

“Our pitching staff was outstanding,” Parisi said. “(Yost) went to the doctor and had an MRI where he had a shot and put some fluid in his shoulder without telling me. I was hoping he was going to do it during spring break. … Yost is 3-0, and he’s having a great year on the mound. We had to go with guys on short days rest, and they stepped up. So it was a great team win.”

Parisi mapped out the 3-2-2 format for his staff before the game, knowing that he could only get three innings at the most from Lain. Lain threw 6 1-3 innings on Monday in a loss to Burroughs, but he gritted through three innings at Burbank, striking out three and limiting the Bulldogs (5-9, 2-2 in the PL) to one hit.

“Rob only had three innings left,” Parisi said. “I started him; he did his job.

“ … I knew we could only get three innings out of Lane — he can’t go more than 10 innings in a week. I knew this was a huge league game because we don’t play a league game in a while, so we had to go after this like it was our final game and that’s what we did.”

Lain ran into trouble just once in his three innings, when he walked two consecutive batters with one out in the bottom of the second. But Lain escaped the jam by inducing a groundball from Burbank’s Andrew Hernandez to begin a 6-4-3 double play that ended the inning.

For much of the game Burbank starter Ryan Favor matched Pasadena zero for zero on the scoreboard, but one aggressive play on the basepaths was all it took to give Pasadena (9-4, 3-1) the game’s lone run.

Pasadena’s Andrew Phillips started the rally with a one-out single in the top of the third and moved into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt from Robledo. Then with two outs, Lain hit a sharp grounder to the left of Burbank’s shortstop, whose throw to first was just a second late.

Phillips headed for third on contact, looking to score on the play in its entirety. By the time Burbank realized Phillips was headed for home it was too late, and Pasadena moved ahead 1-0.

“Our (third base) coach did a good job of sending him home, and hoping the guy would throw the ball to first, which he did,” Parisi said. “Played aggressive, we got the run. We’ve got to do everything we can to manufacture runs.”

That run would be all Pasadena would need as its pitching staff took care of the final five innings. Burbank only put two more runners on base in the game, and a fifth-inning rally was undone by another inning-ending double play.

Pasadena catcher Jay Cordero went 2-for-3 with two singles, while Gio Cabral went 1-for-3 with a double.

Pasadena plays South Pasadena on Saturday at 12:05 p.m. at Pasadena High in the first day of the 2011 Babe Herman Tournament. Parisi said he expects Yost to start against the Tigers.