PAWTUCKET - Among the teams in the International League, the Pawtucket Red Sox rank last in hitting, a .236 team average. Among the 14 franchises, only two have hit fewer than the 48 home runs that the PawSox have this season.

So it was no surprise that Syracuse Chiefs' righthanded pitcher Marco Estrada retired the first 16 PawSox batters that he faced Tuesday at McCoy Stadium - en route to an 12-0 victory.

The 26-year old Estrada, who pitched collegiately at Long Beach State and appeared in 11 games in a relief role with the parent Washington Nationals last year, earned his fifth victory in dramatic fashion.

Estrada allowed just one hit through seven innings of duty and struck out seven. But, more impressively of the 87 pitches that he threw - 62 were for strikes.

"I was locating my fastball, you locate that first pitch for a strike and it makes it easier," said Estrada. "I was trying not to overthrow and my curveball was more 12-6 than normal, usually it swerves left to right." Estrada notched seven strikeouts and six ground ball outs in retiring the first 16 PawSox batters that he faced - before No. 8 batter Gil Velasquez stroked a single to the shortstop hole with one out in the sixth inning to deny the no-hit bid. At least the 9,150 fans in attendance had a second good fortune in addition to viewing a near perfect performance on the mound.

"Once you locate that first pitch for a strike, I was working hard for that," added Estrada. "That's the biggest thing and they were swinging at it."

In the meantime, Syracuse hammered PawSox starting pitcher Enrique Gonzalez (7-7) for 12 hits over five innings. The Chiefs scored pairs of runs against the righthander in the first (on two hits), third (on two hits), fourth (on four hits) and fifth (on four hits) innings.

"He had good off-speed stuff, a good slider," said PawSox infielder Travis Denker. "We hadn't seen that guy, he pounded the zone."

In the meantime, Estrada began the first, third, fourth and fifth innings with strikeouts. And he's not a strikeout pitcher, having totaled just 61 in 74 innings of work, 15 starting assignments.

The PawSox had just three base runners during the entire game, two with two outs in the ninth inning, a single to the second base hole by Freddy Guzman and a bunt single by Jeff Natale.

After a five-hour, 14-inning marathon one-run win a day earlier, "I feel like we didn't leave the field," added Denker of the PawSox' slow bats in chasing Estrada.

Foul Balls

The PawSox completed the month of June at 15-13 and are now 20-16 this season at McCoy Stadium ... The PawSox are 13-25 when allowing the first run of a game, suffered their ninth shutout loss and have scored three runs or less 47 times thus far ... Former Boston pitcher Kason Gabbard has been shelled in his return with AA-Portland (0-2, 11.57) in his last two starts ... Clay Buchholz (5-1, 1.90 ERA) hurls for the PawSox in Thursday's 6 p.m. start, followed by fireworks ... Jeff Bailey took a nine-game hitting streak to Boston ... OF Freddy Guzman had a four-game multi-hit streak end; 1b Aaron Bates is hitless in 19 straight at-bats ... Head groundskeeper Kyle Carney of Seekonk, via Bishop Feehan High, hasn't had to fertilize the outfield grass at McCoy, other than some spot treatments with all the rain ... Syracuse RHP Jorge Sosa, batting in the ninth inning, drew a bases-loaded walk from PawSox reliever Randor Bierd, forcing in the 12th Chiefs run.