Another night, another loss, and possibly another injury to a member of the American Defenders of New Hampshire’s starting rotation.

Thursday night’s starting pitcher, Isaac Burkett, was complaing during his 3 2-3 stint of numbness and tingling in his pitching hand, perhaps one of the reasons why he allowed four runs on six hits during that span in a 6-3 loss at the hands of Brockton before an announced Holman Stadium crowd of 1,122. The red-hot Rox have now won 11 straight.

“He felt good, and he knew it was an important start,” Defenders pitching coach J.P. Pyne said. “But about the third inning, he said he had a kind of tightness and tingling in his hand. We worked with the traininer and the team doctor was here and said he was good to go. But he had a little bit of a hard time getting a feel for his breaking pitches after that. With this team (Brockton), we try to attack them with fastballs a little bit. He tried to grit his way through it, but he just couldn’t get through.”

Pyne said it might be related to the problems Burkett (3-5) was having in his previous start where he lasted just one inning in New Jersey. Burkett said he couldn’t feel the ball leaving his hand.

“I think it’s all related, but we got him checked out,” Pyne said. “We’re still trying to figure out what it is. He felt good enough to go out there and compete, and he just needs to make better pitches there…We’ve done a lot of work with him, we had high hopes coming into tonight.”

If Burkett is hurt, the club could be scrambling. They’re hoping starter Luis Valdez, slated for Sunday, reports no lingering elbow problems from his bullpen session on Thursday. Desperate for pitching, the team did pick up two arms on Thursday, former Chicago White Sox 16th round draft pick (2005) Alex Woodson, a lefty, and recent Bowdoin College grad, righthander Pat Driscoll.

Woodson relieved Burkett last night and looked fairly good, allowing one run on three hits over 2 2-3 innings, fanning two while walking one. He’s 9-6, 4.31 over his brief minor league career, allowing 136 hits over 121 innings but fanning 128, walking just 31. He pitched this past winter in the Puerto Rican leagues.

Could he eventually start if needed?

“Depends on what happens with Valdez and Isaac’s situation,” Defenders manager Brian Daubach said. “We could be looking at him at being a starter down the road. He did a good job tonight throwing strikes, mixing in his breaking ball and his change-up. It was a good first outing.”

Driscoll went 4-3, 4.26 in 11 appearances, eight of them starts, for Bowdoin this past spring. He allowed 50 hits in 50 2-3 innints, 39 Ks and 28 walks.

“He was a starter in college but for us, with is stuff, I think he can be a good righthanded reliever, get righties out,” Daubach said. “He’s got a sharp, sweeping breaking ball..and a little life on his fastball. We’ll use him in the bullpen, and hopefully he can be a late inning guy for us. The biggest thing is he throws strikes. I don’t even care what they have any more. I don’t care. We just need strikes. We need command of your pitches, and throw strikes.”

Spoken by a manager whose team leads the Can-Am League in walks allowed with a whopping 198. That’s 54 more than the next team, Worcester, and the main reason this club is 20-25 after Thursday’s loss.

– TOM KING

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