Randy Newsom didn’t have much time to celebrate being one of four Aeros players named Wednesday to the Eastern League All-Star Game. Not long after hearing the All-Star news, Newsom (5-0, 1.75 ERA) also learned he had been promoted to Triple-A Buffalo.

Between the two bits of exciting news, Wednesday quickly turned into a cause for celebration for the underdog Newsom. He was once a relatively unknown side-armer who was acquired by the Indians as the player to be named later in the 2006 trade that sent outfielder Coco Crisp and pitcher David Riske to Boston and brought third baseman Andy Marte and catcher Kelly Shoppach to Cleveland.

Two years later, Newsom has become an Aeros fan favorite, always the last guy to always to leave the home dugout after signing every autograph request following games at Canal Park. If not for the “untimely” call up, Newsom would have been making his second appearance on the Southern Division team in as many years - and rightfully so.

The Aeros closer recorded 24 saves in 26 opportunities, including converting his last nine chances. A dominating and lengthy stretch came April 8th through June 26th when the Tufts University graduate allowed just two earned runs spanning 33 innings, including 15 consecutive scoreless appearances from April 23rd to May 25th.

In addition to Newsom, Aeros third baseman Wes Hodges, right-handed reliever J.D. Martin and rookie shortstop Josh Rodriguez were also tabbed to play in the All-Star Game that will be held Manchester, N.H., July 16th. Joining the players on the team will be Sarbaugh and the rest of the Aeros staff courtesy of being the defending Southern Division champions.

The E.L. All-Star nod marks the second consecutive for Hodges, who played in the Class-A Carolina League post-season All-Star team last year. This season - just his second full professional year after being drafted by the Tribe with their second pick in the 2006 draft out of Georgia Tech – he has been Akron’s most consistent hitter - batting clean-up, no less.

Through 81 games, Hodges is batting .307 (93-for-303) and leads the league with 64 RBI. If he stays in Akron a full season as the Indians brass initially planned, Hodges is on pace to drive in 112 RBI - which would shatter the single-season franchise record.

The injury-tested Martin will be making his first All-Star appearance since the 2001 season when he appeared on the short-season Appalachian League post-season All-Star team. Having pitched primarily in relief for the Aeros in this, his third stint with the team while battling arm injuries over the years, Martin is 7-3 with a 3.26 ERA in 21 appearances (including three spot starts).

In Martin’s last seven appearances, the Tribe’s sandwich selection (35th overall) in the 2001 draft has not allowed an earned run spanning 15.1 innings. Over that span he is 3-0 and has allowed just eight hits and four walks.

Rodriguez’s selection also marks his second All-Star nod, as he joined Hodges on the Carolina League post-season All-Star team last year. Batting second for the Aeros this season, the Indians second–round pick out Rice University is hitting .269 (83-for-309) with 13 doubles, five triples, four home runs, 37 RBI and seven stolen bases. Additionally, his 53 walks rank second in the league and his 51 runs scored are fourth.

MORE ON HODGES: In addition to being named to Eastern League All-Star Team, third baseman Wes Hodges is also scheduled to participate in the prestigious Futures Game as part of major league baseball’s All-Star Game festivities July 13 at Yankee Stadium.

Selected to play for Team USA, Hodges is also one of 60 players currently being considered for the 24-man United States Olympic Team that will be selected on July 16th to participate in China’s Beijing Olympics beginning August 9th.

In 82 games with the Aeros this season, Hoges is batting .307 (94-for-306) with 15 doubles, nine home runs and a league-leading 64 RBI.

ROSTER MOVES - With Newsom’s promotion to Buffalo Wednesday, right-handed reliever Scott Roehl has been selected to take Newsom’s place on the Southern Division team. In 22 appearances this season with Akron, Roehl is 1-2 with a 3.00 ERA and 32 strikeouts over 33 innings.

In other team news, outfielder Jose Costanza was placed on the disabled list Thursday with a strained left shoulder. In 74 games with the Aeros he’s battting .293 (77-for-263) with four triples, nine doubles, 15 stolen bases, 23 walks, 27 RBI and 36 runs scored. The Aeros have not made a corresponding move to replace Costanza, but outfielder Nate Panther (strained left calf) is able to be activated from the DL today. Newsom’s spot on the team’s 24-man roster has yet to be filled as well, leaving the team two players under the limit.

Rosters for the Eastern League All-Star Game are expected to be released Wednesday, with the likehood that a pair of Aeros players will be included in the July 16 festivities hosted by the New Hamphsire Fisher Cats in Manchester, N.H.

Third baseman Wes Hodges is batting .307 (90-for-293) with a league-leading 62 RBI. Closer Randy Newsom leads the circuit with 23 saves in 25 opportunities and is 5-0 with a 1.54 ERA.

Third baseman Wes Hodges has been the Aeros most consistent offensive player through the first half of the season.

Batting .311 with a league-leading 62 RBI as Akron’s cleanup man, he has been instrumental in the team’s ability to bounce back from a rocky start that had them mired in the unfamiliar territory of last place in late April.

Now having improved to a more respectable 48-31 nearly mid-way through the season, the Aeros entered Saturday’s game with visiting Reading owning a 3.5 game-lead in the Eastern League Southern Division.

But recently there’s one more thing Hodges, the Indians 2006 second-round pick whom Baseball America ranks as the club’s No. 4 prospect, has been doing consistently as of late: committing errors.

With no intention to nit-pick a player having an otherwise phenomenal first half, Hodges’ 15 errors ties him for the team lead with shortstop Josh Rodriguez.

But it’s not the total number of miscues that’s worrisome. Instead, it’s Hodges’ recent spate of them - five over the last four games, including two in Friday’s 16-6 rout of the Phillies.

To many of those watching him on a nightly basis, Hodges’ recent defensive struggles at the hot corner reeks of a tired player in desperate need of a day or two off.

“Yeah, he could use a day,” Aeros manager Mike Sarbaugh said. “But I want to give him a full day off without taking any (batting practice) or pre-game work, so he’ll probably get his day (Sunday).”

Part of the problem is that the Aeros don’t have another player on the roster able to fill in at third (without playing out of position) now that the versatile Chris Gimenez has been promoted to Triple-A Buffalo and utility infielder Brandon Chaves has been out of the lineup since June 22 while nursing a thumb injury.

At the same time, Sarbaugh said Hodges’ development as a young player plays into the equation as well.

“A part of Wes’s development is playing everyday,” Sarbaugh said. “Learning how to play through periods when maybe you are feeling tired is important because it’s party of mentally preparing yourself for the game.”

Still, the mid-July All-Star break can’t come soon enough for Hodges. That is if he isn’t playing in it.

The Aeros posted season highs in hits (19), runs (16) and tied a season-high in margin of victory with 10 runs in a explosive 16-6 victory over the visiting Reading Phillies Friday night at Canal Park.

The game’s outcome came as a bit of a surprise on a night they faced R-Phils pitching prospect Carlos Carrasco, who entered the game with 89 strikeouts in 94 innings. But against Akron, Carrasco (5-7, 4.18 ERA) did record a single punch out in what became his shortest outing of the season.

After falling behind by two runs just a half inning into the night’s action, the Aeros offense exploded for five runs in the bottom of the inning and never looked back in knocking Carrasco out of the game after just three innings.

The Aeros offense then battered reliever Brett Harker in the seventh, posting a six-run inning that was highlighted by a grand slam by outfielder Trevor Crowe.

Which begs the question, is there anyone in all of minor league baseball right now than the Indians No. 1 pick (14th overall) in the 2005 draft? The left-fielder added to his recent hot streak with a 3-for-5 night that included a grand slam, a double, four runs scored and four RBI in Friday’s win.

Entering the game, Crowe was batting .579 (22-for-38) with three homers, 16 RBI and 15 runs scored over his last nine games.

A night after rallying from deficits of 9-3 and 10-4 to record an exciting 11-10 victory over visiting Bowie in 10 innings Monday, the Akron Aeros came out flat in a double header sweep by the Baysox Tuesday night.

How flat? They managed one run in 14 innings.

In the seven-inning Game One, Akron was nearly no-hit by Baysox starter Jason Berken before Jose Costanzo broke up the no-hit bid with a bloop to shallow center with an out in the sixth. But Berken went on to earn the win with a two-hit complete-game shutout.

The Aeros didn’t even plate a run on the evening until spotting Bowie a 6-0 lead.

While Akron’s offense appeared flat all evening - showing little resemblance to the one that kept coming back at Bowie the previous night - the Aeros two young starters on the night didn’t help themselves.

In Game One, right-hander Steven Wright made just his second start for the Aeros after being called up from Class-A Kinston last week. In five innings he dished up five runs (four earned) and took the loss.

In the nightcap, Akron starter Jim Deters (also via Kinston) tied an Aeros season-high of hits allowed by a pitcher with 12 - in just 4 2/3 innings to spot the Baysox a 6-0 lead by the third inning.

Yes, they’re young. They were each having solid seasons at Kinston and will get better the more experience they get at this level. It’s just a shame they have to cut their teeth right now with the Southern-Division leading Aeros hosting division foe Bowie.

Having won 17 of their last 19 games entering Tuesday to take over first place, I don’t want to see the team take a step back while the youngsters settle in.

Batting a mere .219 through 50 games, Wyatt Toregas was well aware of the fact that he was scuffling at the plate.

But he’d only been in Buffalo for two months. Certainly, the Indians up-and-coming catching prospect would be given more time to try and find his way in his first exposure at the Triple-A level.

Under normal circumstances, he probably would have.

But while Toregas struggled, Aeros catcher Chris Gimenez was having more than a “normal” first half in Akron. In fact, calling Gimenez’s start “phenomenal” is no stretch considering he’d increased his batting average to .339 with an Eastern League-leading .487 on-base percentage 52 walks when he was called up to Buffalo last week to swap places with his former mentor Toregas.

“G did what he had to do and the organization has to make decisions,” Toregas said. “I wasn’t producing offensively like G was, and right now the Indians are in need of a bat. In understand that.”

The Aeros just happen to be the hottest team in the Eastern League, having gone 8-2 over the last 10 games and owners of seven consecutive wins - three of which were of the thrilling come-from-behind variety.

Playing on the road last week in Portland, the Aeros rallied back from a 10-0 deficit Saturday followed by a 6-0 deficit Sunday. Tuesday Akron continued the theme, spotting visiting New Hampshire a 6-1 advantage before rallying for an 8-6 home victory.

While a handful of players have stepped up to contribute to the team’s rise from the bottom of the Southern Division to second place - entering Thursday just one game behind Southern Division leader Bowie - outfielder/designated hitter Ryan Goleski has led the way the last two games.

Goleski, who has struggled offensively since his break-out season in 2006, finally began to find his stroke last week during the road trip. But he saved the best for the home crowd at Canal Park, winning Tuesday’s game on a walk-off three-run home run then bashing another three-run shot Wednesday to spark the Aeros to an 8-2 victory.

“It’s been a long time coming trying to get back to that consistent stroke I had in ‘06,” said Goleski, who homered for the third consecutive game Thursday with a solo shot.

Of course, Goleski wasn’t the only Aero to get off to a slow start this season. With a young group of players promoted together to Akron from Class-A Kinston, the Aeros new and inexperienced pitching staff took some time to find its footing as well.

“They’ve certainly shown the last few games there’s no quit in them,” Aeros manager Mike Sarbaugh said. “It says something about the guys out there and how much they believe in themselves.”

Several roster moves over the last week resulted in a handful of Aeros pitchers coming and going while the team was on its recent Northern Division road trip to New Hampshire and Portland.

The good news is that team didn’t miss a beat, going 5-1 and capping the six-game road trip with a series sweep of the Sea Dogs to catapult into second place in the Eastern Division, just two games behind division-leader Bowie.

The bad news is that ace starter David Huff and top reliever Jeff Stevens are gone, both having been promoted to Triple-A Buffalo.

The left-handed Huff, who led the Eastern League with a 1.92 ERA, went 5-1 in 11 games (10 starts) for the Aeros. Stevens, a power right-handed set-up man, went 5-1 with a 2.51 ERA and owned a save and team-leading five holds in 17 appearances.

However, rejoining the Aeros after brief stints away are right-handed relievers J.D. Martin and T.J. Burton. Martin made one two-inning appearance in Buffalo June 4, while Burton worked out with the Bisons, but was not active while working on changing his arm slot.

Meanwhile, left-handers Reid Santos and Scott Lewis also joined the team. Santos came via Buffalo, looking to regain the form that made him an Aeros All-Star last season. Lewis took the spot of Huff in the rotation - his first live action of the season - after starting the season at extended spring training rehabbing a strained left lat he injured near the end of spring camp.

If it’s better to be lucky than good, than Randy Newsom is the poster child for the old adage.

Forget about the Aeros closer’s league-high tying 15 saves. The way things have gone lately, Newsom can’t even mess up a save without getting something positive out if it.

After notching 13 consecutive saves to open the season, Newsom has blown two of his last four opportunities.

Yet instead of exiting the game frustrated each time, Newsom has left with an ear-to-ear smile after earning the win in both games to improve to 3-0 with a 1.14 ERA in 24 appearances.

Newsom’s first blown save came on May 26th, when he was handed a 3-2 lead in the ninth but allowed visiting Erie to tie the score. But in the bottom of the inning, a Nate Panther double into the right field corner scored Chris Gimenez to hand the Aeros a 4-3 win.

After a pair of saves in Harrisburg earlier in the week, the Aeros were back at Canal Park Saturday when Newsom was handed a 4-3 lead in the ninth before visiting Bowie knotted the score. But with the bases loaded in the bottom of the inning, Aeros newcomer Bronson Sardinha drove in the winning run and once again Newsom was listed as the game’s winner.

Newsom’s streak of luck began on April 26 when he entered a game against Harrisburg in top of 10th of a 1-1 tie game. Newsom held the Senators pat, and in the bottom of the frame Matt Whitney’s two-out RBI-double handed Newsom his first win to set Newsom’s lucky trend.

“I know there’s been some struggles recently, but Randy’s been incredible for us,” Aeros manager Mike Sarbaugh said. “I can’t say enough about what he does for us to close the door at the end of games.”

He was looking for a change of scenery, a different baseball organization to take a look at what he could do.

What outfielder Bronson Sardinha has gotten instead is released, unemployed and now, sent back to Double-A.

When Sardinha figured a little change would do him some good, he didn’t mean playing for three different teams at two minor league levels in a matter of two months.

Yet, that is how the New Yankees’ former first-round pick (34th overall in the 2001 draft) ended up in Akron Friday as his newest team opened a weekend series with division-foe Bowie.

“It’s not been a good year,” said the Aeros new right fielder, who finally made his major-league debut in pinstripes last year, batting .333 (3-for-9) in 10 games. “Nothing has gone the way I planned.”

It all began with the gutsy decision to leave the safety net of the Yankees, for whom Sardinha initially began as a strong-armed shortstop before being moved to the outfield.

“One of their main priorities was to get me signed in the off season,” Sardinha, 25, said. “But they had to take me of the 40-man roster for Andy Pettit. But they said they still wanted me, and offered me a pretty good contract. But at the last minute, I decided to go for a change.”

But his first stop at Seattle’s Triple-A Tacoma club didn’t last long, despite Sardinha batting .323 (10-for-31) in seven games. He admits what got him released was his own fault, even if he’s not willing to share the details.

“It was something off the field,” Sardinha said. “A silly mistake on my part.”

After a three-week unwelcomed vacation in Fresno, Ca., (where the Rainiers had been playing when he was suddenly released), the Indians signed Sardinha and sent him to Triple-A Buffalo.

But that stint was also short - 10 games - in which he batted .300 (9-for-30) with two home runs and five RBI before being demoted to Double-A Akron earlier this week.

“I was getting some playing time (in Buffalo), but they had so many outfielders, especially with (Shin-Soo) Choo there on rehab,” Sardinha said. “When they called me in, I’d had a real good game the day before and actually thought maybe they were going to call me up (to Cleveland). I wasn’t expecting coming down here.”

Sardinha’s first thought was that he should just ask for his release. But having just played that waiting game, he reconsidered.

“I like the Indians organization,” said Sardinha, who is batting .143 (2-for-14) with three RBI in three games for the Aeros. “They seem like real good people who care about their players. They advised me not to ask for my release, and told me I’m in a good situation. I just need to relax, get my at-bats and you never know what can happen.”