Many fans who bought tickets to Monday's York Revolution game probably did so to see Roger Clemens in uniform with the Sugar Land Skeeters.

So, one might have gotten confused when a former Houston Astros' and New York Yankees' pitcher started for Sugar Land. It wasn't Clemens, though. Rather, former big leaguer Tim Redding took the hill for the Skeeters. And the right-hander looked every bit the part of an ex-big leaguer, holding York to two runs on four hits in five innings with two walks and two strikeouts.

The effort helped Sugar Land defeat the Revs 7-2 in the first game of a four-game series. It marked York's first loss after sweeping Long Island in a three-game set over the weekend.

"He was throwing 91 on our gun," Revs' manager Andy Etchebarren said of Redding. "And that's probably two or three miles per hour slow. So, he's probably throwing 92 or 94. So, that's pretty good."

Etchebarren said he was somewhat surprised by what he saw out of Redding (3-1), who had pitched affiliated minor-league ball since 2010 before joining Sugar Land (55-66 overall, 26-25 second half) midway through this season. Redding improved his ERA to 2.74 in his fourth start of the year for the Skeeters.

"I had a chance to get him but I looked at his numbers from last year and they were horrible," Etchebarren said. "So sometimes you take a chance and it works and sometimes you take a chance and it doesn't work."

The Revs' offense didn't give the 4,762 fans much to cheer about. York collected six hits to Sugar Land's 15. York wasted a decent start by left-hander Chris Cody (10-13), who gave up four runs on 11 hits in 6 1/3 innings.

"He (Cody) pitched good enough for us to win," Etchebarren said. "When they get 15 hits and you get six, you know what's usually gonna happen? You're gonna lose. Your chances are really good you're gonna lose."

York (64-56, 28-22) fell 5½ games back of Lancaster for first place in the Atlantic League Freedom Division second-half race, but stayed 5½ up on Somerset in the wild-card chase.

Castro: The Revs released infielder Ramon Castro on Sunday, just three days after Etchebarren suspended him indefinitely for an on-the-field incident Aug. 29 at Southern Maryland.

"Listen, over the last three years I have given him more chances to show people that he can hustle," Etchebarren said. "I tried and I'm so tired of it. The last (straw) was in Southern Maryland."

Castro left the Revs over the weekend to return to his home in Venezuela. He leaves York with a .288 average in 105 games this year. It's a drop-off from the .323 average he had with York in 2011 and the .339 average he had with the Revs in 2010.

Etchebarren said he is close to signing a former big-league infielder who will help provide some depth to the Revs' infield.

Next game: York will host Sugar Land on Tuesday, with first pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Revs' left-hander Ryan Feierabend (7-3, 2.16 ERA) will face lefty Scott Kazmir (1-6, 6.39).

- Reach John Walk at jwalk@yorkdispatch.com.