Wild one at Hadlock

August 19 2010 - #17 vs Altoona
Lets see where to begin with this one. Starting for Portland on this sunny day was righthander Kyle Weiland. After retiring the leadoff hitter Josh Harrison hit his 2nd homer of the season. 1-0 Altoona. 2nd inning Weiland could not find the strikezone walking 3 batters in a row. Then facing the number 9 hitter for Altoona got a base hit driving in one. Next batter hit a sac fly to drive in another run. 3-0 Altoona.
Josh Harrison who hit is 2nd homer earlier came up again and hit his 3rd homer of the season! 6-0 Altoona. Not looking good. But the Sea Dogs bats would wake up. In the bottom of the 4th inning Nate Spears came up and hit a 2 run homerun to make the score 6-2. Portland would continue to chip away the score. Anthonoy Rizzo would come up in the 6th hit a solo homerun to make the score 6-3.
Going into the bottome of the 7th. Altoona starter done after 5 innings the Portland bats exploded scoring 6 runs. Including a grand slam from Anthony Rizzo that went over the left-centerfield scoreboard. Luis Exposito hit a homer after Rizzo's slam. This inning however got started on a solo homer from dh Ryan Lavarnway. So 10 batters batted in the 7th, 6 hits, 6 runs, 3 homeruns. Score stood now at 9-6 in favor of Portland.
Things got a little interesting in the top of the 8th Ryne Reynoso was the pitcher for Portland. After a strikeout he gave up a single and double then a sac fly to make the score 9-7. Then Kris Watts of Altoona hit a fly ball to rightfield that looked like it was going to end the inning. But was lost in the sun. Portland rightfielder Chih Hsien Chang could not make the play as it fell. After a hit by pitch and another single to drive in another run for Altoona the score stood at 9-8 Portland.
Things settled down in the 9th as Reynoso recorded the final 3 outs 1-2-3 to end the game. Final score Portland 9 Altoona 8.
Next up: Possibly Aug 29 Portland at New Hampshire

Good game from Alex Wilson

August 17 2010 - #16 - vs Altoona
On the same day Dustin Pedoria came off the DL for the Boston Red Sox, the Portland Sea Dogs got shortstop Jose Iglesias back on the field. Iglesias who sufferd a wrist injury on May 9 had not played in a game since. The Sea Dogs took on the Altoona Curve to begin a 3 game series. The AA affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates are have a good season. (1st place in the Western Division of the Eastern League) Starting for the Sea Dogs was right hander Alex Wilson. Wilson for the first 3 1/3 did not allow a hit. Consistantly fastball in the mid 90's. Wilson gave up his 1st hit in the 4th on a bunt single by Curve 3b Josh Harrison.
Meanwhile offensively things looked good for the Sea Dogs early on. Top of the 1st Ray Chang hit his 9th homer of the season. After singles from Luis Exposito and Anthony Rizzo, Ryan Lavarnway flied to right field to end the inning. In the second inning Portland got on the boared again on a rbi single from Che-Hsuan Lin. Portland loaded the bases with but with two out Luis Exposito flied to leftfield to end the inning. In the top of the 4th inning after the bunt single from Harrison with 2 out Wilson gave up a long double to Jordy Mercer then a rbi single to catcher Hector Gimenez.
In the 5th with a runner on second Wilson gave up a rbi single to Jim Negrych. That made the score 3-2 Altoona. After a 1-2-3 inning in the 6th Alex Wilson's night was done. Despite giving 3 runs in the 4th and 5th. Wilson did look good pitching 6 inings 5 hits 3 runs 2 walks 3 strikeouts. Offensivly the Sea Dogs could not rally againsed the Curve pitching. Portland would end the game with a 4-2 loss. Iglesias who played in his 1st game since coming of the DL went 1-5 but made several nice played in the field.
Next up: Aug 19 vs Altoona 12pm game

Dogs fall just short

August 5, 2010 vs Bowie (game #15)
A hot muggy but cloudy afternoon at Hadlock Field. The Sea Dogs played the Bowie Baysox in the 3rd game of a 3 game series. It started out rough for Portland starting pitcher Jeremey Khert. First two batters for Bowie got on base with a single and double. Khert then got Tyler Henson and Joel Guzman to fly out and ground out. Then thirdbaseman Brandon Waring singled in 2 runs. After a walk and then hit by pitch Khert got Adam Donachie to fly out to end the inning.
Bowie got another run on the boared with a rbi single from Joel Guzman. In the bottom of the 4th inning Portland scored on a sacrifice fly from Will Vazquez. With the Baysox leading 4-1 in the bottom of the 6th Portland scored 2 runs on a 2 run double from secondbaseman Nate Spears. (who went 3-5 in the game)
Going in to the bottom of the ninth Bowie closer Pedro Beato got Ray Chang to fly to left, Ryan Lavarnway ground to third, and Anthony Rizzo to pop to shortstop to end the game. Well if your looking for my pictures from this game, you won't find any. I forgot to put the camera in the backpack. So no pics for this one.
Next up: Possibley Pawtucket Red Sox Aug 18

Dogs get the bats out

August 3, 2010
Well back at Hadlock for this game. The Sea Dogs are playing the Bowie Baysox in the start of 3 game series. Starting for the Sea Dogs was righthander Stephen Fife. Going into the game the last few starts Fife had been struggling. It showed for 3 innings in this game. In the first inning he gave up 3 hits on 1 run. Would have worse but Bowie firstbaseman Joe Mahoney grounded into a double play to end the inning. The Sea Dogs anwered a run of their own in the bottom of the inning with Nate Spears lining a double to rightfield scoring Che-Hsuan Lin who led off the inning with single.
Stephen Fife struggled with his command for the next two innings. His totals for the game looked like this 3 innings 8 hits 5 runs 3 walks 3 stikeouts. Going into the bottom of the 3rd Portland was trailing 5-1. After singles by Ray Chang and Luis Expsito, Anthony Rizzo hit a double scoring Chang. 2 batters later Ryan Khoury singled in Exposito and Rizzo. In the bottom of the 4th Anthony Rizzo came up again with runners on 2nd and 3rd. Rizzo then ripped a double off the rightfield fence scoring both runners to give Portland a 6-5 lead.
Blake Maxwell came in and pitched 3 innings and held Bowie only to one run while striking out 2. In the bottom of the 6th Portland batted around the order scoring 5 runs on 5 hits. It was an inning where Portland had 2 doubles, 1 triple and 2 singles. Afer scoring 2 more runs in the 7th inning Portland had a 14-6 lead. Bowie scored 2 more runs but it was meaningless Portland ended up winning
14-8. Good way to start the homestand.
Next up August 5: Day game againsed Bowie