Sox alive another day

September 27 2011
Well it was off to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the Red Sox vs the Baltimore Orioles. With the Red Sox tied with Tampa Bay for the wild card it was a must win game with 1 to go after this game. The starting pitcher for the Sox was former Orioles starter Erik Bedard. Pitching for Baltimore was lefty Zach Britton. The Orioles scored in the 1st on a Vladimir Guerrero double. Nick Markakis scored from 1st. In the 2nd with O's Adam Jones on 2nd, Ryan Lavarnway (who was starting behind the dish for injured Varitek and Saltimacchia) threw out Jones who attempted to steal third. The Sox got going in the 3rd after a Marco Scutaro double, Jacoby Ellsbury hit his 32nd homer of the season to give the Sox a 2-1 lead. In the top of the 4th Sox came back. After singles by David Ortiz and Adrian Gonzalez, Ryan Lavarnway hit his 1st major league homer to give the Sox a 5-1 lead. Bedard was going good until the 4th when O's catcher Matt Wieters hit a 2 run homer. (5-3 Sox) After a walk and then single Tito went to the mound a took the ball and gave it to Alfredo Aceves. Aceves then got Nolan Reimold to fly to left to end the inning. In the top of the 6th after a Carl Crawford triple Marco Scutaro homerd to give the Sox a 7-3 lead. In the bottom of the 6th Baltimore fought back with a Adam Jones homer cut the lead to 7-4. With the score still 7-4 Ryan Lavarnway hit his second career home run to give the Sox a 8-4 lead. Feel safe. I didn't. So to the 8th inning Daniel Bard enters the game. Bard struggled for much of September (along with much of the Red Sox) Matt Wieters lead off the inning with a single, he got 2 outs. Davis singled scoring Wieters (8-5 Sox), Reimold tripled scoring Davis (8-6 Sox). Finally Bard got out of the inning when he got Andino to fly out to end the inning. So on to the bottom of the 9th Jonathan Papelbon in to close it out. JJ Hardy lead off the inning with a single. Nick Markakis grounded to first runner advanced to second. Vladimir Guerrero singled to left scoring Hardy (8-7 Sox) With Matt Wieters batting he hit a tapper in front of the mound and home and first. He was then thrown out by Lavarnway. (pinch runner Angle advanced to second) With Adam Jones batting and the tying runner on second Adam Jones battled for 11 pitched, but Papelbon got him on a ground out to third. Gave over. So with Tampa beating NY down south the Sox remained tied with tampa for the AL wild card lead with one game to go.
Next Up: Opening day April 12 2012 Sea Dogs vs Binghamton Mets
UPDATE- Sox dropped the next night to blow a nine game lead in the wild card race. Sox season over.

"Turn out the lights, the parties over"

September 5, 2011
Well it all came down to this game... well not really the Sea Dogs have long been out of the race. But, it was the last game of the season. After a loss the previous day the Sea Dogs set a new team record for most losses in a season. But as always they want to end the season on a high note. That did not happen. The Sea Dogs lost 8-3. The starter for Portland was righty Caleb Clay. He lasted 1 plus inning giving up 5 hit on 5 runs. There were highlights for Sea Dogs though. Blake Maxwell pitched 3 scoreless innings in relief. Jeremey Hazelbaker and Oscar Tejeda each hit homeruns. Also making his double a debut was a third baseman named Matt Gedman. He is the son of former Red Sox catcher Rich Gedman. Well could go into long detail of this game, but i don't want to. THe good news is that it was announced that opening day is April 12 next year. Looking forward to that. Hopefully we'll see a playoff bound Sea Dogs team in 2012. We can only hope.
Next up: One more game!!! Boston at Baltimore, September 27 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore

Ugly, Ugly, Ugly

September 3, 2011
It was a cool beautiful Saturday night at Hadlock Field. The Sea Dogs took on the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. Portland coming off a win the previous night are trying to prevent a franchise record 82 losses this season. The Sea Dogs in their 1st season in 1994 had a record 60-81 record. So on to the game. Pitching for Portland was right hander Jeremy Kehrt. New Hampshire second baseman Kevin Howard launched a homer over the Maine Monster to give the 'Cats a 1-0 lead. Moises Sierra then singled. On a pick off throw from Kehrt Dogs first baseman Reynaldo Rodriguez lost it in the sun and Sierra reached second on the error. After a strike out, Mike McDade hit a grounder to Ryan Dent at shortstop but he then threw it past Rodriguez at first for the second error of the inning. Sierra scored on the play and the 'Cats took a 2-0 lead. The game stood 2-0 going into the 4th when John Tolisano hit a 2 run homer to give New Hampshire a 4-0 lead. After another homer givin' up Kehrt in the 5th that was the night for him. New Hampshire scored 2 more in the 6th. They added a 3 run homer in the 7th (Tolisano 2nd of the game). One more homer in the 9th to make the score 11-0. There was just about no offense for the Sea Dogs. They only managed 4 hits in the game. 2 were by 1b Reynaldo Rodriguez. So Portland tied a record that they were hoping would not be tied. Most losses in franchise history. Next loss will set a new record.
Next Up: Last Sea Dogs game of the year, Mon Sept 5