Marathon/Washout

So what's the best thing for a guy trying to recover from an illness? How about 14 innings in 40-degree weather? That was the scenario Friday night, after I bagged out of the game on Thursday evening. It was a close game that the Dogs ultimately lost on Edgar Gonzalez' shot over the left field wall in the top of the 14th, the only black mark on 9 innings of solid relief by the Portland bullpen. The Harrisburg bullpen was just a little bit better, throwing nine shutout innings of their own.

Scorers Notes:

• This was my first time seeing knuckleballer Charlie Zink. He was OK after two real good starts. This was nice to see, after all of the troubles he had in Portland last spring. Zink walked three and struck out six, and didn't allow the Senators to make a lot of solid contact. The only complaint - Zink gets real slow with runners on base.
• Alberto Concepcion had a tough night at the plate, going 1-6 with 5 K's.
• Senators reliever Chris Schroder threw three perfect innings with six strikeouts to lead the Harrisburg bullpen. The Senators staff struck out 20 Sea Dogs on a tough night to hit. (Portland struck out 16 Senators).
• 4 hours and 16 minutes is a long time to sit when you're sick. It's also a long time to sit if you're a parent who has promised post-game fireworks to your kid. By the 11th inning, these kids were being sustained by Sea Dogs Biscuits (ice cream) in the 40-degree weather, and were just wild with the sugar. Lots of fun, I'm sure. They appeared to set off the fireworks about as fast as humanly possible - the sky was filled with sparkles for about 5 minutes at about 10:30 Friday. Short and sweet - unlike the game itself.

Mother nature proved that she had a bit of compassion. I was scheduled to work both weekend games, but they were washed out (Saturday's after I arrived at the ballpark). Though I always like to watch the games, keeping score sheets in the rain is difficult, and I wasn't particularly looking forward to it. Because this was Harrisburg's only trip to Portland this summer, the games will apparently have to be made up in Harrisburg when the Dogs are out there this summer.