Dogs lose first game to Cats

The Sea Dogs lost the first game of the three-day showdown with the NH Fisher Cats, 4-2 Monday night. The weather was good, mild temps and very little wind – a welcome change from the recent games that I have attended. The game turned out to be a nifty pitchers duel between the #3 guys for each team – David Pauley for Portland and Ismael Ramirez for New Hampshire. I think that both of these guys are pretty decent prospects, and they seem to have similar games: fastball around 90 mph, breaking stuff (looked like a slider for Ramirez, whereas Pauley’s got a curve), a mixture of speeds. Ramirez was fun to watch as he slings the ball with a three-quarters delivery and keeps hitters off balance (a lot of popups from the Dogs last night). He also throws a little harder than Pauley, topping out at 92 on the admittedly balky radar display.

Pauley was a nice pickup for the Red Sox. He’s got good control and he’s done a good job handling AA pitching, and although I wouldn’t call him dominant, he doesn’t get himself into trouble, either. The trade that acquired Pauley was a good one for the Sox. They gave up a utility guy in Dave Roberts – 4th outfielder and pinch runner who wasn’t going to play a whole lot, and in return they got a similar player in Jay Payton (who has more power and hits from the right side), a versatile backup infielder in Ramon Vasquez, and Pauley, who has a chance to be a good mid-to-back of the rotation starter in a few years. I don’t think that he has the upside of Papelbon or Lester, but he’s definitely a guy who could be helpful in the future.

Scorer’s notes:

After looking like he was going to feast on AA pitching, Jared "The Wicket" Sandberg is in a sluuummppppp! He’s been striking out a lot and not making good contact at all (two foul pop outs last night). Maybe it’s the cold weather, but his poor hitting combined with his shaky defense (12 errors at third base, hence the nickname) have certainly been detrimental in the last couple of weeks. The offense in general would benefit from somebody in the lower half of the order getting hot. The top 4 (Ramirez, Pedroia, Durbin and West) continue to get on base a lot, but the rest of the lineup hasn’t been coming through. Jeff Bailey was one of the best hitters on the team last year, but hasn’t found his groove yet. Brandon Moss is a top prospect who has yet to hit. Stefan Bailie just returned to the lineup. When these guys start to hit like we know that they can, this is going to look like Boston North this summer.

The Sea Dogs actually "manufactured" a run in the first inning. Ramirez singled, was sacrificed to second by Pedroia (he was clearly bunting for a hit, but the scorer gave him a sac anyway), stole third and scored with some aggressive baserunning on a ground ball to a drawn-in second baseman. They used a lot of small ball strategies last season when they didn’t have the bats, but we haven’t seen a lot of it this year, especially with the top of the lineup. Portland’s been in a bit of an offensive funk lately and they were facing a good pitcher, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. And it’s fun to watch, though I don’t think that giving up outs in the first inning is really the best strategy.

Portland scored in the first two innings and looked like they were going to get to Ismael Ramirez like they have other top pitchers. Then David Murphy was picked off second base by the catcher to end the second inning, and the Dogs lost all momentum. They had just two more base runners all night, one of whom was erased on a stolen base attempt.