Dogs end brutal homestand.

For the 10th time in a row, I attended a game that the home team lost. This time it was a 7-1 loss for the Sea Dogs at the hands of the Trenton Thunder. The Sea Dogs were never in this game. Eric Duncan hit a three run home run in the first inning off Chris Smith and the Thunder were never threatened thereafter. Overall Trenton batters hit four home runs on the night, accounting for all of their runs. Portland finally pushed across a run on a passed ball in the sixth inning. The Sea Dogs finished their homestand with a 1-6 record. Now they are off on a brief road trip to Norwich before they return next week for our first look at the Altoona Curve and a return match against Norwich over the 4th of July weekend.

Scorer's Notes:

• This was my first-ever look at Chris Smith, and it wasn't a pretty one. Smith, who pitched very well for the Sea Dogs in the first half of last season before a shoulder injury sidelined him, has lost arm strength and is relying on a lot of slow stuff. It sometimes works (5 K's in 4 IP), but he's getting hit hard (5.20 ERA). Many pitchers come back from surgery and eventually throw harder than they did before, so there is still hope for Smith, but as of right now he's not a premier pitcher.
• After he was so hot for about a month, Brandon Moss has been painful to watch. Last night was his third 0-4, 4 K night in a week (yep, I saw them all). Moss was overeager at the plate, getting himself behind in the count by swinging at pitches out of the strike zone and not really giving himself a chance to succeed. For the homestand, Moss was 4-28 with 16 strikeouts.
• Stefan Bailie avoided an 0-17 homestand with a cue-shot single that spun past the first baseman in the 7th inning. He's looked worse than Moss at the plate, but sometimes it's a little thing like this that gets a guy going.
• Red Sox owner John Henry was apparently at the game, but I don't think he was in the crowd like Theo was the other night. He can't have enjoyed what he saw, but I'm glad that Boston's management is taking the time to visit Portland.
• Dustin Pedroia was 3-8 with a walk, two doubles and three runs scored in his first two games for Pawtucket.
• In a move unlikely to help the offense, Portland and Pawtucket swapped backup catchers, with Jeff Bailey going South (and up to AAA) and Jim Buckley returning to Portland. Buckley was 6-38 against AAA pitching.