Theo and I watch the Sea Dogs

(Not together, of course.)

I am the freaking kiss of death lately! By my figuring, the team that I root for has lost the last NINE baseball games that I have attended in person (eight for the Sea Dogs, one for the Red Sox). The last time I watched my team collect the W was back on Mother’s Day (May 8), and on that day a) it rained throughout the game and b) I was an eyewitness to an auto accident that sent a guy to the emergency room.

I may have to examine what’s going on inside me. I have some seriously bad karma going on!

At least I wasn’t alone in watching this last one. Over 6,800 people showed up for Curt Schilling bobblehead night (I arrived early but too late to collect one, of course, leaving myself with more than an hour to kill before the game started and with no Schilling head to bobble). Most notable of the attendees was one Theo Epstein, GM of the Red Sox, who was seated just a couple of sections away from me in the box seats behind the plate. He was working throughout the game (on the phone, taking notes, etc.), but seemed to be enjoying himself, too. Except for a lot of what was happening on the field, of course, as the Sea Dogs lost 9-5 in 11 innings. Theo bailed after 10, so he missed Trenton’s winning rally.

Theo may have timed his visit to coincide with top pitching prospect Jon Papelbon. What he saw after the first inning was not vintage Papelbon. (In the first, big Jon struck out the side while surrendering a mammoth home run to Eric Crozier. This was vintage inning). Papelbon fell behind a lot of batters and was allowing solid contact to most batters he faced before being knocked out in the middle of the 5th. For the night Papelbon allowed five runs on 7 hits, walking four and striking out four in 4 1/3 innings pitched in raising his ERA to 2.67. After the game he spoke of some discomfort in his thigh, but he did not blame that for his performance on the evening.

The bullpen pitched well, shutting out the Thunder until the 11th when Phil Devey suffered the loss with a tough-luck four run inning (if a four-run inning can be attributed to "tough luck"), aided by an unlucky bounce on a groundball and a questionable "safe" call at the plate on a throw from Brandon Moss that beat the runner by about ten feet. For his effort, Theo did see a nice game by Dustin Pedroia, who was 1-3 with a walk, HBP, and game-tying two run home run on the night. Still, Trenton left 15 runners on base on the night. It could have been a lot worse as Portland continued it's string of sloppy play.

Scorers Notes:

• Once-and-future top prospect David Murphy also had a nice game with two RBI singles. Murphy's stats are still quite poor (646 OPS), but he's had some timely hits and is now third on the team with 35 RBI.
• Trenton third baseman Eric Duncan, one of the Yankees' top prospects, had a pretty good game. Duncan has struggled some with AA pitching (as could be expected - at 20 years old he's quite young for the Eastern League) with a 708 OPS on the season, but he's got some plate discipline (38 walks, .098 IsoD). This was on display with his four free passes earned on the evening. With 8 homers and a .130 IsoP on the season, he's also got good power potential.
• Chris Durbin, Brandon Moss and Stefan Bailie were a combined 0-14 with one walk (Moss) and 10 strikeouts. This was Moss' second four K game in the last five, Durbin is 0-for the homestand (20 at bats and counting), and Bailie is about as automatic an out as you can be these days (135/194/260 on the season). The guy hit .309 with a .954 OPS in 37 games for Portland last season and now he can barely put the bat on the ball. In five plate appearances last night, he was down in the count 0-2 four times (and 1-2 the other at bat). It's like watching a pitcher at the plate, only he never bunts.
• Trenton has a guy named Shelley on the team - first baseman Shelly Duncan. He's 6'5", 215 lbs, so I'm guessing he doesn't get teased about his name all that much. He cleared the monster with his league-leading 18th home run last night.
• Old friend Marc Valdes returned to the Hadlock mound last night and collected the win in relief. Valdes, who pitched in Japan over the last couple of seasons, is one of the most successful pitchers in Portland Sea Dogs history. He was 14-6 with a 2.59 ERA in two stints with Portland in 1994 and 1996.
• Randy Beam pitched an inning and a third, and wasn't quite what I expected. Slow and slower is his repertoire, with a 68 mph curve and 77 mph change. He's like Jamie Moyer out there. His fastball is mediocre, topping out at about 87, but it looks lightning quick on the rare occasion that he throws it (he really uses the fastball like most pitchers do their offspeed stuff). The Thunder made good contact on him twice, both times on the fast ball. So far he's had success everywhere he's gone, and there's no reason to expect otherwise at AA.