Dogs sweep Cats

The Portland Sea Dogs completed a three-game sweep of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats with a crisp 3-0 victory on Sunday afternoon. Denney Tomori was very impressive in outdueling Josh Banks. Tomori allowed just four base hits while striking out six in 6.2 innings, and picked up his first victory as a Sea Dog. Banks, who was pitching very strong at the beginning of the season but has struggled a bit lately, was undone by a couple of errors by first baseman Chip Cannon in a three run fourth inning. The game was completed in a quick two hours and ten minutes. Portland now leads second place Trenton, which was swept by the Akron Aeros, by three games. New Hampshire has now lost ten games in a row and sits four games below .500.

Scorer's Notes:

• Tomori can throw in the low 90's, but he's really a junkball pitcher at heart. Slinging the ball with a sidearm delivery, he's reminiscent of Luis Tiant in that he throws a variety of pitches at a of speeds in a variety of locations. The batter simply cannot guess what is coming next, especially when Tomori is throwing them all for strikes. When a pitcher gets a strikeout, I note what pitch was thrown for strike three. For a couple of Tomori's K's, however, I had to append a question mark. I know it was 73 mph, which is the speed of his curveball, but it didn't look like a curveball. Slow change? I dunno.
• Josh Banks was also very impressive. His out pitch is his changeup, which was responsible for three of his five K's on the afternoon. Banks didn't walk anybody and gave up five hits in allowing just one earned run in six innings pitched.
• Jim Mann put an exclamation point on the fine pitching for the afternoon. Recently rescued from the independent Nashua Pride and now the Portland closer, Mann struck out the Fisher Cats on just ten pitches to finish the game.
• Jim Buckley was the offensive hero for the Sea Dogs with two hits, a stolen base, and the only RBI of the game. The steal was a peculiar one, as he was running on a failed hit and run. Buckley practically came to a stop between first and second, hoping to get into a rundown with Brandon Moss on third base, but Erik Kratz held on to the ball and Buckley strolled into second base.