Big Night at Hadlock

There was electricity in the Hadlock air from the beginning of last night’s game, due to the presence of Red Sox hero Bronson Arroyo who was on hand to sign copies of his new CD following a noontime concert in Portland. The excitement was heightened as the capacity crowd noted the presence of Red Sox GM Theo Epstein in the box seats behind home plate. But it was the terrific pitching, highlighted by the AA debut of top draft pick Craig Hansen, that stole the show in Portland’s 3-2 victory over Norwich. Jon Lester got the start for the Sea Dogs and pitched well, though there were a couple of bumpy innings that built up his pitch count. He left after striking out all three batters in the sixth inning, finishing with 8K’s while allowing just three hits and two walks. One of the hits was a home run, while the other run allowed was unearned.

Edgar Martinez made it six K’s in a row in the seventh inning and allowed just one walk in two innings pitched. That set the stage for Hansen, the first round pick out of St. John’s who fell to Boston as other teams were concerned about his signability. Hansen, who is considered to be nearly major league-ready, was as advertised in featuring a 95/96 mph fastball. He struck out the first batter he faced and allowed a bloop single before retiring the side, throwing just 9 pitches (all strikes) in the process. Hansen only threw one offspeed pitch, a slider in the upper 80’s, and appeared entirely not flustered by the occasion. While it’s not enough of a sample to base any conclusions on, it was certainly an impressive debut, and it’s nice to see yet another live arm in the Red Sox system.

Scorer's Notes:

• Martinez (El Guapo Jr.) continues to impress. He gets his fastball into the mid 90’s and is developing an effective changeup. He throws everything for strikes, which is impressive for a guy who just started pitching a year ago. Three of his four K’s last night came on changeups.
• Scott Youngbauer continues to enjoy playing for Portland. He was 3-4 last night with a two run triple, and he scored the third run on a throwing error on David Murphy's ground ball. Youngbauer has now appeared in 21 games for the Sea Dogs and is hitting 324/359/635-3-12 with five triples as well. A solid defender, Youngbauer has been an unexpected sparkplug for Portland since his recall.
• Alfredo Simon did not at all resemble the struggling prospect that I wrote about yesterday. Simon pitched two innings in relief, allowing two hits and striking out three. He was throwing 95-97 mph fastballs and getting outs on his slider. Everything was down in the zone, as he allowed only groundballs to be put into play. Sea Dogs batters didn’t get a lot of comfortable swings off him.
• Theo chose a more incognito look last night than in his previous appearance in Portland, though he was still easily recognizable despite the ball cap pulled down low. When he was here a couple of months ago, Jon Papelbon had perhaps his worst outing of the year. Lester, fortunately, did not suffer the same fate.