Playoff spot still in Limbo.

Barring a tragic meltdown on their part, the Sea Dogs will make the EL playoffs this season. The celebration has to wait another day, however, as Portland's magic number to eliminate the New Britain Rock Cats remains at one following a 3-2 loss to Altoona Tuesday night. New Britain's game last night was rained out. The Dogs did edge closer to the division title, however, as the Trenton Thunder were defeated by Norwich, reducing the magic number for the division to three games. Brandon Moss went 4-4 with a home run on the night, and David Pauley had another fine pitching performance wasted. Pauley allowed all three runs in 6+ innings pitched. Portland and Altoona go at it again tonight, weather permitting. Dr. Jekyll makes the start for the Sea Dogs.

In other news, a couple of roster moves were made over the last couple of days. Raul Nievez, who will be playing for Puerto Rico in the World Championship, was put on the inactive list and replaced by Barry Hertzler. Pitching mostly in relief, Hertzler had a 4.21 ERA and 1.25 WHIP in 83.1 innings for Wilmington, recording 58 strikeouts vs. 24 walks. Herzler pitched two shutout innings in his Sea Dog debut on Saturday. Also, Charlie Zink was promoted to Pawtucket to make an emergency start (I believe in the place of Abe Alvarez, who went up to Boston for a couple of days). Taking his roster spot (but in reality replacing Nievez) was infielder Zach Borowiak. Borowiak was hitting 254/330/416-11-59 in 114 games for the Blue Rocks.

As for the most anticipated roster move, the callup of Craig Hansen - that hasn't happened as of this writing. According to Soxprospects.com, he's been shut down with a tired arm. So maybe he won't be promoted after all.