Sea Dogs win Home Finale

The Portland Sea Dogs played their final home game of the regular season on Sunday afternoon and sent the crowd home happy with a 5-2 victory over the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. This was the 14th consecutive victory by Portland over New Hampshire, which is a franchise record. The Sea Dogs magic number to win the division is now 5.

Neither starting pitcher lasted long in this one. Portland's Anibal Sanchez pitched effectively, allowing two hits and two walks while striking out five in 3 1/3 innings before leaving with an undisclosed injury. Randy Beam, Conor Brooks and Jim Mann allowed two runs over the final 5.2 IP to lock down the victory. On the other side of the diamond, David Purcey was ineffective for the Fishers. He pitched just two innings and never had command of his stuff, allowing three runs on four hits, four walks, one hit batsman and two wild pitches. Three New Hampshire relievers pitched effectively over the final six innings.

Scorer's Notes:

• Apparently Slugger the Sea Dog rolled his ATV during his entrance on Saturday night, and we had a "backup" slugger for today. As a result, much of the schtick was missing - no ATV, no YMCA, no chicken dance, and very little cavorting with the children in the ball park. We hope that the primary slugger isn't badly injured.
• Scott Youngbauer had two more hits for the Sea Dogs. He's posted a .909 OPS since being recalled from Wilmington on July 22, providing a huge spark at the top of the lineup. Hanley Ramirez appears to enjoy batting behind Youngbauer, as he also had another two hit game.
• Chad Spann collected his first two AA hits, with a fly ball into no man's land down the left field line and an infield single deep to the shortstop hole. Chris Durbin was the fourth Portland batter with two hits in the game.
• For their part, New Hampshire had three batters put up two-hit games: Ryan Roberts, Ron Davenport (two doubles) and Chip Cannon.
• The Sea Dogs pulled a rare double steal in the bottom of the fifth, with catcher Alberto Concepcion being the unlikely lead on the play. Spann stole second behind him.
• While there was little Slugger, a person who appeared to be the Portland High School Bulldogs mascot was seated back in section 303 or so.
• I scored the game with Nick, but we were joined by Colin, who is my normal Sunday scoring partner. Colin took it easy and enjoyed the game, never feeling the need to ask if he could score an inning or two for old times sake.