Smith Struggles, but Wins

Chris Smith clearly did not have his best stuff Wednesday night, but he showed some mettle in working out of several jams and the Portland offense eventually kicked in for a 7-3 Sea Dogs victory. Smith cruised through the first inning with two strikeouts before loading the bases in the second. He escaped that jam by striking out the 8th and 9th batters in the lineup. Smith struggled through the next three innings, working without a good fastball, falling behind batters and allowing early baserunners, but getting the Defenders to swing at a lot of curveballs in the dirt. Smith struck out the final batter in both the third and fifth inning with runners in scoring position. Smith unexpectedly came out to pitch the sixth and set Connecticut down 1-2-3. His final stat line is misleadingly good: 6 innings, 7 hits, 2 runs, 2 walks and 8 strikeouts. It was a gutty performance from a guy who is battling with Kason Gabbard for the title of staff ace. Smith improved his record to 8-3 with a 2.32 ERA on the season.

The Sea Dogs couldn't get much going off Connecticut starter Gen0 Espineli. However the Defender lefty, who spent the entire season in the bullpen before last night's start, was lifted in the fifth innig following a Luis Jimenez triple, having thrown 65 pitches. Reliever Scott Munter provided no relief, as he immediately walked the bottom two batters in the Portland order to load the bases for Tyler Minges. Minges obliged with a bases-clearing double to give Portland the lead. Brandon Moss followed with a double of his own to knock in the fourth run. Following a Chad Spann strikeout, Munter looked to be out of the inning when Jeremy West hit a fly to left, however LF Alex Requeno inexplicable dropped the routine play, allowing Moss to score. Portland cruised from that point on.

Notes:

• Moss continues to swing the hot bat with two doubles last night. However his three strikeouts on the evening raise a red flag.
• Another red flag is up for El Guapo Jr., who has been struggling a bit of late. I'm used to seeing Guapo throw 93-95 mph fastballs for strikes. However he struggled with control in his appearance last night, walking the bases loaded before escaping on a hard shot by Brian Busher that Moss was able to corral in deep right. Guapo's fastball was around 90. The few times he did dial it up to 93, the pitches were up and out of the zone. He's still new to pitching. Perhaps he's in an adjustment period, but I suspect that he has a tired arm.
• Busher has had a terrific series so far, starting with his three hit effort on Monday. He had two more hits last night, including a home run, and is 6-11 in the three games.
• Chad Spann was charged with a tough error in the second. He needed to keep his throw low enough so that Jimenez wouldn't lose it in the sun. Instead, it skipped past Li'l Papi for an error.
• Defenders reliever Joe Bateman slings it sidearm, just like another Joe who used to patrol the youth league mounds of Western Maine about 25-30 years ago. Whatever happened to that guy? He had pretty good stuff!