Dogs Take Finale from Connecticut

The Sea Dogs broke a three game losing streak and took the finale of a five-game series against the Connecticut Defenders with a convincing 10-1 victory on Sunday afternoon. It was another sweltering hot day at Hadlock Field and balls were flying around the park, at least while the Sea Dogs were at bat. Portland scored early and often, posting four runs in the bottom of the first and extending the lead to nine runs in the bottom of the sixth. Of course, no lead seems to be too big for the Sea Dogs to blow lately, at least while I'm in attendance. However, Luis Mendoza was in command throughout. He overcame errors that put the first two batters of the ballgame on base, and managed to finish seven innings with seven strikeouts and only one run allowed to collect his first AA win. Mike Bumatay pitched the last two innings for Portland. He struck out the final four batters he faced as the home plate ump was clearly ready to shower up after sweating for 2 1/2 hours. Chad Spann (2B, 2 3B, 4 RBI), Luis "Li'l Papi" Jimenez (2B, 3B, HR, 3 RBI) and Brandon Moss (4-5, 3 runs scored) swung the big sticks for Portland as they pounded Connecticut starter Geo Espinelli for nine runs in 4+ innings pitched.

Job well done.

Notes:

• This was my first look at Jacoby Ellsbury (shown batting above), who was recently promoted from Wilmington. Ellsbury is ranked as Boston's #3 prospect by Soxprospects.com, and he has hit the ground running, hitting .450 (9-20) after today's 2-5, 2 run effort. Ellsbury has good speed, hits the ball with authority (at least he did so today), and covers a lot of ground in the outfield. He was compared to Johnny Damon when Boston drafted him last year, and the comparison looks apt.
• Mendoza sported a low-90's fastball that he located well today, as well as a nice changeup that resulted in a handfull of called strike threes.
• After Spann hit his second triple of the afternoon in the fourth inning, we decided that if he managed a home run before the game finished that we would award him with a "Yahtzee" cycle. In the game of Yahtzee, a player can use a second Yahtzee of the game to fill in a lower box. Using that logic, we were ready to credit one of his triples as a single to complet the cycle. Alas, the home run never came.
• Li'l Papi was also just a single away from a cycle following his fifth inning triple, but he struck out in his final plate appearance.
• Dunkin' Donuts gave away some god-forsaken, headache-inducing noisemakers before the game. Gone are the days when it's satisfactory to make noise with one's hands and one's voice. Now we need cheap plastic crap with a corporate logo on it to make the noise for us. Feh!