Wild Sunday at Hadlock

Even Slugger was exhausted by the end of this one.

OK, so it's taken me two days to recover and post about Sunday's game between the Sea Dogs and the Thunder. It was a wild one - 14 innings, 60 baserunners (34 hits, 20 walks, 3 HPP, 3 ROE), 27 of whom ended up scoring; 5 total errors, three combacks, one at bat by a pitcher, and several players out of position at the end of the game. Oh, and five and a half hours of playing time. I was joined by my buddy Ralph, with whom I took in the game in Portland, Oregon a couple of moths ago. Portland to Portland - it seemed like such a good idea! However, Ralph could only stick around for four hours before leaving to catch a ferry. That seemed like plenty of time, but unfortunately he only caught the first nine innings. He saw a lot of baseball, but missed all of the lunacy at the end.

In the end (not that Ralph saw this), Trenton simply threw in the towel and conceded the game to Portland, putting infielder JT Stotts on the mound in a tie ballgame rather than further tax their bullpen. The empty bullpen, combined with injury and and an already shorthanded bench, led to a truly bizarre lineup taking the field for Trenton in the bottom of the 14th. Stotts had already made one position change in the game, moving from third to shortstop when starting shortstop Felix Escalona was injured while attempting to score on a base hit in the 12th. DH Eric Duncan took over at third at that time, putting the pitcher into the batting order. When Stotts took the mound in the 14th, Gabe Lopez moved from second base to SS, and left fielder Justin Christian moved to second base. To fill the spot in left field, Trenton Manager Bill Masse chose Matt DeSalvo, who was the starting pitcher on Friday night.

Stotts managed to retire David Bacani to lead off the 14th, but then walked two and hit a batter to load the bases before Brandon Moss ended matters with a fly ball off the left field wall that went down as a long single that scored Portland's 14th run for the victory. This concluded an extremely unlikely series of events that saw Portland blow a big lead for the second time in three games.

This time the Sea Dogs sped out to a 9-run lead, primarily courtesy of a 7-run second that knocked out Trenton starter Danny Borrell, and were cruising ahead 11-2 with ace Chris Smith on the mound. Dusty Brown had two two-run doubles to pace Portland's offense. Smith quickly lost it in the 6th, however, allowing a walk and four consecutive doubles before being replaced. Kyle Jackson, recently recalled from Greenville, proceeded to walk the next three batters, forcing in a run, and allowed a run-scoring single to Bronson Sardinha to cut the lead to 11-8.

In the 7th, Justin Christian scored while stealing third base for the second time in three games, this time on a Dusty Brown throwing error. Then in the 8th Trenton took the lead on a Randy Ruiz two-run homer and an RBI single by Christian. Meanwhile, Charlie Manning was throwing 3 2/3 innings of shutout relief. It looked bad for the Sea Dogs when Trenton closer Justin Pope took the mound with two outs in the 8th, however the home team rallied to tie it on Tyler Minges' double in the bottom of the 9th. Pope managed to strand Minges on third to send things into extra innings.

Things moved pretty quickly from there until Escalona reached on an error in the 12th, however he tried to score on a single by Omir Santos, but was gunned down by RF Bryan Pritz to end the threat. Trenton did score in the 13th on a couple of walks and a single by Bronson Sardinha (his fifth hit of the night). Jonathan Searles walked Eric Duncan to load the bases before pitcher Scott Patterson was forced to bat. He struck out to diffuse the rally. However, in an unusual move, he was then taken out of the game (I think we saw the Portland Beavers do this, too) in favor of Jeff Kennard, another Thunder pitcher having a terrific season. He too blew the save, however, allowing a long home run by Chris Durbin leading off the bottom of the 13th.

With blown saves by their two best relievers in the books for the game, Trenton then decided that 5:30 was enough playing time and called it an afternoon with Stotts on the mound. According to the game notes, the 27 total runs and 5 hour 30 minute playing time were both Sea Dogs franchise records.

Notes:

• Too much wierdness for notes.