Return Trip
Saturday, July 22, 2017 – Hadlock Field, Portland
Yard Goats 5, Sea Dogs 0
Usually I only make it to one Sea Dogs game a year, but this year I had a second one. It came only two weeks after the first, but my return didn’t come soon enough to see top prospect Rafael Devers, who had already been promoted to Pawtucket.
Today’s starter was Roenis Elias, who was actually on a rehab assignment for an intercostal strain after spending most of the year in Pawtucket. Although the first batter of the game reached on an error, he was erased on a double play. In the second, another Portland error meant another baserunner, but Elias got out of it with two fly balls and a strikeout. In the third, he allowed a solo homer, then a walk and a balk, before getting the next two batters out. He was lifted with two outs in the third, after having thrown 47 pitches, most likely because he had a limit of 50 pitches for the rehab start.
Elias was replaced by Teddy Stankiewicz, whose normal turn it was to start. He finished the third, and pitched the next 5-2/3 innings. Along the way he gave up one run on back-to-back triples in the seventh. The Sea Dogs offense, though, reminded me a bit too much of their big league brethren. All eight hits they got were singles, and they couldn’t put enough of them together to knock in any runs. Shortstop Chad De La Guerra, DH Michael Chavis, and catcher Jake Romanski each had two hits, with Danny Mars and Jeremy Barfield accounting for the others.
Stankiewicz left with one out and one on in the top of the ninth. The Sea Dogs only trailed by two runs at the time, but it was about to get worse. Three hits later, three runs were in, and the home team now trailed by five.
Two weeks ago, the 6:00 game had been so short (just over two hours) that it was still light out when we left. This time it was closer to a three hour game, and the sun was setting a little earlier now. Even though the afternoon started out overcast, we were treated to a pretty sky in the late innings. It’s too bad the quality of play couldn’t have equaled the setting.