{"id":1266,"date":"2010-07-10T23:51:18","date_gmt":"2010-07-11T03:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/?p=1266"},"modified":"2010-07-25T14:42:02","modified_gmt":"2010-07-25T18:42:02","slug":"the-sea-dog-days-of-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/2010\/07\/10\/the-sea-dog-days-of-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sea Dog Days of Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday, July 10, 2010 – Hadlock Field, Portland<\/h3>\n

Rock Cats 7, Sea Dogs 6<\/h4>\n

The Red Sox were playing their final series before the All-Star break on the road in Toronto, and I hit the road for my annual trip to see the Sea Dogs.\u00a0 It seems every time I go to Portland it rains, and this year was no exception.\u00a0 It poured all the way up, as I listened to a terrible Red Sox loss on the radio in the car.\u00a0 When I got to Portland for the 6:05 game, it was down to a drizzle, but we had to wait through an hour-and-a-half rain delay before finally getting started.<\/p>\n

With top prospect Casey Kelly scheduled to pitch the next day, it was Kyle Weiland’s turn in the rotation for this game.\u00a0 He was one of the prospects I saw<\/a> at the PawSox Hot Stove Party<\/a> in January.\u00a0 I was also familiar with the top four batters in the lineup – centerfielder Che-Hsuan Lin, second baseman Nate Spears, shortstop Yamaico Navarro, and catcher Luis Exposito – from Spring Training.<\/p>\n

\"Kyle

Kyle Weiland started the game for the Sea Dogs.<\/p><\/div>\n

Weiland may have altered his pre-game routine because of the rain delay, or he may be one of those guys who has trouble settling in for the first inning, but whatever the reason, he struggled out of the gate.\u00a0 The first four batters all had hits, and after a double play, the next five batters also reached safely.\u00a0 There was even a wild pitch and a balk thrown in for good measure.\u00a0 The tally at the end of the inning: 5 runs, 7 hits, 2 walks, 3 LOB.<\/p>\n

\"There

There was no rain during the game, and we got to enjoy a beautiful sunset over the "Maine Monster".<\/p><\/div>\n

Weiland made quick work of the New Britain Rock Cats (a Twins affiliate) in the second, retiring the side in order on just 7 pitches.\u00a0 In fact, he stayed in through the fifth, and didn’t allow any baserunners after the first.\u00a0 And while he was keeping the Rock Cats from any further scoring, his teammates were busy taking him off the hook.<\/p>\n

\"Che-Hsuan

Leadoff hitter Che-Hsuan Lin had two hits for the Sea Dogs.<\/p><\/div>\n

Nate Spears hit a 2-run homer in the third inning to get the Sea Dogs on the board.\u00a0 Matt Sheely followed Ray Chang’s double with an RBI triple in the fourth.\u00a0 In the fifth, first baseman Anthony Rizzo came to the plate with a runner on and the Sea Dogs trailing by two.\u00a0 He drilled a long fly down the right field line.\u00a0 It had home run distance but was ruled foul.\u00a0 No problem – he hit the next pitch he saw even deeper, and kept it fair this time, tying the game.<\/p>\n

\"DH

DH Luis Segovia warms up in the on-deck circle. He reached on an error and scored the Sea Dogs' first run.<\/p><\/div>\n

Eammon Portice came on to relieve Weiland in the sixth and struck out the side.\u00a0 In the bottom of the inning, Yamaico Navarro launched a home run into the screen over the left field wall, giving the Sea Dogs a 6-5 lead.\u00a0 It was all good until Portice reached his third inning of work, when he gave up a 2-run homer and the lead.\u00a0 The Sea Dogs had a chance for one last comeback in the bottom of the ninth, with runners at first and second and one out.\u00a0 But Navarro struck out, and cleanup hitter Luis Exposito, who already had 3 hits and a walk, popped up to end the game.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Even

Even though the home team ended up falling short, it was a nice night for baseball at Portland's Hadlock Field.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday, July 10, 2010 – Hadlock Field, Portland Rock Cats 7, Sea Dogs 6 The Red Sox were playing their final series before the All-Star break on the road in Toronto, and I hit the road for my annual trip to see the Sea Dogs.\u00a0 It seems every time I go to Portland it rains, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1266"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1280,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266\/revisions\/1280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}