Mets beat Defs 4-1 at Dodd tonight...

Tyler Von Schell homers in his 2007 Defs debut in the bottom of the 9th for the only Connecticut run. Nick Pereira takes the loss. Velez steals his 27th base and Klink gets a pair of hits. Only 3200 in house?

Defs fall 5-4 in Portland............

Eugenio Velez, Trey Webb, John Bowker (double, 2 run HR), Steve Holm (7th HR), and Simon Klink all had two hits each. But they leave 13 runners on and lack that one big hit to break it open.
Geno Espineli (5 IP, 5H, 5ER, 6Ks) takes the loss. Justin Hedrick pitches three shutout innings in relief.

Carlos Sosa plays first as Pat Dobson gets a night off.

Welcome back Tyler Von Schell......

the 2004-2006 Navigators/Defenders first baseman/DH joins the team from San Jose after starting this season in Fresno. A couple of days after wondering where the help for Pat Dobson and the Connecticut team was the answer comes from another blog site.

I know one reader that will go nuts when she sees this.

Defs score four in the first and hang on to a 5-3

victory in Portland. Steve Holm capped the four run outburst with a 2 run homer, his sixth of the season. Carlos Sosa hit his third homer, a solo shot in the seventh.
Osiris Matos picked up the victory in relief of Brooks McNiven. Brian Anderson closed the game for his 16th save.
Eugenio Velez and John Bowker each had two hits each.

Garrett Broshuis flirts with a no-hitter loses 4-2

in the seven inning first game of a doubleheader in Portland. The SeaDogs scored a pair of runs in the fourth without a hit as Pat Dodson committed three errors in one inning. The Defs would tie the game up on RBIs by Eugenio Velez (two stolen bases) and Todd Jennings. Dobson had a tough night on the basepaths as well getting picked off twice. But in the bottom of the sixth Broshuis gave up his only hit a game winning two run homer.

In the nightcap the Defenders trail 3-1 after 4 innings as Ben Cox didn't make it out of the first inning. In this game so far the Defs have had two runners picked off and another caught stealing!

Pat Dobson needs a day off. The guy has played nonstop since TI left. Where's the help?

Dave McKae and Ryan Sadowski combine on a three hit shutout

and the Defenders win 7-0 in Portland tonight. McKae went 7 IP giving up the three hits with two walks and 3 Ks. He improves to 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA after 4 starts, 3 against the SeaDogs against whom he struggled against last time out.
The offensive star was John Bowker who blasted home runs #10 & #11 going 4 for 5 with 3 RBIs. I'm pretty sure he's the only Defender with two homers in a game this year and he is the first on the team to hit double digits in dingers this season. And I'm sure that totally cements him for the All-Star Game as well.
Carlos Sosa connected for his second HR. Eugenio Velez (CF) goes 3 for 4 with stolen base #24 and a RBI and Jake Wald gets a pair of hits in four plate trips.
A good night all around after last night's meltdown.

Defs squander chance to pad lead; bullpen falters

and they lose 5-2 tonight to the RockCats. Connecticut would score their only runs in the first inning. Eugenio Velez in center field again walked leading off and stole second (#23). Trey Webb beat out a sac bunt for a base hit putting runners on first and third (remember that later). John Bowker brought in Velez with a sac fly for the first run of the game. Webb would move to second on a Carlos Sosa broken bat grounder and then score on Steve Holm's ground rule double to right field for a 2-0 lead.
And like Saturday's game that would be the only inning the Defs would score any runs. And like Staurday's game the outcome would be the same. New Britain pitcher Ryan Mullins settled down nicely after that one inning and end up going 7.2 IP with 5 hits allowed , 10Ks and only one walk.
Nick Pereira pitched quite well himself shutting out the RockCats in his 7 innings of work giving up just 5 hits notching 6 Ks and had 3 walks. He was helped out with two outfield assists at third from Bowker in right field.

In the 8th Taylor Wilding came on and gave up a run to make it a 2 to 1 game.

On comes Brian Anderson to close it out in the ninth.........................first or second pitch is a bunt single. Next guy gets four straight balls so he's come on and thrown 6-7 pitches and it's first and second no outs. Next batter bunts to Anderson who gets the force at third. Things go downhill quickly from there. A bloop single ties it up. A passed ball moves up both runners to second and third and a grounder goes under the shortstop's glove to score both runners making it 4-2. The final run comes in on a double for the 5-2 loss.

I know the passed ball and error didn't help but Brian Anderson just isn't a closer. The body language after those two guys got on spelled doom. That's five blown saves and a 1-3 record so far. A 1-2-3 inning for him is pretty rare. Wilding, the San Jose closer, has not been lights out in his appearances so far. Will we see Osiris Matos closing more? Is Justin Hedrick up next?

Back to that first and third and no outs deal. That's what Connecticut had in the sixth. Velez doubled and Webb beat out another sac bunt for a single. But Bowker was a K and Sosa a DP and that was the turning point in the game for me despite the bullpen coughing it up.

Misc fan notes: The team goes over the 100,000 attendance mark on the season with tonight's game. Next stop 200,000.
Fan tip: if you encounter a line at the box office, seek out Justine's window. It's always the fastest moving!

Pat Dobson's HR from Saturday............

didn't have time to psot the other day. The plan is to wear those jereys one more time this season but I like them more than the home whites.

Defs hang on and beat the RockCats 5-4....

Mark Mincozzi with a two run RBI single in a 3 run 7th was the big hit. Jake Wald also had a pair of RBIs and Simon Klink goes 2 for 4. Joe Bateman gets the win with an ugly pitching line. Osiris Matos gets another save. Geno Espineli pitches well enough but gets a no decision. Old friend Jesse Floyd gets the loss.

Defs fall in 12 5-4 after leading 4-0.............

McNiven pitched great. Yosandy blew the game in the 8th giving up three runs and except for Dobson's 3 run homer no clutch hitting.

Velez in the OF???? Hondo's right--lets screw up another guy. I don't remember him messing up a second. And he looked lost tonight at the plate.

Misc fan notes: Nice crowd again. They should wear those alternate patrotic jerseys all the time-- they look great. Great turkey/bacon panni in Lou's Lounge tonight.

How the game look on TV?

Sorry for the late post. Grandkid in the house.

Defs win a see-saw game 8-7 at Dodd tonight over

the RockCats. Eugenio Velez started the Connecticut scoring in the first with a leadoff triple and was then singled in by HF Trey Webb and that's pretty much how they won it later on. With the scored tied 7-7 in the bottom of the 8th Velez lead off with his second triple of the game (Who was the last Nav/Def to have two triples in a game?) and Webb brought him home with a sac fly for the game winner.
Osiris Matos pitches a perfect 9th for the save to make Taylor Wilding the winner in his Double A debut. Wilding had an impressive first inning of work in the 7th but came up a single and long double that allowed the RockCats to tie the game. Garrett Broshuis labored thru his six innings of work allowing 6 runs on 8 hits. He could have gotten out of one inning without a run scored but a foul ball dropped between Mark Minicozzi and Todd Jennings extended the inning.
John Bowker picked up a couple of RBIs going 2 for 4 with a double. Webb went 2 for 4 including a double and had two RBIs.
Jake Wald had a big two run homer and made a great play deep in the hole to throw out the runner at first. Jake ended up down the third base line by the stands.

Misc fan notes: Nice crowd of 5,432 and it looked it. Weather was on the cool side. My buddy Strat worn the Curry jersey to fend off the chill so I'm counting the "W".

And the bottom half of the scoreboard now works!!!

Carlos Sosa's first HR of the season cap Defs

comeback to a 6-5 victory over Portland. Sosa's three run homer finished a 4 run bottom of the the 7th. Connecticut had trailed 5-0 at one point. Dave McKae had one bad inning. Ryan Sadowski pitched out of bases loaded one out jam without giving up a run and gets the win and Brian Anderson gets his 15th save.

Misc fan notes: Had to work again tonight and also like last night the first thing I heard when I turned on the radio was a home run, this one Sosa's. What are the odds on that? The radio guys went nuts on the homer call.

PS--Who took out the lineup card?

Defs, SeaDogs split SeaDogs win Game 1 6-0 in an

ejectionfest but hang on in Game two for a 2-1 win.
I'm guessing the batter interference call on Eugenio Velez in last night's game and loss may have had something to do with the ejections tonight. SeaDog catcher Dusty Brown homered off Nick Pereira and Pereira got tossed. Brown and Defs manager Dave Machemer had gotten into it last night over the Velez call. Brown probably brought Velez's inteference to the home plate umpire's attention. As reported by Joe Perez in his blog, video of Velez's at bat did not show batters inference. The umpire also ended up tossing Bob Stanley who ended up throwing a chair on to the field. The team according to the radio guys have had problems with this umpire crew all season so things probably hit a tipping point.
Anyway they lose 6-0 despite Velez and HF Trey Webb getting three hits each.

In the nightcap the Defs scratched out two runs on just four hits. Ben Cox only lasts 4 inning (73 pitches according to the radio guys) and doesn't get his first win. Osiris Matos goes two innings for the win and Brian Anderson picks up his 14th save.

Misc fan notes: Had to work tonight, turned on the car radio after work and the first thing I hear is Matos giving up a homer. I decided to turn off the radio and stay away since I could have caught the last couple of innings.

Congrats John Bowker! EL Player of the Week and

the first Defender ever to be named EL Player of the week (w/e 6-17-07). John went 11 for 23 on the road trip with a pair of homers, one a grand slam, and 12 RBIs.

Charlie Zink outduels Geno Espineli 2-1 tonight as

the SeaDogs take game one of a four game set at Dodd. The knuckle baller allowed just six hits along with 8 Ks in a complete game victory (the radio guys had him at 106 pitches). Zink gave up back to back doubles to Steve Holm and Todd Jennings (almost out of the park) in the 5th for the only Defs run.

Geno was almost as good also giving up six hits over 8 IP and sees his record go to 5-4 with an ERA of 2.69.

Defs had a sort of chance to tie it in the 9th when Eugenio Velez had what appeared to be an infield hit but was called out for hitting the ball out of the batter's box i.e. batter's inference. When was the last time anyone saw that? Of course John Bowker then followed with a double and Jake Wald walks but Zink got Carlos Sosa looking.

Misc fan notes: Several player moves: TI and Alex Hinshaw are now on the DL. Jeff Petersen is released and Taylor Wilding is called up from San Jose. Wilding has nice stats: 4-0, 1.52 ERA 11 savves in 41.1 IP. 21 hits allowed and 49 Ks. Is he the new closer?

Announced crowd of 5680 for the Juneteeth salute. The Defs gave away 3000 tickets to community groups and that must have figured into the number as some seating sections were kind of light but still a good crowd.

Dead scoreboard bulb lights replaced--a lot easier to read!

The franchise worn yellow for the first time in honor of the Norwich YellowJackets an integrated semi-pro team from the 30's.

Answer to the trivia question in the stands tonight. Defs with 10+ HRs in 2006 were Nate with 14, TI with 10 and Aaron Sisk (forgot him) with 10. Tyler Von Schell had 9.

Debate play of the game: HF Trey Webb leads off with a double in the first and Minicozzi sac bunts him to third. Velez and Bowker make out, no runs scored. Should Minicozzi be bunting so early in the game?

Pitchers in the DH Wednesday for the Defs are Nick Pereira and Ben Cox. The hot BoSox pitching prospect Clay Buchholz goes in Game 1. Nick beat him 1-0 in Portland last time.

Meaningless personal stat: The Curry reached the .500 mark at 5 and 5 but the loss tonight drops it to 5 and 6. Oscar Montero still holding at 1-0.

Good Luck Jeff Petersen--hope you get picked up somewhere else.

Off day post; an open letter if you will for those of

you who live in SE CT. Summer arrives this week; schools are wrapping up and we stand on the eve of a 7 day, 8 game homstand. So if you have not hit Dodd this season yet here's some reasons why you should:



1.) It affordable. There are plenty of ticket deals, they knocked down the prices on hot dogs and sodas it's a good cheap night out compared to the movies or losing your shirt at the Sun or Foxwoods.



2.) Promotions. Hey, the front office has come up with some good stuff this year. The upcoming Harry Potter night is unique, those Sam Adams glasses on Thursdays are pretty nice, fireworks every Friday. Senior seats just $3 on Wednesdays. Check out the team website; something is usually going on.



3.) The team has really reached out to the community this season. The support thrown to the family of Tyler Dyer is the most outstanding example. The team auctioned off special game used jerseys in support of Cancer awareness. Last homestand featured a blood drive and on this homestand Tuesday the team has provided free tickets to various groups for Juneteen Day and has a salute to Armed forces on Saturday.



4.) Great staff/ushers etc. It never fails that random fans always tell me, "Hey this place is great we got to come back." Give the team a little support, give the staff a chance to shine even more. We're so lucky to have this minor league team in our backyard. Tell your friends, neighbors, co-workers, fellow church members, send an email, write a letter to the editor, etc.

John Bowker slams the Curve and the Defs hang on..

for a 8-6 win and take the rubber game of the three game set. Bowker hit the team's first grand slam of the season in the top of the 7th and finished the game going 3 for 4 with 5 RBIs. Brooks McNiven with another start shuts out the Curve on 3 hits in his 5 innings of work. Ryan Sadowski and Joe Bateman give up the Curve's six runs in the bottom of the 7th but Osiris Matos and Brian Anderson (save #13) hold the Curve at bay.

Defs 9th inning rally falls short. Curve wins 8-7

Connecticut pushed across 5 runs in the top of the 9th but couldn't tie or go ahead. Eugenio Velez goes 3 for 5 with a pair of doubles paced the Defs offense. John Bowker and Carlos Sosa both went 2 for 4 with 2 RBIs each. Hitting fool Trey Webb also had a pair of hits.
Garrett Brosuis takes another hard luck loss.
The game marked the Double A pitching debut of the newest Defender Yosandy Ibanez who threw a scoreless 8th. And Alex Requena returned off the DL and got a pitch hit single in the 5 run 9th.

Defs win 4-1 over the Curve and break the four game

losing streak. Dave McKae the man going 8 innings giving up an unearned run of his own making, scattering six hits, no walks and 4 Ks. Brian Anderson picks up his 12th save with a 1-2-3 9th.
Jake Wald hit his third HR, a solo shot. Simon Klink was the only Def with two hits and had a RBI.

Thunder complete 4 game sweep, beat Defs 6-5

Errors the name of the game here as Connecticut committed 4 of them plus a balk that accounted for three unearned runs scored. Nick Pereira takes the loss. He goes 5 IP with 6 hits, all the runs on his line, 3 BBs and commited 2 of the errors on pick offs.
The offensive star was John Bowker with his 8th HR, going 2 for 3 and knocking in 4 runs. Eugenio Velex goes 1 for 4 (a triple) scoring a pair of runs and stealing his 18th base. Steve Holm went 2 for 4 with a double and has his average almost to .300.
TI continues to sit for the fourth game in a row.

I guess the good news is that after tomorrow we

play Trenton only three more times and hopefully all the pitching is promoted up to Triple A by then. Anyway Connecticut drops its third straight to the Thunder 7-4 tonight. Todd Jennings (in the 2 hole), Eugenio Velez ( 3 SBs and one CS), Steve Holm ( 2 RBIs) and Trey Webb (hitting fool) each had two hits apiece. Geno Espineli takes the loss and the "mo" from the 5 and 1 homestand is pretty much gone. Also TI sits out another game.

Nate singles in first ML AB!!

Got an email from his Dad; there are about 25 family and friends at the game tonight going nuts.

Defs drop first game of DH 3-1; Game 2 just underway after a rain delay..

John Bowker goes 2 for 3 with a double and the only CT. run scored on a Simon Klink RBI ground out. Alex Hinshaw only goes 3 innings (14 batters) before giving way to Ryan Sadowski who takes the loss. Got to wonder if Hinshaw is injured somehow.
Game 2 just started, Defs down 1-0 after one inning. Brooks McNiven getting a spot start (why not Cox?) TI not in either game lineup.

Congrats Nate Scheirholtz!!! Called up to the Giants today.

One of my fav players. Was here just last year. His Dad, Vai, must be floating!

Defs win 2-1 on Travis Ishikawa's walk off homer

in the bottom of the ninth. Good win after the meltdown last night. TI's homer, his third, made a winner of Justin Hedrick who piched the top of the ninth. Another great outing from Garrett Broshuis who went 7 innings giving up 5 hits and one earned run notching 5 Ks and giving up no walks. Eugenio Velez starts a new hitting streak going 2 for 3 and knocking in the first run of the game with a sac fly.

Misc fan notes: Missed today's game for non-work stuff. Looks like a good sized crowd in the box score. Lets score some runs in Trenton!

McKae-Gate the day after..............

well the sun rose and life goes on. Both the Day and Bulletin quote Mac and McKae as saying it's a Giants player development thing and once you hit 90 pitches after 8 innings you're basically done. Mac is quoted as saying he likes his job and that's it. And that's backed up in print by the Courant today in a roundabout way in it's story about ex-Thunder manager and Connecticut local Billy Masse who was canned by the Yankees in part for using pitchers too much, most notably prospect Phillip Hughes.
Mac is also quoted as saying Anderson isn't going to save every game he's in. So true, especially after last night. But Anderson sure seems to put guys on base in his appearances more times than not despite the 11 saves and the team was pretty quick to get someone up last night although Mac stuck with Anderson. When do you hook Anderson becomes the day after question? His stats so far this season:

23 IP with 24 hits allowed and 12 BBs issued, 10 earned runs given up, teams batting .276 against him to a 3.91 ERA, 18 Ks 1 win/2 losses 11 saves, and 3 BS. Last night's two homers were the first he's given up in 19 games pitched.

The old style red, white and blue style worn by the

Navigators. Really no contest between this one and the one worn tonight. One of only two jersey tops (the other being a tribute to a turn of the century Norwich team jersey top) worn by the Navs/Defs in franchise history I hated and that includes the tie dyed ones.

The new "patriotic" alternate jersey worn tonight for the first time by the Defenders

click on image to enlarge.

The good, the bad and the ugly. Defs lose in the ninth 5-3

and have their 5 game winning streak snapped.
In order first the good and it's very good and his name is Dave McKae tonight's starter. Delivery that is smooth and effortless as can be. Control? Ahead on almost every batter and has yet to walk a batter in 15 Double A innings. Barely breaks 85 on the stadium radar gun with a bunch of off speed stuff that he mixed with his fastball for seven Ks. Heck he even had a sac fly to put Connecticut up 3-1 at the time. Retired the last 15 batters he saw and left with 92 pitches thrown after eight innings.

The bad: Well Mother Nature messed this up as the announed crowd of 6700 was less than half of that and the various Armed Forces groups salutes and were ppd. as was the postgame fireworks. Most of the game was played in a light dizzle.

The ugly: Well, no postgame fireworks but the B-Mets provided some fireworks in the top of the ninth. Brian Anderson who hadn't pitched in a week came on to close out the ninth and get the save for the team. First batter he faces he falls behind on and gives up a solo blast over the right field fence to make it 3-2. Next two batters he falls behind on and gives up singles to both as another reliever is up for the Defs, (Matos, I think). Next batter a deep fly that advances the runner to third. Next batter he falls behind on and gives up a three run jack to left.

Why not leave McKae in to close it out? Why not pull Anderson? I'm old and remember the good old days when guys went 9 innings all the time, even when they lost. But I guess it's all about development and protecting assets.

Misc fan notes: Welcome back Jake Wald who pitch hit in the ninth . Simon Klink back in the field for the first time since coming off the DL. Trey Webb in RF tonight. TI on the bench and Pat Dobson on first. Velez has his on base and hitting streaks snapped tonight.
MaKae's only run that he has surrendered was a cheapo: A line drive double down the third base line that Carlos Sosa fielded and threw into second that the ump blew the call on. Another double down the right field line drove in the B-Mets first run.

Great looking "patriotic" alternate jerseys worn by the Defs tonight. Tons better than the ones the Navigators used to wear for 4th of July and various Armed Forces days.

Defs win 5th straight 8-2 over the B-Mets....

behind Nick Pereira's seven innings of 4 hit pitching and the hitting of his battery mate Steve Holm who went 3 for 4 with a game breaking two run double in the seventh.

The Mets had as many errors as hits five in the game and that figured in the first three Connecticut runs. In the second TI walked and went to second on Mark Minicozzi's single. Holm hit a grounder that forced Minicozzi at second but the throw to first was wild and TI came in for a 1-0 lead.
After the B-Mets tied the game in the third the Eugenio Velez showed what a spark plug he's become. He got on first as his speed forced a throwing error. He stole second and the throw from the catcher went into the outfield moving him to third. He then scored on Trey webb's grounder for a 2-1 lead and the Defs never looked back.
Pat Dobson had a couple of RBIs on a pair of sac flies. Velez ended the game going 2-5 with a triple and a RBI. John Bowker had a pair of doubles and Pereira chipped in with a single.

Pereira looked good tonight as he didn't struggled with his control walking just two but notching five strikeouts. Nice to get him on track for the balance of the season.

Misc fan notes: Nice size crowd on hand on a cool Friday night; 4500+ fans on hand. Plently of stuff going on. Three on field "50-50" fundraising checks were presented to three Little League groups for selling Defenders tickets.

I'm looking foward to Dave McKae pitching Saturday as another big crowd is expected. Good to see folks in the house and even better when the team is winning.

Mac had Steve Holm stealing with two outs and Pereira batting in the bottom of the fourth. It was Holm's first steal of the year and a stange move since Holm isn't the fastest guy and you'd have the pitcher leading off the next inning. But in the bottom of the sixth with Holm on first again Mac had Pereira swing away with Holm running and Pereira singles to center moving Holm to third. Velez then singled in Holm. Mac must like Nick's bat a lot.

Good to see: Simon Klink off the DL and in the game as a pitch hitter.

Trey Webb played short tonight after playing third yesterday and the outfield the day before. Handy guy to have.

Get out the broom! Defs sweep the BaySox this

morning/afternoon 5-0 on a combined 7 hit shutout by Geno Espineli (5-2, 2.36 ERA) and Ryan Sadowski's three inning save (1). The Defs take all three games from Bowie for their fourth straight win overall.
The Defs scored three runs in the fourth when Carlos Soas walked and John Bowker doubled putting runner on second and third. Travis Ishikawa single hard to center scoring both runners. Mark Minicozzi then singled and Steve Holm was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Todd Jennings hit an infield grounder he just beat out to plate TI for a 2-0 lead.
In the fifth Trey Webb tripled to left on a misplayed fly ball that bounced off the fence. An out later Bowker was HBP and both runner moved up on a wild pitch scoring Webb to make it 4-0. Minicozzi then singled in Bowker (see pic) to close out the scoring at 5-0.
Geno pitched great (what else is new?) giving up 6 hits and notching three Ks. Sadowski allowed just one hit to go along with 2 Ks.

Injuries, as reported by Joe Perez in the Norwich Bulletin, are mounting for Connecticut. Jake Wald and Alex Requena are now both on the DL so the Defs played with who they had with no one except pitchers on the bench. Trey Webb played third today. With the B-Mets coming in they will have a least one one position player the bench since the pitcher hits to start the game.
Joe reports that Simon Klink should be ready shortly to come off the DL.


Misc fan notes: I wish all week day series ended with a day game on get away day. Great way to start the day. In April/May you get the same number of fans as you would for a night game, in June you get the school field trips and the rest of the summer school's out.

And a tip of the hat to the front office for doing something different with the kids. Instead of choking the regular food stands that had a separate area set up where the kids could just pick up food choices that were already waiting for them: hot dogs, pizza slices etc. and a gift bag as well. Seem to work out very well and the food stands could serve the "regular"-- non kid customers without wait.

Nice crowd on hand as well 3200+ and big crowd expected Saturday.

Defs jump out to a 10-0 lead and coast to a 10-5

victory over the BaySox today for their third straight win. Steve Holm was the hitting star going 2 for 3 with 4 RBIs including 3 of them on his 5th HR of the season. Alex Hinshaw got the win going six innings with 4 hits allowed and 3 runs, two earned all on a three run homer in the fifth. Hinshaw looked sharp in the time I was there.
BaySox pitching issued a total of 9 walks, balked in a run and also hit a batter to help the Defs build their 10-0 lead in just the first four innings.

Misc fan notes: The calendar may say June 6th but it felt like April 6th out there tonight. I bailed after 7-0.

Jake Wald left the game beating out a fielder's choice in the second. Todd Jennings ran for him and then entered the game to play third for maybe the first time this year. Mark Minicozi moved over to short for Jake. Defs bench getting a little short these days as that left only Alex Requena in reserve. Jenning doubled in a pair of runs in his first at bat and later picked up a couple of walks.

Call me crazy but if Eugenio Velez, who now has a 12 game hitting streak and has been on base in every game he's been, had started the season here I doubt the team would have the record it has. He went 1 for 4 tonight with a pair of RBIs and another two SB for 12 so far. Guy's good.
Another thing--why did Cox relieve tonight for two innings? Is he out of the rotation? And if so who is taking his place?

Connecticut defeats Bowie in 10 innings tonight 5-4.

Jon Bowker's one out RBI single over the drawn in BaySox outfield was the winning hit at Dodd Stadium. Trey Webb (2-4, batting in the two hole) started the rally with a one out single, Carlos Sosa ( 2-5) followed with another single moving Webb the third setting the stage for Bowker's hit.

Garrett Broshuis started the game for the Defenders going 6 innings allowing 7 hits and all four BaySox runs, three earned. Justin Hedrick went three scoreless innings giving up three hits and Brooks McNiven pitched out of a 10th inning jam in his one inning of work to pick up the win. Broshuis was hit hard in his first four innings of work but settled down in the fifth and sixth.

Connecticut rallied twice in the game. In the third down 2-0, Jake Wald (pictured) hit his second homer of the year to make it 2-1. Pat Dobson, Eugenio Velez (2-5), and Webb all singled to load the bases. Sosa then hit a ground ball to the first baseman whose threw to second was wide scoring Dobson and tying the game.

In the fifth now down 4-2, the Defenders tied it up again on a Dobson walk, a Velez single, and a Webb sac bunt putting runners on second and third. Sosa hit an infield single to deep second to make it 4-3 (his second RBI of the game) and Bowker then lifted a sac fly to tie the game back at 4 apiece.

Misc fan notes: Maybe 500 hundred folks on hand tonight with weather not an issue.

I'm hearing Saturday's game is now SRO tickets only for an Armed Forces night!

Burning question in the stands: Will the bottom half of the scoreboard be ready for the All-Star game?

Dave McKae is the man in his Double A debut

today shutting out the SeaDogs in his seven innings of work and the Defs hang on for a 4-3 victory in Portland. McKae allowed five hits and stuck out 8 with no walks. Connecticut got out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first on a Trey Webb single (Webb batting second), a Eugenio Velez triple and a John Bowker ground out.
The Defs added a couple of more runs in the seventh. Carlos Sosa singled, Steve Holm doubled and Jake Wald doubled in Sosa. A Mark Minicozzi double play grounder would plate Holm for a 4-0 Connecticut lead.
McKae gave way to Ryan Sadowski in the 8th and Portland would score three runs off Sadowski and Brian Anderson, with Sadowski being charged with all three runs. Anderson closed out the SeaDogs with a 1-2-3 ninth for his 11th save as the Defs get the split of the 4 game set in Portland.

Connecticut wins the opener 1-0 behind the pitching

of Nick Pereira. Nick went 5.1 IP giving up three hits, 3 Ks but struggled with contol issuing 5 walks. Brian Anderson picked up his 10th save. Anderson with a pefect 1.2 innings pitched.

The Defs only could three hits as well. A lead-off triple by Eugenio Velez, thank goodness he's back, and a RBI ground out by Carlos Sosa was all the scoring in the game. Sosa also threw a runner out at home to keep the shutout.

In the nightcap the Defs are behind 6-0 after just two innings. Ben Cox gave up all six runs and Joe Bateman is on in relief.

That's it for tonight.

Portland 3 Connecticut 1 up in Maine tonight...

Geno Espineli takes the loss dropping to 4 Wins and 2 losses on the season. Not much offense again for the Defs as they scratched out just 4 hits in the game. They scored their only run without a hit via a couple of walks, an error and a Todd Jennings sac fly.

And looking at the box score and backing up a point "hondo" made earlier today, the Defs had another runner thrown out tonight as Pat Dobson tried to turn a double into a triple.

Misc fan notes: Caught a bit of the radio pregame tonight. Bob Stanley said Alex Hinshaw will remain on a 75 pitch count next start and is liking what he sees in Espineli this season.

Meaningless personal stats: I've seen 18 games so far this season and I'm 7 up and 11 down. The Curry jersey is 3 up and 5 down and the Montero jersey is 1 and 0.

After two months give or take this is now what things look like:

First Game lineup: Last night's lineup:

Requena CF Dobson CF
McMains 2B Requena RF
Horwitz RF Sosa LF
TI 1B Bowker DH
EME LF TI 1B
Bowker DH Minicozzi 3B
TJ C Jake SS
Klink 3B TJ C
Jake SS Webb 2B
Begg SP Broshuis SP


More a post to provide a reference point more than anything else. Requena has left and come back. D-Mac played the first couple of games and has been on the DL since. Horwitz was promoted up to Fresno as was Begg. EME just left the team for additional work on his shoulders and hamstring. Klink is also on the DL. Jake has played most of the season at second and a little at third but finds himself back at short.
Hello Minicozzi and Webb with Dobson and Sosa becoming regulars. Begg was their best pitcher when he was promoted and some would say Broshuis or Geno is their best now.