Not what they needed...Defs lose 9-3 to the B-Mets

and drop 3 games of the five game series. Antoan Richardson (#3) and Carlos Sosa (#9, two run) accounted for all the Connecticut runs via the long ball. Dave McKae (6-6) gets lit up for 8 runs in the fourth inning and that's your ballgame.

Defs drop a tough one 4-3 in 10 innings to..

the B-Mets. Ronnie Ray (4-2) gives up a leadoff homer to Ambiorix Concepion as the B-Mets take sole control of third place in the EL's Northern diversion. Daryl Maday made his first start for the Defs and went 6 IP allowing 10 hits and two runs. EME goes 2-4 with his 6th HR, a solo job. Ryan Rohlinger has a 3 for 5 night.

Defs rally with 4 runs in the fourth beat B-Mets 7-6..

tonight in New York. Connecticut down 3-2 used a RBI single by Ryan Rohlinger, a two run triple by Ben Copeland, (his 13th triple of the season) and a sac fly by Pablo to take a 6-3 lead. Connecticut's last and deciding run came in the seventh as Rohlinger hit his fourth homer for a 7-3 lead. Paul Oseguera would give up three runs in relief until Justin Hedrick nailed the the last four outs (3 via Ks)for his seventh save.
Garrett Broshuis improves to 12-6 with a 3.50 ERA. He threw 6 IP allowing 8 hits and three runs two of them earned. He has won his last 5 starts and is 7-1 over his last ten starts.
Connecticut is now tied for third with the B-Mets and are 3.5 games back of second place Portland. Trenton lost again tonight; that's six in a row for the first place team.

Daryl Maday back with the Defs.....

Maday appeared in one game early in the season when the bullpen needed another arm coming off Simon Klink's pitching performance. Maday is up from Augusta and replaces Brooks McNiven who is off to play in the Olympics with Team Canada. Maday has put up great stats in low A: 9-4 with a 1.55 ERA in 21 games, 13 starts.
Now, how about a stortstop?

Things looking grim in Binghamton as the...

Defs drop the completion on the game suspended on 7-19 4-1 as the B-Mets catcher Salvador Paniagua tied the game at 1-1 with a solo homer off Adam Cowart in the eight and won it with a walk-off three homer off Kelvin Pichardo in the ninth.
In the regularly scheduled game Connecticut is down 3-1 in the second. EME accounted for the CT run with his fifth homer of the season. Joey Martinez is on the mound for Connecticut.

BUT..............Defs win the "nightcap" on Adam Witter's 15th homer of the year, a three run shot in the 6th as Martinez gets the win and Justin Hedrick nails down the victory with his sixth save.
Which is a good thing as losing two games to the B-Mets would have really messed them up. CT remains a game back of third place Binghamton. Trenton is falling fast and Portland is losing a pair today. Sept. baseball????

Defs and RockCats are rained out today and

the game will not be made up as this was the last scheduled game between the two teams. On to Binghamton!!

Pablo slams the RockCats as Defs win 8-7 before

a 2008 record crowd of 7070 at Dodd tonight. Sandoval (3-5) hit a two out grand slam in the third to give CT a 4-1 lead. It was Pablo's sixth Double A homer. Kyle Haines, another 3 for 5 performace, singled in a pair of runs in the fourth to extend CT's lead to 6-1. Defs pitcher Ben Snyder couldn't hold the lead however as the RockCats came up with a 5 runs in the fifth to tie the game 6-6. Connecticut reliever Ronnie Ray (4-1) came on and gave up a run in the seventh as the RockCats took a 7-6 lead. But the Defenders answered back with RBI singles by Sandoval (5 RBIs in the game) and Adam Witter to finish the scoring at 8-7.
Paul Oseguera stuck oout the side in his inning of work and Justin Hedrick notches his 5th save with a scoreless 9th. CT pitching racked up 14 Ks in the contest (Snyder 7, Ray and Oseguera three each and Hedrick one).

Here's one for Tom.....from the movie Bull Durham..

Crash Davis: "Hundred bucks says I can get us a rainout."
This is obviously not the clip from the movie but the only one I can find with Los Lobos singing.

Trenton Thunder lose three players in the Yankee..

trade with the Pirates. Yanks pick up OF Xavier Nady and lefty reliever Damaso Marte in exchange for Thunder OF and sometimes problem child Jose Tabata and starting pitchers Phil Coke and George Kontos along with Triple A starter Russ Ohlendorf who has pitched in the bigs. It's a steal for the Yanks. Check out Mike Ashmore's blog at once!
This stuff use to happen every July trading deadline when the Navigators (Yankees) were here. The big club would trade a couple of our beloved Navigators for a "name" player for the stretch run. Be interesting how this shakes out for the first place Thunder. Trenton has a 8.5 game lead on second place Portland (SeaDogs beat Trenton 2-1 tonight). B-Mets are 10.5 GB and CT is 12 GB. CT got to win games against teams like NB if Sept. baseball is going to happen!

**UPDATE: multi-sources are reporting Coke and Konoos have been pulled from the trade and replaced with Dan McCutchen and Jeff Karstens. This lessens the blow to the Thunder a bunch as they only lose Tabata now.

Where did all the hitting go? Defs lose 2-1 to

the RockCats at home tonight in front of a pretty festive crowd of 6000+. The Defs scratched across a run on a pair of walks and Simon Klink's RBI single in the second for a 1-0 lead. Dave McKae (6-5) was flirting with diaster thru the first 4 innings putting the lead runner on in each inning. Twice the RockCats scored in those innings and that was it for the scoring. McKae went 7 innings allowing both runs, one unearned and giving up 8 hits.
Kyle Haines had the other two hits for the Defenders. Connecticut had a chance in the ninth of a pair of walks and a passed ball but couldn't get the big hit.

Misc fan notes: HR deby was fun to watch as a couple of guys hit "real" homers including a shot off the Dunkin Donut sign in left center.
Pics from top to bottom: McKae, and Norwich Bulletin reporter Joe Perez and Defs pitching coach Bob Stanley in the derby.
This was my last game for the month of July as I have to work this weekend. I saw 13 games this month with the Defs going 8-5. After 4 months my record for the 40 games I've seen is 18-22. I look real good for beating my personal best in season game attendance of 47 games (done both in '06 & '07) this year going into August. Where did the season go?

Nothing to do w/baseball......

Rain out in Portland = two extra games at Dodd!

according to the Defs website. The completion of yesterday's susp. game and the regularly scheduled Thursday game were both washed out and those games will move to CT. The susp. game will be made up om 8/7/08 and the other is to be determined.

It was an act of God...

as those of you who live in CT know, severe thunderstorms rolled thru and put the zap on my computer and phone upstairs that prevented me from posting yesterday. I'm up and running, sort of, and that discussion we had about a new computer is now in play.
Defs play two today with CT down 2-1 in last night's suspended game. Then they'll play a 7 inning game after that game is finshed.

CT up 16-6 going into the top of the 9th...

as Ben Copeland is having a monster game going 5 for 6 with a pair of doubles and a homer (#5) and 6 RBIs. Pablo has hit his fifth homer, a three run shot and has knocked in four runs. Adam Witter has hit a two run homer (#14). Kyle Haines, Olmo, Ryan Rohlinger and Dave Maroul have the other RBIs. Garrett Broshuis is in line for win #11 this season. Adam Cowart is on in relief. Is Cowart totally out of the starting rotation now?
In other lineup news Haines is back at short and Maroul is at second and Olmo is in left. Why isn't he playing Haines at short and Rosairo at second?

Misc fan notes: I'm really enjoy reading Ben's Biz Blog (link on the right) about the promos some minor league teams teams cook up. Recently the Quad City River Bandits offered Tatto Night for their fans. Any fan that got a River Bandits tatto at the park recieved a free 2009 berm (general addmission) season ticket. 28 people got tats.
My question is if the Defs ran that promo how many people would get ink? And would you?

Dave Maroul at shortshop = 3 errors which is a lot

better than I'd do but what was the deal with that tonight? First game at short for Dave this season after making his first start at second the other day. Is Haines hurt? Where's Jake? Oh yeah at Fresno.
CT loses game 1 of the Big Papi tour up in Portland 8-3 as they manage just 4 hits. Olmo hit his seventh homer and Pablo went two for four. Big Papi goes 2 for three with a walk and RBI.
Joey Matinez (6-8) goes an eventful 5 innings allowing 5 hits and six (?) walks allowing all 8 SeaDogs runs, five of them earned.
Not a good start to this big four game series.

CT bound? The two minor league players ..

obtained in yesterday's Ray Durham trade with the Brewers. Outfielder Darren Ford (lc likes him) and pitcher Steve Hammond.

Defs down B-Mets 8-3 on the road today...

as Dave Maroul (#8) and Pablo Sandoval (#4) both hit solo haomers. Kyle Haines delivers a two pitch hit double in a 4 runs sixth that put CT up 5-3. Ryan Rohlinger hit a two run double in the 8th as the Defs broke the game open with three runs in the inning. Josh Sharpless the first of five Defenders relivers gets his first win of the season to even his record at 1-1. Ben Snyder started and went four innings giving up all three B-Mets runs. B-Mets ace Salvador Aguilar (10-3) suffers the loss. Connecticut has handed him two of his three losses on the season.

Congrats Geno Espinel! Made his MLBB debut

today throwing a scoreless inningand picking up his first strikeout! The former Defender pitched in Norwich in 2--0 and 2007 starting both seasons in the bullpen and ending as a starter. I have one of his jerseys so I'm pretty happy. And that's the way to properly wear stirups!
Thanks for the heads up bacci40!

Defs, B-Mets game suspended in the second...

inning with CT up 1-0 on Carlos Sosa's homer. Game will be picked up on July 28th when CT revisits the B-Mets.
Defs lost last night's game 5-4 in 14 innings as Justin Hedrick gave up a walk-off homer to Mike Carp.

Brooks McNiven named to Team Canada's ...

Olympic baseball team heading to Beijing, China along with former Navigator/Defenders pitcher Chris Begg. Former Navigator and Defenders Geno Espineli will pitch for Team USA.

Defs and B-Mets tied at 4-4 after 11 innings...

as I'm pulling the plug and crashing. Ben Copeland is the hitting star for CT so far with a 4 for 5 performance with 3 RBIs. Brooks McNiven started and went five innings pitched. Adam Cowart came in and threw two innings. Don't know what the deal there is. Also Dave Maroul is playing second for the first time this season.

Defs hang on beat El Duque, B-Mets 9-5 on the road..

tonight. The Defenders scored two runs in the first inning against a rehabbing Orlando Herandez on RBI doubles by Pablo and Adam Witter. El Duque pitched just the one inning for the B-Mets who had 7400+ in the stands. The Defenders built up a 6-0 lead after after three innings but the B-Mets drew to 6-5 until Connecticut scored three insurance runs in the 9th inning with two runs coming in on Simon Klink's pitch hit two run single.
Plenty of hitting stars tonight with Pablo going 3 for 5 with two doubles and his third homer as he scored three times and knocked in two. Witter went 3 for 5 as well with a pair of singles, a double, two runs scored and a RBI. EME also collected three hits plus a walk in four official trips to the plate.
Garrett Broshuis improves to 10-6 with a 3.61 ERA. GB threw 5 IP allowing 10 hits and four runs. The bullpen hangs on to nail down the victory. Connecticut is a game back of the third place B-Mets and four back of second place Portland.

Travis Snider wins the EL HR Derby

as the home town rep in the contest wins. Travis hit a pretty long one against the Defs last week at Dodd.

And a glimpse of Olmo in another YouTube clip from the NH Union Leader:

El Duque to start for the B-Mets tonight vs. CT...

as reported by the Bingo newspaper:

"Veteran major-league starting pitcher Orlando Hernandez will make a rehab appearance with the Binghamton Mets on Thursday night at NYSEG Stadium.


Robert Ford, B-Mets Director of Media Relations, confirmed that "El Duque", who has been plagued by a foot ailment, will start for the B-Mets at 7:05 Thursday against the Connecticut Defenders.

"I'm not 100 percent certain what his pitch count will be," Ford said of Hernandez, who in his most recent rehab assignment allowed three hits and struck out five in 5 2-3 innings for Class A St. Lucie."

In other rehab news Portland is going crazy over the rehab of David Ortiz; just check out eBay for tickets. And guess who the visiting team there will be?

In EL All-Star news Olmo goes 2 for 2 with a double and run scored. Joey Martinez is the winning pitcher throwing 2 innings of scoreless ball and Justin Hedrick three a scoreless inning as well.

My computer nearly died and it's time for another...

(I back everything up anyway based on another prior bad situation). Any thoughts out there as to another? I'm running with a Dell desktop Dimension 8200 that about 8 years old. Should I look for a computer that still run XP or is Vista safe enough yet? Laptops are not an option.

Who says you can't hit at Dodd? Not Ryan Rohlinger..

he's played 21 games for Connecticut with 16 of them at Dodd since his call up from San Jose. In those sixteen games he's hitting 20 for 54 for a .370 BA. That includes six doubles, a triple and all three of his homers. He driven in nine runs. His fielding is solid. Wonder where Connecticut would be in the standings if he had played the whole season here?

Misc fan notes: Tom--hope you're feeling better! Tom is the gatekeeper to upstairs at Dodd and all around good guy.

Defs club three homers enroute to a 4-1 win....

over the FisherCats tonight at Dodd. Olmo Rosairo hit a two run homer to deep left in the third inning to put Connecticut up 2-1. It was Rosairo's sixth home run of the season. An inning later Ben Copeland solo homered to right, his fourth this season, to put CT up 3-1. Ryan Rohlinger followed the next inning with his own solo shot (his third, all at Dodd) to close out the scoring at 4-1.
Adam Cowart improves to 8-6 throwing 5 IP scattering 7 hits and allowing the single NH run. Brooks McNiven, Kelvin Pichardo and Justin Hedrick (save # 4) close it out for Connecticut.

Misc fan notes: Connecticut goes 4-4 on the 8 game road stand; not what they needed going into it. 6-2 would have been much better. Going into the All-Star Connecticut is 5 games behind second place Portland at 49-48. The road trip coming up with four games against the B-Mets, the team directly in front of the Defenders, and three games against Portland could be the difference maker as to whether this team makes the playoffs.
Pics from top to bottom: Cowart and Rohlinger's homer

FisherCats blow out Defs 9-2.....

as the FisherCats score 4 runs on a pair of homers in the first off Ben Snyder (1-2, 7.85 ERA). New Hampshire went on to push three more across the plate in the fourth and the only suspense was whether FisherCats starter Ricky Romero could throw a no-hitter against the Defs. The no-no bid last 5.1 innings until Olmo smoked a double to left center. The FisherCats built the lead to 9-0 until Connecticut finally broke thru against Romero, trying the throw a complete game, with a pair of runs in the bottom of the 9th.
Connecticut has now lost 3 out of the last 4 games going into Monday's game before the two day All-Star break.
Pics top to bottom: J.P. Arencibia, Olmo, Ronnie Ray, SP Ricky Romero, Kyle Haines

RIP Bobby Murcer....He was one of my favorite

Yankees in those dark days of the late 60's and early 70's. I thought everytime he came up he'd hit a homer over the short right field porch watching those games on WPIX channel 11. I think it was 296 feet down the right field lineback then. I remember those four homers in four straight ABs covering both games of a DH I was listening to that on the radio. I hated when he was traded for Bobby Bonds. I remember being happy getting him back. I remember watching that ABC game (Howard in the booth) when the Yanks played the O's after Thurman's funeral and Bobby drove in all five runs in a 5-4 Yankee victory like it was yesteday.

Congrats Mike Cervenak on his MLBB debut!

The one time "Mayor of Norwich" makes the bigs. Mike was a very popular player spenting four seasons as a Norwich Navigator; two years with the Yankees and two more with the Giants. The below article is from Milb.com by Ken Mandel:

"PHILADELPHIA -- It was easy to miss, an innocuous 11th-inning fly to left field in a 12-inning win.
Mike Cervenak certainly won't forget it.

Friday night's at-bat off D-backs reliever Connor Robertson welcomed the 31-year-old Cervenak to the baseball fraternity, where he joins many who have stood in batter's boxes before him.

Able to shed a pitcher for the final weekend before the All-Star break, the Phillies summoned Cervenak from Triple-A Lehigh Valley, where he was hitting .310 with seven home runs. Manager Charlie Manuel said he liked the righty's bat.

The fifth of six players to appear in the fifth spot in the batting order, Cervenak didn't have time to bask in his surroundings before hacking. He swung at the second pitch and lined to Conor Jackson.

"It felt pretty good [off the bat]," Cervenak said. "I didn't think I hit it out or anything. I was hoping it got over his head."

Earlier in the game, Cervenak said he was overwhelmed by players congratulating him in the dugout, despite the tenseness of the matchup. After 8 1/2 seasons of independent and Minor League ball, including half a season in Korea, Cervenak was wearing a Major League uniform.

The journey was worth it.

"It validates everything you've done up to this point," Cervenak said. "You can say that you played in the big leagues. Not a lot of people can say that."

Not bad for a kid who grew up a Tigers fan in Trenton, Mich., with Kirk Gibson as one of his idols. Fittingly, Gibson is the bench coach for the D-backs, who the Phillies are playing this weekend.

Cervenak played baseball with Dave Parrish, son of Lance Parrish, at the University of Michigan, and met Gibson and his idol, Alan Trammell.

While he'll always remember Gibson's home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, the Tigers fan in him has a special place for another home run.

"I remember the one off [Rich] Gossage in Game 5 [of the 1984 World Series], the three-run home run," he said. "That was a baseball moment. [Tigers manager] Sparky Anderson was screaming, 'He doesn't want to walk you.' That's the home run I'll always remember."

That and his lineout to left field."

Ken Mandel is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.

One bad pitch...Defs lose 4-3 tonight

as Joey Martinez almost gets out of a bases loaded no outs jam in the third. A Texas League single to center and double down the line that Ryan Rohlinger just missed grabbing and a HBP loaded them up. A 1-2-3 double play left runners on second and third but Joey served up a long Travis Snider homer to right center for a 3-1 FisherCats lead. NH added a run in the fourth to make it 4-1. Connecticut drew close in the 7th with a RBI double by Olmo and a RBI single by AR to make it 4-3 but the FisherCats closed the door to win.

Misc fan notes: Paul Oseguera is off the DL and pitched a couple of innings in relief. Nice size crowd given Sailfest tonight in New London. Good to see Tater around too!
Something was made I think another blog (or maybe mine) about medical folks not getting to a fan fast enough. Tonight a fan up in the skybox took one right off the head. He never saw it; I had a perfect view of the whole "play" from right field. I don't know how the paramedic got up there so fast from his usual spot on the right field concourse but he was up thee in about a minute. Nice job!
Pics from top to bottom Martinez, Tater and Oseguera

Blowout! Defs win 18-5 over FisherCats tonight...

recapping this game would take an hour so go to milb.com for an inning by inning breakdown. Connecticut collected 19 hits in the game. The FisherCats actually lead 1-0 in the first until Pablo tied the game in the bottom half of the frame. In the second Dave Maroul laced a two run RBI double to break to the tie and Conecticut never looked back as they scored 5 runs in all in the second. They scored 7 runs in the sixth and four runs in the seventh as well.
Pablo was the hitting star going 4 for 5 all singles finishing with 3 RBIs. Kyle Haines had 4 RBIs on a 2 for 4 (single and double) night. Adam Witter goes 3 for 6 with 3 RBIs. Ryan Rohlinger has a pair of doubles with a 3 for 5 night and knocks in 2 runs. Maroul goes 2 for 4 with those two RBIs in the second inning. Olmo has a pair of RBIs one on a bases loaded HBP.
Garrett Broshuis (9-6) gets the win throwing 5 shakey innings allowing nine hits, three runs, one a very long solo homer to to deep left center field. He also had 5 Ks. McNiven, Sharpless and Pichardo mop up with Pichardo giving up a pair of runs in the 9th.

Misc fan notes: Very festive crowd on hand with the cash giveaway and fireworks. I think 18 runs is the most I've seen the home team score ever. Bingo and Portland both lose tonight.
Pic top to bottom: Haines, Shane Turner (former manager), and Pablo

Check out Ben's Biz Blog....

I found this on milb.com and was surprised to find I'm linked to it. All manner of minor league baseball stuff including a bunch of other minor league baseball blogs links. Ben mentions tonight's promo being run by the Defenders. Link is to the right.

Ugly...Defs drop today's game 7-4 and split the..

series with the B-Mets. Not what we needed for Sept. baseball at Dodd. Connecticut has 11 hits, none in the clutch however as they had B-Mets starter Robert Parnell (9-4) on the ropes early a couple of times but couldn't get that one big hit. Connecticut loaded the bases with no outs in second and let Parnell off the hook with no runs being scored. In the third they loaded the bases again with two outs but nothing doing there either.
Connecticut finally pushed across a couple of runs in the fourth on a Ryan Rohlinger walk, a Jake Wald double putting runners on second and third. Parnell then threw a wild pitch that didn't get that far from the Bingo catcher. Rohlinger broke for the plate and scored but a good throw from the catcher to pitcher covering would have easily got Ryan. Ben Copeland (4 for 5) then singled in Wald for a 2-0 Defenders lead.
Dave McKae got the spot start today and gave up a solo homer in the 5th to Ambiorix Concepicon as Bingo cut CT's lead in half. McKae gave way to Jason Waddell (0-3) in the sixth. McKae finished with 5 IP, a run on three hits.
Waddell just didn't have it today. A leadoff single and an Olmo error put runners on first and second with no outs. Dan Murphy then hit a three run shot to put the Mets up 4-2. After the first out, a walk to Mike Carp set the stage for Concepion's second homer of the game for a 6-2 score. Out comes Jason in comes Ronnie Ray who pitched last night. B-Mets almost score another run but the runner is tagged out by Pablo in a run down.
Connecticut comes back a little in the bottom half of the inning. Singles by Rohlinger, Olmo, RBI singles by Copeland and Pablo produce two runs but Copeland gets caught in a rundown on Sandoval's RBI for the third out and Connecticut now down 6-4. Ronnie Ray batted in this inning as Bien tried to save his bullpen.
Connecticut gave back a run in the top of the 7th on a walk, SB and catcher's throwing error and a RBI single to close the game scoring at 7-4.
In the eight Bingo would threaten again against Ray but Justin Hedrick came on to get the final out. In the bottom half of the frame Rohlinger singled and Hedrick batting for himself grounded out into an inning ending DP.
So they fail to pick up any ground on the team in front of them in the standings and are nine games out of the first place Trenton Thunder and five games behind second place Portland. They remain in fourth place three games behind Bingo with the last place FisherCats in town next for four games to bring us to the All-Star break.

Misc fan notes: Justine Kenney, the box office manager, last day is Friday. She took over from Tony Scott who also left earlier this season. Really never got to know her but she'll be missed and I'll tell you why. When I left the game today I went to the ticket window to get a ticket for Friday's game. The person on the window was taking a ticket order over the phone that was taking a bit of time. Justine seeing a line forming up took over the window to start processing my order and those behind me. Now here's someone who could easily just mail it in with a day left but she still hustles up to take care of customers with the clock running out on her employment. People like that are not always easy to find. Good Luck Justine!

Back to the baseball side of things the bullpen mix needs a little work. We said goodbye to Steve Palazzolo, Sergio Romo and Orsiris Matos three bullpen guys and got back a starter from SJ in Ben Snyder and a long reliever in Brooks McNiven back from Fresno. We also have demoted starter Dave McKae in the bullpen. Both McKae and McNiven have made recent spot starts because of doubleheaders and Nate Bump skipping a turn but both McNiven and McKae are "long" guys. The primary closer is now Kelvin Pichardo with Hedrick backing him up. That leaves Waddell, (the only lefty) Josh Sharpless and Ray has the middle guys with Ray leading the team in appearances with 30. Also starter Paul Oseguera looks like he's ready to come off the DL.

Pics from top to bottom: McKae, Copeland, and Hedrick

Defs win a laughter 9-0 over the B-Mets...

at Dodd tonight. In the first inning Connecticut took a 2-0 lead on RBI singles by AR and EME. The score remained that way until the 6th when the Defenders put up a six spot to blow the game open. The big hits were a 2 run double by Jake Wald and a bases loaded triple by Kyles Haines. Pablo Sandoval (he's fun to watch play) singled in Haines for the final run of the inning. Moises Alou dove for Pablo's single and you feel breaths being held all over Mets nation until he got back up off the ground in one piece.
Ryan Rohlinger hit his second CT homer in the seventh, (both of them at Dodd), to close out the scoring at 9-0.
Adam Cowart improves his record to 7-6 allowing all five B-Mets hits. Ronnie Ray pitched one inning and Josh Sharpless threw the final two innings to preserve the shutout.

Misc fan notes: Where the heck is everyone???? Looking forward to Thursday's 10:35 AM start.
I know I've written this someplace already but the turkey/bacon panni sandwich upstairs in Lou's Lounge is darn good. Combine that with your favorite oat soda like I did tonight and it's a feast. Check it out sometime; it's a treat. Nice job by the new cook up there!

Woulda, shoulda, coulda, Defs split with B-Mets

tonight at Dodd winning Game 1 4-1 and dropping the nightcap in a frustrating manner 1-0 on an unearned run.
In Game 1 lefty Ben Snyder (1-1) threw the game we're been hoping for going 6 IP and allowing a scratch run on 4 hits while getting 3 Ks. Connecticut scored 3 runs in the second off B-Mets ace Salvaldor Agular (10-2). EME lead off with a single and would score as Ryan Rohlinger laced a double to right center for a 1-0 Defs lead. Rohlinger moved to third on a wild pitch. Jake Wald grounded out to second and the throw home beat Ryan but he knocked the ball loose to score the second run. With Jake on first, Snyder sac bunted Wald over and Kyle Haines knocked him in with a single for a 3-0 lead. In the fifth Pablo Sandoval homered off the right field pole to extend Connecticut's lead to 4-0. It was Pablo's second EL homer and first at Dodd. Pablo goes 2 for 3 in Game 1 with a double and the homer. Ryan Rohlinger goes 2 for 3 with a pair of doubles in the contest. Kelvin Pichardo comes on in the 7th striking out two to earn his 7th save.
Mets outfielder Moises Alou on a rehab goes 1 for 3 for the B-Mets.
In Game 2, wellyou've got to feel good about your chances after beating their ace and facing a pitcher that's 4-6 and an ERA over six and you're throwing Brooks McNiven against him. But Connecticut's hitting is next to nonexistant and the B-Mets score the only run of the game without a hit Via a walk, fielder's choice, a stoln base as the catcher's throw goes into the outfield and the runner scores on a sac fly. Ugly.
Pablo starts at first in the game and goes 1 for 3, a double. So Pablo goes 3 for 6 in the DH with a pair of doubles and a homer.

Misc Fan notes: Connecticut remains a game over .500. Smallish crowd on hand.
Pics top to bottom: Alou, Snyder, McNiven and Pablo at first

New pics added, including the road pics taken 7/6/08

www.flickr.com Go to omax2004's photostream

Defs are hot! 9 wins out of last 10 games as they..

beat the RockCats 5-3 in NB tonight. Connecticut climbs above the .500 mark and with the B-Mets coming to town the team can make some real hay in the standings.
Ben Copeland is the hitting hero tonight going 2 for 5 and knocking in three runs. Kyle Haines goes 2 for 3 with a double and RBI. Pablo goes 3 for 5 with a double. EME and Ryan Rohlinger each go 2 for 5 with a double.
Joey Martinez was dealing on the mound improving his record to 6-6 with a 2.36 ERA. Martinez notched 10 Ks in the contest over 6 IP and scattered just 4 hits. Justin Hedrick gets his third save throwing 1.1 IP.

Misc fan notes: Double dip against the B-Mets Tuesday! Ben Sndyer and Brooks McNiven are the probables.

Defs hang on to beat the RockCats 6-5 this...

afternoon. Garrett Broshuis took a perfect game into the 7th inning with a 5-0 lead as New Britain would mount a rally over the next three innings but fall short to Connecticut.
Olmo Rosairo lined the game's second pitch over the left field wall for a quick 1-0 Defenders lead. In the fourth with two outs, EME barely missed a homer and doubled off the right field wall. Adam Witter followed with a double to right that the RockCat outfielder just missed a sliding catch on as EME came in to score for a 2-0 CT advantage. Connecticut scored again in the next inning as Carlos Sosa beat out an infield single and Dave Maroul blopped a single into right as Sosa was nearly forced out at second to put runners on first and second with no outs. Jake Wald laid down a perfect sac bunt to move the runnners up. Olmo fouled out but Antoan Richardson singled in Sosa for the third Defenders run of the game. On the his single, Antoan was caught in a rundown between first and second. Marouls broke for home a was caught in a rundown a tagged out to end the inning.
In the sixth Pablo Sandoval singled and Adam Witter hit his third homer in two days over the right field wall to extend Connecticuts lead to 5-0. It was Witter's 12th homer of the season and today's three RBIs brings that total to 44 for the season.
Meanwhile, GB was sailing along thru six innings. But in the 7th the wheels came off as Maroul muffed a grounder to first for NB's first baserunner of the game. Next batter delivered a clean single for the first RockCat hit. Brock Peterson then doubled in both runners with a solid drive to the right centerfield wall. Peterson would move to third on a fly ball and then come in on Olmo's fielding error before GB finished off the inning and gave way to Ronnie Ray. GB's line read 7 IP, 2 hits 3 runs, one earned with 6Ks and no walks.
Ray in the 8th gave up a pair off doubles, both down the line jobs, one to right and one to left as New Britan closed to 5-4 going into the 9th.
In the top of the 9th Connecticut got a big insurance runs without a hit. Wald walked and advanced to third as the pitcher's pickoff throw ended up going down the RF line. Wald then scored on a wild pitch for a 6-4 lead. That run proved big as Kelvin Picardo came on to close the game.
Pichardo would load the bases on three singles with one out. A RBI grounder made the score 5-4 before Pichardo got the the third out via a swinging strke three for his sixth save.
GB improves to 8-6 with 3.34 ERA. In his last five starts he's gone 7 IP pitched each start to a 4-1 record. Nice job.

Misc fan notes: Despite watching Connecticut wrap out 13 hits, you had a feeling watching this game they needed more runs and hits. Sloopy baserunning got them in trouble as two runners were picked off, one caught stealing and another tagged out in a rundown.
Only saw two other fans from Norwich at the game today. I really liked that scoreboard of theirs. Took a ton of pics of the players in their grey road uniforms, which I like.
Pics from top to bottom (click on each to enlarge): Jake, Palbo, GB, AR(interesting pic with the billboard ball player also making a catch), Witter before and after the HR, GB, and Olmo before and after the HR.

ROAD TRIP!!! As I motored up to New Britain

this afternoon. GB takes a perfect game into the 7th and the Defs hang on for a 6-5 victory to move to .500 with their 8th win in the last nine games. Pics and recap later tonight.

Nate Bump's the RockCats again as the Defs

use the long ball and beat the RockCats 5-0 tonight in New Britain. Bump has threw three games against the Rockcats and is 2-0 with 16 innings pitched and allowed just three hits and no runs scored. In today's game he went 6 IP allowing just two hits and getting 6 Ks. Brooks McNiven, Josh Sharpless (3 BBs in .2 IP) and Justin Hendrick complete the three hit shutout as Connecticut wins it's 7th game in the last 8 played.
Connecticut took a 1-0 lead in the first as Antoan Richardson got the rariest of baseball hits; an inside the park homer to right field. I think it's the first inside the park job in franchise history and it comes on the road. It's Richardson's second homer this season. In the second Adam Witter hit the first of two solo homers in the game to make it 2-0 Connectict. Later in the inning Ben Copeland singled in Simon Klink for a 3-0 lead.
In the sixth Witter hit his second homer and Kyles Haines would hit a RBI double to plate Carlos Sosa to finish the scoring. Witter now has 12 HRs on the season.
Bump improves his record to 4-3 with a 3.06 ERA. Pablo Sandoval throws out another runner trying to steal.

Misc fan notes: Have to listed to the radio replay for the Richardson HR call. I see catcher Barry Gunther has popped up on the Defs roster; most likely to shore things up when Pablo plays in the Futures Game this comming week.

Defs lose 5-3 in New Britain as the winning...

streak is snapped at six games. Jason Waddell (0-2) gave up a pair of solo homers in the bottom of the eighth as the RockCats broke a 3-3 tie. Connecticut had tied the game in the top half of the frame on EME's solo homer to left, his 4th HR and the first one in a long time. EME had a good day at the plate going 3 for 4 and scoring two runs. Pablo Sandoval hit his first EL homer for Connecticut's first run in the fourth inning. In the same inning EME would single and come home all the way from first on Simon Klink's RBI double.
Adam Cowart went 6 IP giving up three earned runs before turning the game over to Waddell in the seventh.
New Britain hit three homers in the game including two by Brock Peterson and the tie breaker by Luke Hughes.

Misc fan notes: looking at the game boxscore/recap, Connecticut had a bunch of chances in this game to score additional runs but missed their chances. Too bad as they could have reached .500 with a win.

Osiris Matos made his MLBB debut last night..

throwing a 1-2-3 ninth as the Giants beat the Cubs 8-3. Sergio Romo made his 4th appearance for the Giants since his callup pitching a 1-2-3 8th inning. Romo has now thrown 3.2 inning with 6 Ks and two walks and allowed one earned run for a 2.45 ERA.

Defs rally again and complete 5 game series sweep..

of the FisherCats at Dodd tonight and extend their winning streak to six games in a row and are now just a game under .500. Down 3-1 in the bottom of the 8th Connecticut used timely hitting and took advantage of sloopy New Hampshire fielding to score three runs to win 4-3.
Jake Wald (2-3 double 2 runs scored) lead off the eighth with a single. With Wald running on the pitch, Kyle Haines ( 3 for 4, double, RBI) grounded to the shortstop who hurried the play and ended up booting the ball to put runners on first and second with no outs. Ben Copeland's sac bunt was then fielded by the pitcher who tried to get Wald at third but the throw was dropped by the third baseman and all hands were safe. Ryan Rohlinger then hit a little popup right to the first baseman for the first out. That set the stage for Pablo Sandoval's two run single to right scoring Wald and Haines to tie the game with Copeland going to third and Sandoval to second on the right fielder's fielding error picking up the ball. EME grounded out to second against the drawn in infield for the second out. That brought Adam Witter up to the plate. And in a sort of ironic twist, the FisherCat's pitcher uncorked a wild pitch (I think it should have been scored a passed ball) to bring in Copeland for the game winner.
Lefty Ben Snyder made his Dodd debut going 5 IP, giving up all three FisherCats runs in his last inning of work. He allowed 4 hits, walked three and stuck out three. Ronnie Ray gets the win in relief improving his record to 3-1. Ray pitched three shutout innings and recorded three Ks. Justin Hedrick came on in the 9th to close the game and made things interesting giving up a walk and a hit before closing it out for his first save of the season.

Misc fan notes: Good crowd on hand tonight 5100+ on hand to kick off the Holiday weekend with post game fireworks. The "All you can eat stand" was doing some serious biz tonight. For all you NASCAR fans out there Dale Jrs.'s #88 National Guard show car was out on the leftfield concourse.
Defs worn their camo uniforms again in honor of the 4th of July Holiday Friday.
Pablo Sandoval threw out another runner attempting to steal as he's now 3 for 3 in that category. On the other hand, three CT baserunners were caught stealing in today's game.
Congrats to pitchers Justin Hedrick and Joey Martinez and BOTH of our second basemen Olmo Rosairo and Kyle Haines being selected as EL All-Stars!
Pics from top to bottom: Snyder deals, Haines throws to from his back to Klink on Travis Snider's infield hit, Haines tags out the Snider as Pablo guns him out attempting to steal, Copeland tracks down a fly.

In appreciation...Andy Pappas...

who resigned his front office job as Sales Manager this week. From my dealings with Andy over the last two years he always put the fan, the customer, the guest first. Any question or email I had for him was always quickly answered. He believed in the franchise and the task at hand. My going to miss him a bunch; he is one of those "good guys" you are luckly to meet every now and then. If he reads this, Andy, the only thing I can say to you is follow your own advice you cited yourself in the Defenders program: "Don't dwell on the past, it takes away from today."
Good Luck buddy and email me anytime at: gfogg@ct.metrocast.net

5 in a row! Defs rally to win 4-3 over the FisherCats..

at Dodd tonight. Down 3-0 Connecticut scored 4 runs with two outs in the bottom of the fifth on RBI singles by AR, Ryan Rohlinger and Pablo (batting 5th tonight) and gets Joey Martinez the win on his first start off the DL. Martinez goes 6 IP giving up 6 hits, two solo homers, and all three NH runs. He improves to 5-6 with a 2.31 ERA. Dave McKae throws two innings and Kelvin Pichardo gets his 5th save and second in as many days.
Connecticut had 11 hits in the game with EME, Dave Maroul (DHing), Jake and Pablo (double) all getting two hits each. Connecticut is now two games under .500.

Misc fan notes: My first look at lefty Ben Snyder Thursday night; looking forward to it. McKae turning out to be pretty handy these days.

Congrats Osiris Matos! Another Defs reliever

called up straight to the Giants following Sergio Romo callup last week!

Defs take both games 2-1 and 3-0 over the ..

FisherCats to run their winning streak to four games including the first three games of this five game set. In game 1 Olmo Rosario knocked in the winning run in the bottom of the 7th with a one out single off the third baseman's glove against a drawn in infield. Carlos Sosa started the inning with a single and was sac bunted over to second by Simon Klink. AR went in to pinch run for Sosa and stole third nearly slidding over the bag to set up the drawn in infield and Olmo's hit. Connecticut had tied the game in the 5th with the same set of players as Sosa doubled, Klink singled in Sosa and Rosairo followed with a double. Ben Copeland then walked with one out to load the bases but Ryan Rohlinger grounded into double play to end the threat.
Garrett Broshuis throws the 7 inning complete game, a four hitter, to improve to 7-6 on the season with a 3.49 ERA.
In game two Brooks McNiven (2-1 5 IP 6 hits), Jason Waddell (1 IP) and Kelvin Pichardo (1 IP save #4) combine for the shutout. All the runs came in the third with one big hit. Jake Wald walked, AR singled for CT's first hit and Pablo walked to load the bases. Adam Witter then crushed a stand up triple to right center to clear the bases for all the runs Connecticut needed.

Misc fan notes: Pablo is a big dude! But he had a tough night at the plate in the cleanup spot going 0 for the DH.
Pics from top to bottom: Pablo, AR scores the Game 1 winner, and Pablo