So how did it happen? In Tuesday's game the Sea Dogs wasted no time getting to Somerset starter Yoendrys Gomez in the first inning. David Hamilton doubled and Wilyer Abreu walked before they pulled off a double steal. Ceddanne Rafaela did the honors with a base hit to score Hamilton. After "Boss" Christian Koss and Stephen Scott struck out, Niko Kavadas ripped a base hit into the right to score both runners to put the Sea Dogs up big early. Tyler Dearden struck his seventh home run of the season in the top of the second but the Patriots got a run back in the bottom of the second against Portland starter Shane Drohan when Andres Chaparro hit his 17th home run. The Patriots took command in the bottom of the third when Elijah Dunham scored Harrison Bader and Chaparro hit a three run bomb to put Somerset ahead. After Hamilton stole his third base of the day (number 69), Rafaela drove him in with a hit to tie the game in the top of the fourth. Ryan Zeferjahn was brought in for the bottom of the fifth and Austin Wells hit his 11th home run of the season to put the Patriots back on top. The Sea Dogs tied it in the top of the seventh against Steven Jennings when Dearden drove in Alex Binelas who had doubled. In the top of the eighth, Stephen Scott belted his seventh home run of the season to put the Dogs six outs away from victory. Unfortunately with one out in the bottom of the ninth, Taylor Broadway gave up Brandon Lockridge's 14th home run of the season to tie the game. In the top of the 10th, Rafaela drove in Hamilton to take the lead but the Patriots answered in the bottom of the tenth. Oliver Dunn singled off Brendan Nail to score Jasson Dominguez. The Dogs rallied in the top of the 11th when Scott drilled a base hit to score Rafaela and Binelas drove in Stephen. Michael Gettys allowed a run in the bottom of the 11th on two straight groundouts but Lockridge flied out to center to end the game. The only drawbacks to this game was Shane Drohan got tagged for 5 runs in 4 innings and Koss went 0 for 5 with 3 strikeouts and an error. Can't really fault Nail and Gettys for the extra inning ghost runners scoring too much but Broadway allowing the home run to Lockridge in the ninth and Zeferjahn allowing a run in the fifth sucked. Kudos to Oddanier Mosqueda for pitching a clean sixth inning.
The Sea Dogs got some bad news following that game as Thad Ward was placed on the injured list. Ricardo Cubillan was called up to Worcester and Nick Northcutt was claimed by the Cincinnati Reds in the Tommy Pham trade last month. They couldn't have waited two more weeks? The Sea Dogs welcomed back Will Dalton from the Development List, Tyreque Reed from the Injured List and Jacob Webb from the Greenville Drive for last night's slugfest. In last night's game it was Somerset who scored first against Brian Van Belle when Austin Wells drove in Harrison Bader after errors by Hamilton and Izzy Wilson. The Sea Dogs struck in the top of the third against Somerset starter Randy Vasquez when Wilyer Abreu smashed a two run home run and Kavadas singled off Carlos Espinal to score Rafaela. Bader hit a home run in the bottom of the third but the Sea Dogs took command in the top of the fourth. Dearden hit another home run, Abreu singled home Wilson, a wild pitch scored Abreu and Koss hit his 17th home run of the season all in that inning. The Patriots answered in the bottom of the fourth when old buddy Jeisson Rosario hit a two run home run off Van Belle. Dearden drove in Binelas against Miguel Castro in the top of the fifth and Jacob Wallace came in to shut down the Patriots in the bottom of the frame. Jacob Webb pitched a scoreless sixth and the Dogs iced it in the top of the seventh when Rafaela belted a grand slam off Nick Ernst. Trey Sweeney hit a two run home run off Webb in the bottom of the seventh but Brett Kennedy pitched a scoreless eighth inning. Wells hit a home run off Kennedy in the bottom of the ninth but Sweeney grounded back to the mound to end the game. The Sea Dogs are your second half Northeast Division champs. The bad news was Ban Belle got smacked around for 4 runs, Webb gave up the home run to Sweeney, Kennedy gave up the jack to Wells and Hudson Potts went 0 for 2 after coming in for Binelas. Other than that, everybody contributed on offense for a total of 22 runs in two games. The Sea Dogs have won 7 in a row and 11 out of 12 in September to clinch with four games still to go.
The next four games should be jockeying for position and setting the rotation up. With Thad Ward gone its going to be up to Shane Drohan and Kyle Hart to carry the load against Somerset this Tuesday night in Portland. It would be unfair to expect the Sea Dogs to score 10 runs a game like they have been but unless Somerset's pitching improves in the next four days, its going to be hard to beat this offense. Hamilton has become the second coming of Tommy Harper right before our eyes while Abreu has fit in nicely after coming over from the Houston organization. Rafaela is turning into a stud before our eyes and Koss has been the defacto leader of the bunch. Kavadas has been a shooting star, going from Salem to Grenville to Portland in one year and shows no sign of slowing down. Scott could be somewhere else next season but he hit a big home run in Tuesday night's game. Binelas was hitting .133 but is up to .166, better late than never for him. Dearden and Wilson have been stepping up lately as well. As good as the hitting's been, the pitching has been disappointing. Giving up 16 runs in two games isn't good and if the offense doesn't produce, they're in trouble. Still, as mentioned earlier, unless the New York Yankees want to send down Gerrit Cole as a ringer this Tuesday, there should be no reason the offense lets up. As long as they don't suffer anymore injuries or callups to Worcester, they have as good a chance as any in the Double A playoffs. Its been a long 8 years for the Sea Dog fans but we're back!
Not that anyone gives a rats ass about the Red Sox at this point but they return to action tomorrow night at home against the Kansas City Royals. Michael Wacha (11-1, 2.69 ERA) goes for the Sox against Jonathan Heasley of Kansas City. The game begins at 7:10 PM at Fenway Park.
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