PORTLAND — Minor league baseball wears dual faces. Winning, and player development.
The Portland Sea Dogs fell just short in the first part, Thursday, dropping a 2-1 squeaker to the Binghamton Mets before a gathering of 6,575 at Hadlock Field.
That result aside, the night would have to be considered one more positive step in the maturation of Sea Dogs lefty starter Felix Doubront.
Doubront, one of three Dogs who are on Boston’s 40 man roster ”“ which tells you what the Sox think of him ”“ didn’t do anything spectacular.
He didn’t even get past the fifth inning .
What he did do was become a just a tad better in those little details that may someday get him to the big leagues.
“He settled down,” said Portland catcher John Otness. “By the fifth inning, he started executing his pitches.”
Doubront made matters interesting right away, when he went to counts of 0-2, 0-2, and 1-2 on the first three Mets, and lost them all.
Yet he slipped out of the bases-loaded predicament with just one run, that coming on Shawn Bowman’s sacrifice fly.
“The first inning,” said Portland pitching coach Mike Cather, “it seemed like he was working through some stuff. But he really got locked in there, the last four innings. It’s part of his development to learn that you can actually lose the game in the first inning. Obviously that didn’t happen, but it’s important to come in there, ready and prepared.”
More damage was prevented when Portland center fielder Josh Reddick nailed Jose Coronado ”“ who tried to score from second on Lucas Duda’s single ”“ with a perfect strike to Otness at the plate.
Doubront settled down after that, and allowed just two singles and a walk throughout the rest of his five inning stint.
“I really liked what I saw,” said Cather. “His curveball got better as the game wore on. We saw a lot more maturity out there. He didn’t get a couple calls, and didn’t show it. That’s important for a young kid in a tight game like that. He didn’t back down.”
Otness said that Doubront had begun to dig a little deeper into his repertoire to get Binghamton hitters past Strike Two.
“There were a couple 10-pitch at bats, it felt like,” Otness said. “It ran his pitch count up. It was like we got to two strikes and we couldn’t finish them off. That’s frustrating on one side. But the other side is that Doubront’s got such good stuff that he can throw what he wants, whenever.
“They came out ready to go, and Doubront went to his secondary stuff (his curveball) and was able to keep them off-balance. They had to respec t his secondary pitches.”
Meanwhile, Dogs hitters had trouble solving Binghamton starter Dylan Owen, who held them scoreless on two hits through the first four frames.
“We didn’t do too much offensively,” said Portland skipper Arnie Beyeler. “You have to tip your hat to their guys. It was a good baseball game.”
Portland’s lone run came in the fifth, when Reid Engel laced a one-out single to right, then scampered to third after a pick-off attempt by Owen skipped past Mets first baseman Ike Davis.
Engel then scored on Ryan Khoury’s sacrifice fly, which knotted the score, 1-1.
Binghamton regained the lead for good in the seventh, when Coronado led off against Dogs’ reliever Andrew Dobies and beat out a scratch single.
Coronado moved to second on a wild pitch and later scored when Shawn Bowman fisted a single into right field.
CHIN MUSIC: It may be a while before Casey Kelly, Boston’s top draft choice in 2008, arrives in Portland. And when he does get there, it could either be as a pitcher, or as a shortstop.
Kelly, who has big league potential at both positions, will head to the Futures’ Game as a pitcher.
Then, according to Rob Leary, Boston’s Minor League Field Director, who has been making the rounds among Red Sox farm clubs, Kelly will head back to Florida to begin work at short.
Tonight, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats will move into Hadlock for a four-game set with the Dogs. RHP Jarod Plummer (6-4, 4.07) will get the start against New Hampshire’s RHP Marty McLeary (101, 3.57)
— Contact Dan Hickling at dhickling@journaltribune.com.
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