David Hamilton stars as Portland edges Binghamton 4-3

(Portland) The Field of Dreams reenactment at Hadlock Field is always a good take.

Today was the day for it.

The sun was shining, and the seats were filled.

In recent years the sight of Portland Sea Dogs players in uniforms from the 1920’s signals a season coming to a close.

But not this year.

The Sea Dogs are leading the Northeast Division in the second half and have a chance to make the Eastern League Playoffs.  That feat hasn’t happened since 2014!

Portland has another game with Binghamton and then a full week at Somerset (Yankees farm team) to close the regular season.

If the Sea Dogs are still standing after that series, they will start the Playoffs at home on September 20^th.

The Binghamton Rumble Ponies fell to the Sea Dogs 4-3 this afternoon.

That’s forty wins for Portland in the second half with only twenty-two losses.  Overall, Portland is 70-61.

Sea Dogs’ starter Kyle Hart allowed a hit to the first batter (Wyatt Young) and a two-run homer to the second batter (Carlos Cortes).

Long afternoon ahead?  Not today. Kyle shut down the RP’s for the next six innings to get the win.

David Hamilton stole his team record-breaking 65^th base and hit a three-run homer to give Portland the lead for good.

David also scored the first run.  He was on third base when Ceddane Rafaela hit an infield grounder.  The fielder looked David back but as soon as he threw to first David headed home diving in ahead of the throw.

On David’s 65^th steal there wasn’t even a throw.

The New York Mets only top-thirty prospect at Binghamton is shortstop Ronny Mauricio.  The 21-year-old has twenty-five homers and eighty-two runs batted in.  Certainly a next-level player in 2023.

The last-place Rumble Ponies have definitely been helpful to the Sea Dogs.  The current record between them is 15-2 in Portland’s favor!

Christian Koss will win the team MVP Award tomorrow (Sunday).  He leads Portland in almost every offensive category.  Good chance Christian will be at the next level in 2023.

Another rising player in the Red Sox farm system is Portland’s Ceddane Rafaela.  He instantly catches your eye with his defense in centerfield.  He can hit and has speed.  Hard to imagine that he wouldn’t be at Worcester next year.

The pregame show was excellent…as usual.  Emma Tiedemann was in costume and was the narrator.

One difference I noticed this year was that the players did not have cellphones with them.  Last year many of them were busy taking pictures while pretending it was the Field of Dreams era.  Not this year.

Many hands were involved in getting the cornfield setup in centerfield and afterwards removing the cornfield. Well organized.

Very warm day.  May have reached the mid-80’s.  Sunburns were there for the taking!

Slugger was victimized by the weather.  Management had the talented big guy out there doing an energetic dance routine the inning before the race.

But credit Slugger, in his race around the bases he got off to the best start I’ve ever seen.  The young opponent was fast, but Slugger toasted him around second.  For a second I thought that finally the losing streak would end.

But as Slugger passed first base, he just flat-out ran dry.  He couldn’t move another step. He went down in a heap and his opponent got the win.

I have to partially blame management for the loss because dancing and doing somersaults just before you’re running the bases (on a hot day) is asking a lot.  Fortunately, the big guy wasn’t seriously injured. 

Thanks again to Chris Cameron for setting up my visit.  I plan to return on September 20^th if the Sea Dogs are in the Playoffs.