Aug. 30 Portland ME EL Playoff Picture
PORTLAND, Maine -- Watching the Eastern League playoff picture take shape....Portland did itself a big favor tonight by taking a dramatic 7-6 win over Trenton...Jay Johnson singling in Jeff Natale with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth...Sea Dogs have a game and a half lead over New Hampshire, which lost big (8-1) to Connecticut, of all teams....
Trenton and Erie have both clinched playoff spots...Trenton the Northern Div kings, and Erie close to nailing down the Southern....Akron, despite some doom and gloom from my friend Steph Storm (superb baseball writer for the Akron Beacon Journal), looks like they're in for the second spot in the South...
Asked Trenton Mgr Tony Franklin to assess the race between NH and Portland...diplomatically danced through the answer...knowing that he'll be playing one or the other again in the first round...."Right now it's anybody's to win. It just comes down to who's going to get the breaks, as it always does. They both throw good pitchers, and they both hit well. You can't give an edge to either one."
A few weeks ago, I stood in the home clubhouse at Scranton's PNC Field, talking with pitching phenom Ian Kennedy. Happened to notice a Trenton Thunder cap in his locker, so I said, "I don't mean to be nosy, but what's with the Trenton hat." He said that he gives his dad a cap from each place that he's pitched. Now he's going to make his big league debut with the Bronx Bombers on Saturday.....Guess he'll have to come up with another hat for the old man.....
Dan Hickling
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