Sea Dogs pitching woes

Sure, John Smoltz suffered a first-inning letdown. But the veteran is proven and showed promise.

As for the Portland Sea Dogs, their pitching promise is there, but it has been hard to find. After a 7-2 loss in Norwich, CT on Thursday, Portland dropped to 33-38, and its team ERA rose to 4.62. Only Binghamton has a worse ERA, and the Mets are 27-44.

Kason Gabbard is still trying to find consistency since coming back to the Red Sox organization. In his second start for the Sea Dogs, Gabbard went 4 innings (8 H, 7 R, 6 BB, 0 K).

Portland offered little in offensive support. Ryan Khoury (2-for-4) and Jorge Jimenez (3-for-4) had the only hits. Jimenez (.298) also hit his 8th home run.

Pawtucket beat Norfolk and old friend David Pauley 7-4. Pauley (4.39) is 5-6 ... Fernando Cabrera (1.06) got his 16th save ... Aaron Bates (.262) boke out of a mini-slump, going 3-for-4.

Two outfielders (Ryan Kalish and Matt Sheely) have been promoted from Salem to Portland. Two others are trying to get here. Jason Place (.261) went 3-for-4 on Thursday, with a triple and double. Che-Hsuan Lin (.242) was 2-for-5 ... Salem starter Eammon Portice went 6 innnings (5 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K).

Tommy Hottovy (0.00) pitched two more scoress innings of relief (1 H, 2 K) for Lowell  ... Infielder Derrik Gibson,  19, the second-round pick of last year's draft, went 3-for-4.

In the Gulf Coast League, shortstop Jose Garcia went 2-for-3. Garcia, 18, is another one of those promising shortstops from the Dominican. The Red Sox signed him for $260,000.

I hope to check in later from Manchester, NH.