The Sea Dogs are still taking shape, and after a season without baseball at Hadlock Field, local fans are still getting to know the names of this latest incarnation.
Aside from the touted prospects, a few minor-league veterans are making strong first impressions.
Jake Lopez made his Double-A debut five years ago, and Johan Mieses a year later, in 2017.
On Friday night, Mieses belted his second long home run and Lopez added a grand slam to power the Sea Dogs to a 9-4 victory over the New Hampshire Fisher Cats before a socially-distanced crowd of 1,484 at Hadlock Field.
The Sea Dogs (3-1) have won three straight after a lopsided loss on opening night. They continue their six-game homestand against New Hampshire with matinee games Saturday and Sunday.
Mieses, 25, spent five years as a Dodgers farmhand and two with the Cardinals before signing as a minor-league free agent with the Red Sox after the 2019 season. On Thursday night, he cleared the Maine Monster to break a tie and send the Sea Dogs to a doubleheader sweep.
His next at-bat came in the second inning Friday and resulted in a majestic blast that left his bat traveling 108 mph and didn’t stop until thumping high up the batter’s eye in center field to tie the score at 1.
“His upside is huge,” said Sea Dogs Manager Corey Wimberly. “We’ve been on him about plate discipline. If he gets a pitch in the zone, he can do damage.”
It was tied at 3 in the sixth when the Sea Dogs loaded the bases on two walks and a bunt single by Grant Williams. Tanner Nishioka was hit by a pitch to force in a run and Lopez followed by lofting a 1-2 pitch off the giant Coke bottle above the 37-foot wall in left field to make it 8-3.
At 28, Lopez is among the more well-traveled members of the Sea Dogs. He played seven years in the Royals organization and spent 2019 with Atlanta’s Triple-A farm club before coming to the Red Sox.
“He had a really good year the last season he played,” Wimberly said of Lopez. “And we’ve seen some great things out of him.”
Lopez and Mieses each had two hits. Everyone else in the Portland lineup had one. Touted outfield prospect Jeisson Rosario went 1 for 3 with two walks.
Sea Dogs starter Thad Ward and relievers Zack Kelly and Durbin Feltman combined on 16 strikeouts, with Kelly chalking up half of them in three innings. He faced 13 batters in three innings and allowed only one batted ball in play, a bouncer up the middle by Demi Orimoloye.
Kelly, the last member of the Portland bullpen to see action this season, also walked three batters, hit another and committed a balk.
“I think you saw a guy pitch with an edge,” Wimberly said. “He was excited to get out there and throw the ball.”
NOTES: Triston Casas, Boston’s top minor-league prospect, sat out the game after going 1 for 7 in Thursday’s doubleheader. … As third-base coach, Wimberly waved home three runners attempting to score from second base on hits to left field, but only one of them made it safely. New Hampshire outfielder Otto Lopez gunned down Ryan Fitzgerald and Jhonny Pereda back to back in the second inning. “Hindsight is 20/20,” Wimberly said. “A loss is not a loss. It’s a lesson.” … The turning point in Thursday’s twinbill came when Pedro Castellanos finished off an 11-pitch at-bat with a single through the shortstop hole to open the home fourth with Portland trailing 5-0. “That’s kind of what jolted the energy in the dugout,” Wimberley said. “At-bats like that are really contagious for the team.” The Sea Dogs scored three runs in the fourth on their way to a 9-6 victory.
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