Devern Hansack earned a promotion to Boston by striking out eight over a career-high eight innings and the Sea Dogs scored four times apiece in the second and third innings on their way to a title-clinching 8-5 victory Akron in Game Five of the Eastern League Championship Series in front of a crowd of 3,937 at Hadlock Field.
The championship is the first in franchise history for Portland, which lost its first three trips to the ELCS (the first two were in 1996 and 1997, when Portland was the Marlins’ Double-A affiliate), and the first for a full-season Red Sox affiliate since 1999, when Single-A Augusta won the South Atlantic League. It is also the first EL title for the Sox since 1983, when the Roger Clemens-led New Britain Red Sox beat Lynn (MA) in the ELCS.
“It’s a tremendous feeling,” Sea Dogs manager Todd Claus said via telephone from a jubilant Portland clubhouse. “I’m walking on air right now. It’s because you feel a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment with everything you preach all year about being unselfish and being a good teammate and how to go about your business in a professional way. We actually accomplished something and it feels awesome. There’s a lot of people that can take pride in what happened here today.”
Top Sox prospect Brandon Moss, who played in 286 of the Sea Dogs’ 299 games the last two seasons and hit an EL-best five homers during the postseason, was named Most Valuable Player of the ELCS. “It was awesome, a good feeling—the first championship I’ve ever been a part of,” Moss said.
Moss took home the hardware, but the Sea Dogs were led Sunday by a spate of newcomers and overlooked players castoff by other organizations.
Brian Myrow, who opened the season in Korea, signed with the Sox Aug. 4 and immediately replaced the injured Chad Spann at third base. Jacoby Ellsbury, a first-round draft pick in 2005 who was promoted from Wilmington July 12, had two RBI singles while George Kottaras, who was acquired from the Padres Sept. 5, had an RBI single. The big hit was delivered by Keoni DeRenne, a veteran of three organizations who was signed as a minor league free agent in January. DeRenne’s three-run triple extended the Sea Dogs’ lead to 8-0 with two outs in the third.
The unlikeliest contributor of all was Hansack, a 28-year-old who didn’t pitch above Single-A in four seasons in the Astros chain (2000-2003) and didn’t pitch at all the previous two seasons. But he was signed by the Sox in January and ending up leading the Sea Dogs in innings pitched (132 2/3), strikeouts (124) and ERA (3.15, sixth-best in the EL). He started Game One of both series—against ERA champion Philip Hughes and EL Pitcher of the Year Adam Miller, respectively—and went 2-1 with a 2.11 ERA , 17 strikeouts and just three walks in 21 1/3 postseason innings.
And Claus said Sunday Hansack will join the Sox Tuesday for the start of a three-game series against the Twins at Fenway Park. “Just tremendous character on his part and perseverance and just mental makeup to go out there and do what he did today,” Claus said of Hansack, who allowed three runs on seven hits and walked none.
“For the past month and a half, two months, Hansack’s been the best pitcher in the league,” Moss said. “There’s been no doubt about that. Been the best. I knew he’d be ready to go [Sunday].”
The lopsided Game Five victory was an atypical ending to an arduous championship run for the Sea Dogs, who were in flux throughout the season. Only Hansack remains from the Opening Day rotation and eight of the 24 players on the playoff roster were not with the Sea Dogs as of June 30.
The Sea Dogs were in first or second place in the Northern Division—the top two teams in each division qualify for the playoffs—every day from Apr. 26 through Aug. 2, but fell to third place during a 10-game losing streak from July 29-Aug. 8. Fortunately for the Sea Dogs, they had enough time to not only recover from the tailspin—Portland took over second place for good Aug. 15, though it did not clinch a playoff berth until the last day of the regular season Sept. 4—but to also allow the newcomers to gel.
“I think the turning point was probably when we got [Andrew] Dobies and [Tommy] Hottovy and Myrow and [Brett] Evert,” Claus said. “We got these new guys in time, we got them with two, three weeks left to go in the season. Got them in plenty of time to sort of mesh and become part of the team chemistry.”
The Sea Dogs were also united by their underdog status in the playoffs. They finished 6 ½ games behind Trenton in the Northern Division and 13 ½ games behind no. 1 overall seed Akron, opened each playoff series on the road and faced three of the EL’s top pitchers in their four road games: Trenton’s Hughes and Tyler Clippard, the latter of whom led the EL in strikeouts, and Akron’s Miller, who led the circuit in wins.
“Nobody picked us to win, some people didn’t even thing we belonged,” Claus said. “A lot of people said we backed in. However they want to say it, when you play a short series, anything can happen and there are intangibles, I believe, that come into play. And I saw it first-hand: We didn’t have the most talented team. You look at it on paper and you debate it as far as talent, prospects, however you want to debate it, we probably weren’t the most talented team. We finished five games over .500 and just beat a team that finished 32 games over 400. So I think the heart and character of this team speaks for itself.”
Six of the Sea Dogs’ nine playoff games were determined by two runs or less. Portland won the first two games of the ELCS in Akron, but the Aeros broke a tie with two runs in the ninth inning of Game Three win and were two outs away from elimination when they mounted a two-run rally to win Game Four.
There would be no such dramatics Sunday, though the Aeros scored two in the ninth off Jonathan Searles before Trevor Crowe’s fly out to left fielder Chris Durbin sent the Sea Dogs spilling out of the dugout for the type of wild celebration they were forced to watch 365 days earlier.
“There’s a reason the Yankees sit around and watch other teams celebrate, a reason why [NFL quarterback] Donovan McNabb watches the other team celebrate—he just wants to be in that position,” Claus said. “He wants to burn that in his brain and he wants to be that guy.”
Twenty-four Sea Dogs know what it’s like to be that guy now.
Diehard managing editor Jerry Beach can be reached at diehardmag@yahoo.com. To receive a free issue of Diehard, call 888-979-0979.
EASTERN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Portland vs. Akron
(Portland wins series, 3-2)
Game One (Tuesday): PORTLAND 4, Akron 3 (WP: Hansack, LP: Miller, SV: Martinez)
Game Two (Wednesday): PORTLAND 13, Akron 8 (WP: Searles, LP: Laffey)
Game Three (Friday): Akron 6, PORTLAND 4 (WP: Warden, LP: Evert, SV: Sipp)
Game Four (Saturday): Akron 6, PORTLAND 5 (WP: Warden, LP: Hertzler, SV: Sipp)
Game Five (Sunday): PORTLAND 8, Akron 5 (WP: Hansack, LP: Bay)
EASTERN LEAGUE NORTHERN DIVISION CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Portland vs. Trenton
(Portland wins series, 3-1)
Game One (Sept. 6): Trenton 3, PORTLAND 1 (WP: Manning; LP: Hansack)
Game Two (Sept. 7): PORTLAND 10, Trenton 3 (WP: Hottovy; LP: Clippard)
Game Three (Sept. 8): PORTLAND 5, Trenton 4 (WP: Dobies; LP: Childers, SV: Martinez)
Game Four (Sept. 9): PORTLAND 4, Trenton 3 (WP: Hertzler; LP: Patterson)
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