Out with the old…

OK, so I haven’t been true to my word and kept things in order while I worked on my “super special secret project”…I apologize for that. So instead of pretending that I will come back and do so, I will just let you in on what it going down. Beyond Fenway, in it’s current state, will no longer be active, as it has been for the past three seasons. However, I will be starting anew with a similarly focused blog over on Boston.com, which is tentatively scheduled to launch this Friday under the name “On Deck.”

My intentions are to provide more of a complete focus on the entire Red Sox farm system, while keeping abreast of the Minor League teams of New England, as we always have. On top of that, there will be some Can-Am League stuff with the Worcester Tornadoes, as well the the collegiate summer leagues (Cape, NECBL, Futures) and anything else we deem worthy of your time in the realm of prospects and baseball in New England…and beyond.

So let me take this time to thank anyone and everyone who has ever visited this blog, provided a kind word and allowed me to grow with it. A special thanks to Thomas Saucke for all of his help from Rochester, the kid is amazing and his passion for the game shines through in his work.

In closing, I will be sure to drop a link to the new blog on here as soon as it drops. I hope you all will continue to support me over at Boston.com and help me build an even greater community for this great game.

Game Times and Pitchers for 5/31/12

Portland Sea Dogs (Chris Balcom-Miller 2-4, 5.15)
vs. Harrisburg Senators (N/A) @ 10:30 a.m.

New Britain Rock Cats (Andrew Albers 1-1, 3.89)
vs. New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Joel Carreno 1-1, 4.38) @ 10:35 a.m.

Norfolk Tides (Chris Tillman 3-7, 4.78)
vs. Pawtucket Red Sox (Daisuke Matsuzaka 0-1, 3.74) @ 7:05 p.m.

Game Times and Pitchers for 5/29/12

Portland Sea Dogs (Billy Buckner 3-3, 3.28)
vs. Harrisburg Senators (N/A) @ 7:00 p.m.

Norfolk Tides (Eddie Gamboa 1-0, 0.00)
vs. Pawtucket Red Sox (Ross Ohledorf 4-3, 4.07) @ 7:05 p.m.

New Britain Rock Cats (B.J. Hermsen 2-1, 2.83)
vs. New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Chad Jenkins 2-3, 5.03) @ 7:05 p.m.

Where have we been?

OK, it’s been nearly a week since we posted up anything here, so let me apologize on that note and explain a bit. First off it was a very hectic, albeit very rewarding week for myself. Had my Clemens piece hit the Globe, saw my first ever no-hitter in person, got to relapse back into the high school hockey season for a night and got a new laptop (which I’m still trying to figure out completely)…among many other great things.

The main reason I have been a bit dormant is due to some amazing news which I am yet unable to reveal, but will surely do so when all is set in place. This news, as far as Beyond Fenway is concerned, is major and will change the face of this blog moving forward. I assure you all it is for the better and will bring a greater scope of the game to the forefront, allowing us to reach a larger audience, and more importantly bring you more baseball.

Look for an announcement in the coming weeks on that and in the meantime I will do my best to keep things business as usual around here so that we don’t completely lose our way, especially as we finish up the second month of the season.

As always my endless thanks for your support of this website and all of our endeavors. I am more than happy to answer any questions you may have, so feel free to contact me at craig@beyondfenway.com

Last, and most importantly, thank you to all the brave men and women that have served this great nation of ours, giving us an opportunity to enjoy things as simplistic as baseball.

Game Times and Pitchers for 5/20/12

In Portland, Chris Balcom-Miller gets his ninth start of the year and third against Binghamton. He put together his two worst starts of the season in back-to-back outings against the BMets back in April. In those games Balcom-Miller went 0-2, threw 3 2/3 innings, allowed 10 earned runs, 10 hits and 8 walks. In his last outing he allowed 7 hits and 5 walks in a loss against Trenton.

Brandon Duckworth will be looking for his sixth win of the season in his eighth start for the PawSox. He will need to limit the long ball of which he has allowed 7 over his last five outings. He picked up a win at Durham in his last start on Tuesday, going 6 innings, allowing 6 hits and no walks.

Brad Thompson gets his first start of the season for the Rock Cats. He worked a scoreless inning of relief with 2 strikeouts against the Fisher Cats on Thursday in his first appearance of the year after some extended spring training following Tommy John surgery in 2011. His last start came with Triple-A Omaha back in 2010.

The Fisher Cats will turn to Joel Carreno as they look to avoid a sweep at the hands of Trenton. Carreno will be making his second start for New Hampshire after a tough outing on Wednesday when he allowed 3 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks in 3 innings against New Britain. An Eastern League All-Star a year ago, Carreno needs to get back to form after some struggles between Toronto and Triple-A Las Vegas.

Binghamton Mets (Greg Peavey 2-1, 5.45)
vs. Portland Sea Dogs (Chris Balcom-Miller 2-3, 5.30) @ 1:00 p.m.

Pawtucket Red Sox (Brandon Duckworth 5-0, 3.95)
vs. Norfolk Tides (Brad Bergesen 1-2, 5.13) @ 1:15 p.m.

New Britain Rock Cats (Brad Thompson 0-0, 0.00)
vs. Reading Phillies (Jonathan Pettibone 2-4, 3.78) @ 1:35 p.m.

Trenton Thunder (Shaeffer Hall 3-4, 3.59)
vs. New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Joel Carreno 0-0, 9.00) @ 1:35 p.m.

Results and Highlights 5/8/12

Rochester (14-17) – 3
Pawtucket (20-13) – 1
WP: Liam Hendriks (1-0)
LP: Ross Ohlendorf (3-3)
S: Casey Fein (5)
HR: Rochester – Pedro Florimon (1)

HIGHLIGHTS: Ross Ohlendorf went 5 innings, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits for his third consecutive loss … In his second game since being called up from New Britain, Pedro Florimon connected for his first AAA home run … Former Red Sox farmhand Ray Chang went 0 for 3 for the Red Wings … Former Fisher Cat and Rock Cat Darin Mastroianni went 1 for 4 with 2 stolen bases. He is 10 for 11 on stolen base attempts and is tied for third in the International League … The PawSox only mustered four hits, all singles.

New Britain (19-12) – 4
Binghamton (14-16) – 3
WP: Daniel Turpen (3-1)
LP: Robert Carson (0-1)

HIGHLIGHTS: The Rock Cats put up three runs in the top of the ninth inning to erase a two-run deficit. Nathan Hanson’s pinch-hit, two-run, two-out double served as the game-winning hit … Chris Colabello went 2 for 3 with a double, RBI and run scored. He was also the only Rock Cat batter to draw a walk on the night.

New Hampshire (13-17) -
Portland(10-21) – PPD

HIGHLIGHTS: It was the second rain of the year for both teams who will make up the game as part of a single-admission double-header on Friday, July 13th starting at 6:00 p.m.

Sunday’s agenda: Pettite v. PawSox and back to business

My apologies for not providing Friday night’s results or Saturday’s pitchers and game times, but sometimes life carries you too far from a proper connection to get things done.

Moving on, Sunday should be a great day, the sun is set to shine again after a gloomy week and we have Thomas Saucke up in Rochester (follow him on Twitter @Thomas_Saucke) for Andy Pettitte’s final tune-up before joining the Yankees.

This one ruffled the feathers of the hometown-Red Wings faithful as Rochester was forced to bump their Sunday game versus Buffalo to a Saturday doubleheader.

The Scranton/Wilkes Barre Yankees – who are nomads this season as their home digs undergo renovations – were hosting their weekend series against the PawSox at the 2,600 capacity Dwyer Stadium in Batavia, New York – home of the New York-Penn League Batavia Muckdogs.

Once it was announced that Pettitte would be joining the club for a start on Sunday they knew they needed to accommodate the masses, so they targeted the 10,840 seat Frontier Field, a place that the SWB Yanks were already using for half of their home games this season…plus one, now! Of course they they banged the place out within a matter of hours. Talk about your star power!

Thankfully our very own Rochester based red wing was able to swoop in on a ticket to the affair and he will provide his usual passionate and thoughtful take on the event.

Regarding the Red Wings, well they swept the Bisons, 2-1 and 5-0, in their doubleheader and can now enjoy an off-day, so there’s that!

We’ll also get back to business as usual with the game times and pitcher information as well as results and anything else we can come up with should time and distance permit.

Thanks as always for checking in.

- Craig Forde

Games Times and Pitchers for 5/4/12

Portland sends Chris Martin to the mound tonight as the Sea Dogs make their second trip into New Britain where they went 2-1 at the end of April. Martin has allowed only 3 runs, 11 hits and no walks over his last 15 1/3 innings. Logan Darnell will look to remain perfect on the season for the Rock Cats, but will need to be better than his last three starts where he allowed 23 hits, 8 walks and 12 earned runs over 15 2/3 innings of work.

Justin Germano gets his sixth start of the year for Pawtucket, bringing with him a 0.81 WHIP, second best in the International League, and a 1.91 ERA that is third best. He has a 19-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in his 28 1/3 innings of work.

New Hampshire’s Chad Jenkins hits the hill for his sixth start of the season. The Fisher Cats righty has pitched 6 or more innings in four of his five starts and is 1-0 in two starts versus Trenton.

Portland Sea Dogs (Chris Martin 1-2, 4.13)
vs. New Britain Rock Cats (Logan Darnell 3-0, 4.56) @ 6:35 p.m.

Pawtucket Red Sox (Justin Germano 2-1, 1.91)
vs. Toledo Mud Hens (Thad Weber 2-0, 0.64) @ 7:00 p.m.

New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Chad Jenkins 2-2, 5.53)
vs. Trenton Thunder (Brett Marshall 3-1, 3.81) @ 7:05 p.m.

Games Times and Pitchers for 5/1/12

A new month is upon u,s but those pesky April showers still linger and threaten some of tonight’s action.

Chris Balcom-Miller gets his sixth start of the season for Portland, but only his second at home…which might not be a bad thing. In his only Hadlock outing this year he lasted 1 2/3 innings against Binghamton, allowing 5 hits, 3 walks and 4 earned runs. On the bright side, his only win of the season came against the Trenton Thunder back on April 10th.

The PawSox get their first look at the Mud Hens as they pull into Toledo for a four-game series. Doug Mathis will be tasked with holding down the I.L. West leaders. In four starts Mathis has allowed 20 hits and 12 earned runs over 16 2/3 innings, but he did have a season-high 7 strikeouts over five innings in his last outing.

Yohan Pino gets his third start for the Fisher Cats and his first opportunity to pitch in front of the home crowd in Manchester this season. In his last outing against Binghamton he picked up his first win of the year on the strength of 6 innings where he allowed 2 earned runs to go along with 8 strikeouts.

For the season straight night, as of this posting, we are unsure of the Rock Cats starter as they are in a bit of a starting pitching limbo with the recent promotion of would-be starter Luke French to Rochester.

Trenton Thunder (Craig Heyer 1-2, 4.27)
vs. Portland Sea Dogs (Chris Balcom-Miller 1-2, 6.86) @ 6:00 p.m.

Pawtucket Red Sox (Doug Mathis 0-1, 6.61)
vs. Toledo Mud Hens (Lance Pendleton 0-1, 13.50) @ 6:30 p.m.

Reading Phillies (David Buchanan 1-1, 2.16)
vs. New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Yohan Pino 1-0, 3.46) @ 6:35 p.m.

New Britain Rock Cats (N/A)
vs. Harrisburg Senators (Robert Gilliam 1-3, 6.00) @ 7:00 p.m.

Results and Highlights from 4/30/12

Trenton (11-12) – 6
Portland (7-18) – 3
WP: Francisco Rondon (1-0)
LP: Eammon Portice (0-1)
S: Kelvin Perez (1)
HR: Trenton – Ronnier Mustelier (2), Melky Mesa (5)
Portland – Kolbrin Vitek (1)

HIGHLIGHTS: Kolbrin Vitek, the Red Sox first round pick in 2010, went 2 for 4 and hit his first AA home run … Shortstop Derrick Gibson made 2 errors, giving him a team-high 6 … Juan Carlos Linares went 2 for 4 with a run scored. His .362 batting average is fifth best in the Eastern League … The Sea Dogs have league-high 4.86 team ERA.

New Britain (15-9) – 1
Harrisburg (14-10) – 0 (12 inn.)
WP: Luis Perdomo (1-2)
LP: Erik Davis (3-1)
S: Caleb Thielbar (0)

HIGHLIGHTS: Rock Cats pitchers allowed only 2 hits over 12 innings and struck out 16 batters. At one point they retired 17 straight batters before a 12th inning walk, 1 of only 2 on the night … Pedro Florimon, who reached on a bunt single in the top of the 12th, scored the game winner on a wild pitch from Erik Davis .. Caleb Theilbar, who was called up from Ft. Myers to replace Luke French (promoted to Rochester), earned his first AA save in his first AA appearance.

Pawtucket (16-9) – 6
Columbus (13-11) – 4
WP: Garrett Mock (1-1)
LP: Frank Herrmann (1-1)
HR: Pawtucket – Mauro Gomez (8)
Columbus – Matt LaPorta 2 (8), Beau Mills (3)

HIGHLIGHTS: Daniel Nava followed Josh Kroeger’s ninth-inning double with one of his own to break the 4-4 tie. Che-Hsuan Lin drove in Nava with a single to help the PawSox halt their season-high four game losing streak … Catcher Ryan Lavarnway went 0 for 3 and struck out twice. He is 2 for his last 14 with 5 strikeouts … Jose Iglesias pulls his batting average up to .200 with a 2 for 4 effort … Marc Melancon came on in the bottom of the seventh and threw two pitches to Cord Phelps – the only batter he would face – who grounded out to third base for the final out of the inning.

Reading (16-7) – 3
New Hampshire (10-13)-2
WP: Trevor May (5-0)
LP: Deck McGuire (1-4)
S: Jordan Whatcott (1)

HIGHLIGHTS: See game story below.