Near the end of spring training, after Cody Asche was handed his release by the Los Angeles Dodgers, he faced a decision.
“Go home and pout,” he said, “or play somewhere.”
With no other options in organized baseball, Asche accepted an offer from the independent Sugar Land (Texas) Skeeters of the Atlantic League. Late last week, the Red Sox called and told him of an opening on their Double-A roster.
He jumped at the chance. On Tuesday night, Asche collected two hits and drove in a run as the Sea Dogs overcame a dominant start by a top Toronto pitching prospect to beat the New Hampshire Fisher Cats 4-2 at Hadlock Field.
Asche first came through the Eastern League in 2012 and has logged nearly 400 games over five seasons in the big leagues, for the Phillies and White Sox. He remembers playing at Hadlock Field when Xander Bogaerts patrolled shortstop for the Sea Dogs.
Rain delayed Tuesday’s start by more than an hour and resulted in Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia being scratched from the lineup in what would have been the fourth game of his rehabilitation assignment in Portland.
Instead, the several hundred fans of the announced 3,243 attendance who stuck around for the game witnessed the Double-A debut of New Hampshire’s Nate Pearson, drafted 28th overall in 2017 and signed to a reported bonus of $2.45 million. The 6-foot-6 right-hander sports a fastball that hits triple digits, as well as two breaking pitches and a deceptive change-up.
Exactly one year earlier, in his Florida State League debut, Pearson took a line drive off his right forearm, fracturing it. He missed the rest of the season but managed to make six starts in the Arizona Fall League.
This spring, Pearson dominated FSL batters, going 3-0 with a 0.86 ERA while striking out 35 and walking only three in 21 innings. Tuesday night, he showed more of the same.
Pearson retired the first 10 batters, six by strikeout. Asche broke up the no-hitter with a sharp single to right field. One inning later, Marcus Wilson skipped a single up the middle before Pearson registered his eighth strikeout on his 72nd and final pitch of the evening. He didn’t walk a batter.
“He’s a really good pitcher,” Asche said. “I think guys were a little giddy at the start. As a team, we kind of settled down the second time through.”
The Sea Dogs celebrated Pearson’s departure by jumping on the mid-90s offerings from reliever Yennsy Diaz. Tate Matheny doubled off the wall in right. C.J. Chatham drove him in with a single. After an Asche walk, Brett Netzer bunted the runners into scoring position and Bobby Dalbec delivered a two-run triple to put the Sea Dogs on top 3-2.
Portland left-hander Kyle Hart turned in a quality start, allowing a single earned run in six innings. He struck out seven, walked one, hit a batter and got hit himself, in the right wrist with a line drive off the bat of Alberto Mineo for an RBI single that put New Hampshire ahead 2-0 in the sixth.
“Just trying to pound the zone,” Hart said. “Left a few pitches over the plate with two strikes that they did a good job handling and putting hard in play and resulted in a couple runs. I need to clean that up a bit.”
NOTES: Pedroia, who planned to play seven innings, is expected to continue his assignment with the Sea Dogs on Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon. … With Joe Oliver attending to personal business, roving infield coordinator Andy Fox handled managerial duties. Fox played in the inaugural Sea Dogs game at Hadlock Field 25 years ago.
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