Kelly Shoppach drives in three runs for Portland, which set an attendance record at the box office this season.
PORTLAND – Before the Portland Sea Dogs packed up their belongings and scattered to various destinations to begin the off-season, there was some unfinished business to take care of.
Kelly Shoppach had three hits and drove in three runs as the Sea Dogs closed out the season with a 6-4 victory over the New Haven Ravens before another sold-crowd of 6,975 at Hadlock Field Monday afternoon.
The victory capped off a season during which the team came up a little short in the standings, but set a record at the box office.
The Sea Dogs (72-70) finished with a winning record for the third time in four years, but also missed the playoffs for the sixth straight year.
Despite losing six dates to bad weather, the total attendance was 405,021.
The average of 6,231 per game was a club record.
“I knew the Red Sox would be a big draw here, but it’s worked out better than I expected” said team owner Dan Burke. “They’ve been very, very good to us. They really worked hard to improve this team and frankly, we did better than I hoped we would.”
It would have been understandable if the Sea Dogs had mailed in their performance after learning just 15 hours earlier that they had been eliminated from playoff contention.
But anybody who has watched this team for the five months knew to expect otherwise.
“We always play hard,” said Shoppach, who along with reliever Scott Aldred will join Triple-A Pawtucket for the International League playoffs that begin Wednesday in Ottawa. “That’s the makeup of this team. You’re not ever going to catch us loafing.”
With the Sea Dogs trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the second inning, Shoppach got the offense going with a blast into the net on top of the left field wall. It was the All-Star catcher’s 12th home run of the season.
Portland tied it in the third as Justin Headley’s two-out single brought in Jim Goelz (two hits, two runs).
The Ravens jumped back on top in the top of the fifth before the Sea Dogs answered with four runs in the bottom of the inning against Peter Bauer.
Greg Catalanotte’s double down the right-field line with the bases loaded capped off the inning.
Jerome Gamble (2-0), who was called up from Class-A Sarasota to make the start in place of Josh Stevens, got the win. The right-hander, who likely will be part of the starting rotation in Portland next season, gave up four hits, three runs, walked none and struck out seven over five innings.
Jeremy Owens, who was named the team’s Most Valuable Player before the game, showed part of the reason why when he made a spectacular catch at the wall in center field to rob Shawn Fagan off of extra bases leading off the sixth.
New Haven pulled to within two on Paul Chiaffredo’s double off of James Johnson later in the inning.
Andy Shibilo replaced Johnson and retired all seven men he faced.
Shibilo gave way to Aldred, who closed things out to record his eighth save.
Johnson said that while he’s happy to be able to head back to Florida and spend time with his family, that didn’t make seeing everybody go their separate ways any easier.
“You don’t spend six months with people without developing some serious relationship,” said Johnson. “To me, this is always a sad day.”
Sea Dogs notes: Three other awards were also handed out before the game, with Josh Stevens (Pitcher of the Year), John Nathans (10th Player) and James Johnson (Good Citizen) also recognized….There was a moment of silence before the game for Lewiston’s Robert Beaudoin, the father of Sea Dogs assistant general manager Jim Beaudoin, who died unexpectedly last Friday.
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