PORTLAND —  It was slow. For at least a moment, it was painful. But it was also productive.

Carl Crawford’s first and most likely only night at Hadlock Field was all that with some post-game fireworks thrown in as the Trenton Thunder handed the Portland Sea Dogs their fourth loss in a row, 11-3, before a standing room only crowd of  7,368 Tuesday night.

Batting leadoff and playing left field, Crawford went 1-for-2 against Trenton southpaw Shaeffer Hall with two walks, a stolen base and a run scored in seven innings.

“I was cool with (the two walks). I didn’t put the bat on the ball as well as I’d like to,” he said. “But I was fine with the way I took pitches.”

It was the sixth game of Crawford’s rehabilitation stint.  The 30-year-old outfielder had off-season surgery on his left wrist and suffered a UCL strain in his left (throwing) elbow in April.

Crawford was making his first appearance with Portland after playing five games for the Red Sox Rookie-A affiliate in the Gulf Coast League. In five games in Fort Myers, he was 3-for-14 with two runs scored.

“I felt like I was starting to get into a rhythm at the plate (Tuesday) because it was so different,” he said. “The balls were so far out of the zone in Florida that you really couldn’t get anything going.”

“I think it was good for him to face lefthanded pitching tonight,” Portland manager Kevin Boles said. “He worked his at-bats. He showed some patience up at the plate. He takes a Major League at-bat.”

Crawford had a scare in his second at-bat, fouling a ball off the top of the right knee and the shin, and Crawford collapsed to the ground in front of home plate.

“I just hoped I hadn’t broken nothing,” he said. “I hit it so hard I was just hoping everything was OK.”

After being checked out by Sea Dogs trainer Brandon Henry, Crawford got back up, took ball three, then flew out to shallow left field to end the third inning.

Crawford walked in his first plate appearance and moved to second when Jackie Bradley Jr. tapped out to the pitcher. With No. 3 hitter Bryce Brentz at the plate, he immediately broke for third and stole the bag easily. Brentz got him home with a sacrifice fly for a 1-0 Portland lead.

Trenton touched Portland starter Anthony Ranaudo ( 3 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 0 K) for five runs in the third to take a lead it would never relinquish. Thunder cleanup hitter Zoilo Almonte had a three-run homer en route to a 3-for-5 night.

Crawford was in the middle of Portland’s best chance to make a game of it again.

With runners at second and third, one out and the Sea Dogs trailing 7-2 in the fifth, he drew his second walk of the night on five pitches to load the bases. Hall (6.2 IP, 3 R, 1 ER, 6 H, 4 BB, 4 K) snuffed out the rally by getting Bradley to ground into a double play.

Crawford’s only hit came in the seventh when he hit a chopper to the right side of the infield.

First baseman Luke Murton tried to shovel the ball to Hall covering but threw it away. It was scored a hit, and Crawford left the game for pinch-runner Peter Hissey to a somewhat tepid ovation.

Crawford reported no problems with his elbow during the game. He cleanly played a line drive off the “Maine Monster” in left field in the first inning and made a strong throw to second to hold Addison Maruszak to a single.

“I’d been throwing like that (in Florida), so it wasn’t like a big surprise for me to make that throw,” said Crawford, who had a heavy bandage with ice wrapped around his elbow following the game. “I was in a position where  I think I can make that throw and it doesn’t really hurt when I make a throw like that.”

In the seventh inning, he dove to his left for Melky Mesa’s line drive to left-center but couldn’t glove it as Mesa collected his second double of the game.

Crawford will accompany the Sea Dogs as they hit the road for Manchester, N.H. and a three-game series with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats starting Wednesday.

He said he isn’t ready to guess when he’ll be back with the Red Sox.

“After that, I’m not sure,” he said.  “It’s how I feel and where the teams are and stuff like that. I’ll probably have a better idea of what I’m doing after the second date (Thursday) on the road.”

[email protected]