Baseball is a game of minimizing failure. If you fail slightly less than the other guys, you’re a good player. If you’re a hitter who succeeds around three times every 10 at-bats, they might build a statue of you in front of a ballpark someday. If you’re a pitcher who gets a few more outs than the next guy, you have an arm touched by gods.

Double-A baseball, the level at which the Portland Sea Dogs play, is a failure proving ground. To make it to Portland — so close to the ultimate goal of a spot on the Boston Red Sox roster, yet also so far from the major leagues — you’ve had to show a lot of talent. More often than not, baseball has probably come easily to you.

And now it doesn’t.

“Once you get to this level, this is where guys figure you out pretty quick. You get exposed a lot quicker. These pitchers are a little bit better than what you faced in A ball,” Sea Dogs manager Chad Epperson said. “Not necessarily stuff wise all the time, but they can hit their spots. When they know what your weaknesses are, they’re going to stick to them.”

How a player maintains focus while struggling is a key part of the development process, said Brian Abraham, the organization’s director of player development. The Red Sox like to challenge players and see no reason to keep a player at a lower level for the sake of more at-bats or innings pitched. If you’re excelling in High-A Greenville, you’re going to find yourself in Portland soon. They even expect you to struggle some, he said.

“There’s a point in every player’s career where they need to be pushed to see whether or not they are, for I guess lack of a better term, prospect or suspect,” Abraham said.

If you’re putting in the work, you will be evaluated fairly, Abraham said. The game is more than what goes on the back of a baseball card. Say Player A hits 10 straight rockets right at the shortstop and goes 0 for 10. Player B has five bloopers fall in that black hole between center field and second base and ends up with a hitting streak. Player A is not going to be penalized for bad luck. Player B is going to work on barreling up the ball so those bloops develop vapor trails.

Infielder Drew Ehrhard got off to a slow start last season with the Sea Dogs, hitting just .130 with a .200 on-base percentage at the end of April. The key to breaking out of it was reminding himself of all the work he put in to get to that point. Ehrhard continued to have an up-and-down season but ended on a strong note, hitting .304 with a .407 on-base percentage in September.

“Some days you’re going to have great days. Some days aren’t going to be as good. The beautiful thing about this game is you have another one the next day,” Ehrhard said.

Left-handed pitcher Hayden Mullins, the No. 16 prospect in Boston’s system according to MLB Pipeline, knows failure is part of the game. He’s not going to get every hitter out. It’s on him to keep the bad outings from spiraling.

In his first season of pro ball in 2023, Mullins’ earned-run average was 5.68. Last season, which included 18 games in Portland, it was 2.21.

“I think if we’ve all played this game as long as we have, we’ve seen failure at every level, myself included. I saw a lot of failure in college. I saw a lot of failure early on in my career,” Mullins said. “The goal is just to get better every day. Trend in the right direction.”

The not-so-secret weapon the Red Sox have in Portland is Epperson. Now in his fifth season managing the Sea Dogs, he’s been essential in preparing the next generation of Red Sox for the major leagues. Ehrhard said he feels blessed to have played for Epperson. Mullins called Epperson and pitching coaches Juan Rivera and Isaiah Paige, as well as former pitching coach Sean Isaac, some of the best guys he’s seen in a clubhouse.

That trust, that knowledge that no matter what happens, the manager and coaches have your back, is as big for a player’s confidence as anything.

“Eppy’s one of the best in the Red Sox organization and I’d argue one of the best in minor league baseball, in terms of providing an environment that helps guys get better, that pushes players, that challenges players,” Abraham said. “

Sea Dogs know players they’re going to fail some of the time. They also know they have a lot of people invested in making sure those failures are bumps, not the norm.