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Bowie hands Justin Masterson a loss in his first outing with Portland since his sparkling Boston debut.

By DAVID DRIVER, Special to the Press Herald May 1, 2008

BOWIE, Md. — Justin Masterson, the promising 23-year-old right-hander with the Portland Sea Dogs, returned to reality following his major league debut last week with the Boston Red Sox.

Masterson took the loss Wednesday night as the Bowie Baysox beat the Sea Dogs 5-3 to clinch their first series win against Portland since 2004.

Masterson's last start was at Fenway Park, which opened in 1912. His start Wednesday night was at Prince George's Stadium, which hosted its first game in 1994.

His last appearance April 24 took place before 37,848 major league fans. His outing Wednesday night came before an announced minor league crowd of 1,461, with about 100 in the stands at the end of the game.

Masterson (1-1) was forced to throw a lot of pitches early against Bowie and was taken out with one out in the fourth and the Baysox leading, 4-1.

He gave up four runs, five hits and three walks and had five strikeouts.

He allowed just two hits and one run in six innings in a no-decision against the Angels in a 7-5 loss April 24.

"You just have to keep pitching well wherever you are at," Masterson said. "I felt I had more run than sink on my fastball. I felt I should have and could have pitched better.

"I wasn't hitting my spots when I needed to. They put some hits together to score some runs.

"It is definitely a motivating factor to get back (with the Red Sox).

"He is a professional kid who handled it very well," Portland Manager Arnie Beyeler said of Masterson.

"They had an idea what he threw. He threw the ball pretty well. He was down in the zone.

"Tip your hat, they did a nice job. He gets paid to attack the zone and get ground balls."

Bowie starter Chris Waters (5-0) allowed just three hits and one unearned run in six innings.

Portland's Iggy Suarez drove in a run in the seventh to make it 5-2, and Bubba Bell singled in another run to make it 5-3.

But Bowie reliever Felix Romero struck out Aaron Bates to end the threat with the tying runs on base.

Romero retired Suarez on a foul pop with two on and two outs in the eighth to preserve the lead again.

Bowie closer Julio Manon retired the Dogs in order in the ninth for his sixth save.

Portland (17-8) took a 1-0 lead in the first on a two-out single by Bates that scored Bell. The hit extended Bates' hitting streak to 14 games.

The Dogs entered the game with an batting average of .317 with two outs and runners in scoring position.

Masterson gave up an RBI single on an 0-2 pitch to Lou Montanez in the third as Bowie tied the game at 1-1.

Bowie (13-12) took a 2-1 lead in the fourth when Nolan Reimold scored on a passed ball with one out and the bases loaded.

Sebastien Boucher followed with a two-run double to give Bowie a 4-1 lead and knock Masterson out of the game in favor of Daniel Haigwood.

Ben Davis hit a long homer in the fifth against Haigwood as Bowie took a 5-1 lead.

Masterson entered Wednesday with a 0.95 ERA for the Dogs.