Kevin's Baseball Stadium Blog: Delta Dental Stadium

Reading Fightin Phils (PHI) @ New Hampshire Fisher Cats (TOR)

July 28, 2024

Fisher Cats 6, Fightin Phils 1

W: CJ Van Eyk
L: Eiberson Castellano

HR: Cade Doughty (NH)

Attendance: 3,722
Time of Game: 2 hours, 39 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Manchester, NH
Opened: 2005
Capacity: 6,500
Level: Double A
League: Eastern

One cool thing about driving in New England is that you can cover several states in a short period of time. On this last Sunday of July, I took what was just a little over a two hour drive from Hartford, Connecticut through Massachusetts up to Manchester, New Hampshire. Manchester is the largest city in New Hampshire and is not too far from Boston. So this is heavy Red Sox territory. But they are only allowed to have one Eastern League affiliate and that happens to be in another Red Sox hotbed of Portland, Maine. So the New Hampshire Fisher Cats are an affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays instead. Closing the loop on something I pondered in the Buffalo post, no, not all of the Blue Jays American based affiliates play the Canadian national anthem before games. Apparently that's just a Buffalo thing.

Delta Dental Stadium is situated on the banks of the Merrimac River just a little bit south of downtown Manchester. It is more reminiscent of other Eastern League ballparks I have visited this year than Hartford was the night before. It is a very nice AA stadium though. The entrance to the stadium is down the third base line rather than behind home plate, similar to other Eastern League parks in Erie and Harrisburg. The open concourse above the main seating level provides views of the field throughout and a view of the river from points down the third base line. There is no regular outfield seating. But what there is in left field is a full service restaurant and sports bar with TVs, not something I've seen in a lot of minor league parks. There is table seating associated with that brewhouse above the left field wall. Outside of the actual stadium perimeter in left-center field is a hotel with its own patio and bar where people can watch the game from as well. I actually stayed at that hotel that night and hung out at the bar later that evening. Being able to catch a game is a nice perk for hotel guests, but I was obviously there to see the stadium in its entirety. This was a somewhat toasty July afternoon, which may have contributed with it being a smaller crowd than what I experienced at most of the other stops on this trip. Perhaps the biggest cheers of the day went to the dog who retrieved the Fisher Cats bats after their plate appearances in the bottom of the first. Apparently the dog was only on batboy duty for that one half inning though.

It has been a bit of a disappointing season for Fisher Cats right handed pitcher CJ Van Eyk, 2020 second round pick of the Blue Jays. But he had a solid week against Reading. As is often the case for the Sunday games in the minor leagues at the end of a six game series, Van Eyk was making his second start of the series following a Tuesday start in which he took the loss but had a quality start. He would make it two for two in quality starts in this one. Cats third baseman Cade Doughty also had a big day. He got it started with a RBI double to left in the second, one of a pair of New Hampshire runs that inning. The biggest, and scariest, moment of the game came in Doughty's third plate appearance in the bottom of the sixth. After Phils reliever Carlos Francisco retired the first two batters of the inning, a single and a double put a pair of runners in scoring position for Doughty. Doughty hit one to deep left and Reading left fielder Ethan Wilson appeared to make a great running catch, but immediately crashed into the wall and lost the ball. Wilson fell to the ground and Doughty circled the bases for an inside-the-park three run homer. Wilson remained on the ground for a minute or two, but eventually left the field under his own power. Fortunately, Wilson returned to action a few days later, so he was evidently able to avoid serious injury. Doughty was officially credited with his first AA home run and his second, third and fourth runs batted in on the day. Reading finally got on the board in the top of the seventh, scratching across a run on Van Eyk's tab after he had been relieved. Van Eyk's final line: 6 1/3 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K. Reading actually had a chance to get themselves back into the game, but left the bases loaded. The Fisher Cats got that run back in the bottom half on a bases loaded walk. New Hampshire won this one by a final score of 6-1.

That wrapped up the first half of my New England trip. After this fourth game in four days, I had a chance to relax a bit with the only scheduled day of no baseball coming up on Monday and the next game not being until Tuesday night in Portland.

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