Red Sox Double-A affiliate just helped manufacture one of the craziest box scores ever

The Portland Sea Dogs are the Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. They’ve been a focal point of player development in recent years, with prospects like Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, Payton Tolle, Connelly Early, and more creating headlines at the level.

However, on Tuesday, they were making headlines for ... very different reasons. The Sea Dogs lost 12-7 against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, but that was hardly the story.

Portland and New Hampshire game reaches bizarre box score in second inning

Hayden Mullins was the starting pitcher for Portland, giving fans hope for the contest. The left-hander was dominant last year, with his only real issue being command — but that became a massive problem on Tuesday.

Mullins struck out all three batters in the first inning. However, he couldn’t escape the second inning. The 25-year-old left after 1 2/3 innings. He struck out four batters and didn’t allow any hits. He surrendered five runs thanks to five walks, though.

Jorge Juan entered the game with two outs in the second inning, trying to limit the damage for Mullins. But the righty didn’t record an out. He walked three batters and hit two more before being pulled.

Next, it was Cade Feeney trying to stop the bleeding. A wild pitch to the first batter made the score 8-2 in favor of New Hampshire. There had yet to be a base hit by either team. A single finally changed that and made it 10-2, before Feeney got a strikeout to end the inning.

Portland added another run without collecting a hit, making it 10-3. A Nate Baez double brought home a run to make it 10-4 and gave Portland their first hit.

At one point, the score was 8-2 without a single hit. Then it was 10-4 with each team having one hit.

The final was 12-7. New Hampshire scored 12 runs on just five hits, while Portland had seven runs on six hits. There was one error, but there were also seven wild pitches, 19 walks, and five HBPs.

So how did that happen? Simple, it was cold. The game was delayed due to snow. It was 35 degrees and windy at first pitch. The pitchers were struggling to get a grip on the baseball; there isn’t much else to look into.

Yes, Mullins and Juan have had control issues in the past. However, this was a pretty clear game-wide issue. Shoutout to Patrick Halligan and Max Carlson, who cleaned things up for Portland to end the game. Halligan allowed just one hit and one walk compared to seven strikeouts in three shutout innings, while Carlson surrendered one hit and one walk compared to five strikeouts in two scoreless frames.

Portland’s pitching should be a positive this season, so don’t expect to see many more slogs like this one.