Thornton graduate Cody Bowker shines in Double-A debut in front of family and friends
A Maine kid who once pitched on the same field as a high schooler returned to it Thursday night as a professional, and a large gathering of friends, family, and supporters turned Delta Dental Park at Hadlock Field into something close to a homecoming.
Cody Bowker, a Bowdoinham resident and graduate of Thornton Academy in Saco, made his Double-A debut for the Reading Fightin Phils against the Portland Sea Dogs. The Philadelphia Phillies promoted the right-hander from the High-A Jersey Shore BlueClaws earlier in the week after he rocketed through two levels of A-ball this season.
Entering the start, Bowker had recorded 107 strikeouts in 75 1/3 innings. MLB Pipeline ranks him as Philadelphia's 15th-best prospect. He was the 100th overall pick in last year's draft, taken in the third round out of Vanderbilt, where he spent a season after beginning his college career at Georgetown.
For his first Double-A outing, Bowker turned in one of his sharpest performances of the year. He worked five innings, gave up two hits and one earned run, struck out six, and walked none. He threw 65 pitches, 45 for strikes, and earned the win in an 11-1 Fightin Phils victory.
His first inning set the tone. Portland's leadoff hitter, Tyler McDonough, struck out looking. Roman Anthony, on a rehab assignment with Boston as he works back from a finger injury, grounded softly to shortstop. Brooks Brannon went down looking. Bowker retired the first two hitters he faced in the second before Yoellin Cespedes doubled to right-center. The only other damage came in the fifth, when Will Turner led off with a solo home run.
Bowker said the assignment carried weight beyond the numbers on the stat sheet.
"I can't say my heart wasn't thumping out of my chest," he said. "But at the end of the day, I enjoy that and that's why I play the game."
He made it clear after the game that he had no interest in shrinking from the moment, even when the moment included a top prospect like Anthony.
"To be honest, I've got nothing to lose, right? Actually, me and Roman are the same age," Bowker said, noting he is five months older. "I like attacking those guys and those are the guys I want to face. I want a whole lineup of those guys."
Bowker talked to himself on the mound as he worked through the Sea Dogs lineup, a habit he has leaned on to stay locked in.
"It just kind of keeps me pitch to pitch," he said. "I probably can't repeat some of the things."
The storylines stretched well beyond Thursday night. Bowker had played on the Hadlock Field mound as a high schooler, and now he was back on it as a professional. A few dozen Sea Dogs fans had turned into a few hundred by the time he was done, with many of his supporters sticking around after the rest of the crowd had cleared out.
Down the third base line sat Jason Lariviere, Bowker's head coach at Thornton Academy, who had a clear view of his former player. Lariviere has coached Bowker since the pitcher was 11 years old and has seen the same competitive fire show up in every big moment he has ever faced.
Lariviere knows what the professional grind looks like. He spent five seasons in the minor leagues in the St. Louis Cardinals organization.
"You play professionally, the chances of playing near your hometown are slim to none. The closest I came was Massachusetts. It was always my dream to play back here," Lariviere said.
When Lariviere found out Bowker had been promoted to Reading and would be pitching in Portland, he texted him a quick congratulations.
"In typical Cody style, he responded within a minute," Lariviere said. "He said 'See you there.'"
The Bowker-Lariviere connection runs deep. During Bowker's senior season at Thornton, he pitched the team to a win over South Portland in the regional final. Because of pitch-count rules, he was not eligible to start the state championship game against Bangor, and Lariviere planned to go with Josh Kopetski. The night before, Bowker called his coach.
"I want the ball," he told Lariviere.
Lariviere's reply: "Trust me. By the end of the game you'll be holding the ball and you will be getting us to the state championship."
Bowker entered the title game with runners on the corners and nobody out in the fourth inning, escaped the jam, and shut Bangor down the rest of the way in a 1-0 win for Thornton's first Class A championship.
That competitive streak has followed Bowker across state lines, through two college stops, and now into the upper levels of the minor leagues. A light rain had started to fall as he emerged from the Reading dugout after the game. Down the first base line, a crowd had stayed behind just for this. Many of them were Red Sox fans and Sea Dogs fans first, but on this night they were Cody Bowker fans first.
