PORTLAND — Unlucky might be one way to describe the Sea Dogs.

To change that luck, Portland needs to come up with the clutch pitch, and the clutch hit.

The Sea Dogs got neither on Monday as the Binghamton Mets beat them 6-3 at Hadlock Field.

Both teams got 10 hits, including Jorge Padron’s three singles, but the Mets got their hits in clumps.

With runners in scoring position, Binghamton was 5 for 11, Portland 2 for 10. The Mets (6-8) left eight runners, the Sea Dogs (5-9) left 11.

“We’re liking some of the signs that we see. We’re getting our hits,” Portland Manager Kevin Boles said. “But with runners in scoring position, we’re looking for guys where the swing matches the situation – the guy coming up with the big hit.

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“Some guys will surface. It will happen eventually.”

Padron, Ryan Dent and Ryan Lavarnway had RBI for Portland. Tim Federowicz and Alex Hassan both doubled.

Sea Dogs starter Stephen Fife (2-1) experienced his first loss, with two drawn-out innings sandwiched around three perfect ones.

Fife allowed one run in the first on two infield singles, a walk and a sacrifice fly.

He then retired 10 batters in a row.

But in the fifth, Fife loaded the bases on a double, bloop single and bunt single. After a strikeout, he hit a batter to score another run. He then left the game.

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“Innings two through four, he was real efficient,” Boles said. “Then he ran into some trouble.”

Switch-hitting designated hitter Michael Fisher greeted left-handed reliever Tommy Hottovy with a two-run double off the left-field wall on the first pitch. The Mets led 4-1.

Hottovy went 22/3 innings, allowing a total of two hits and a walk.

Mets starter Brandon Moore (1-0) allowed base runners in all five innings he pitched Monday but kept escaping real trouble.

A single and two walks loaded the bases for Portland with two outs in the second. But Moore struck out Che-Hsuan Lin.

In the seventh, Will Middlebrooks had a 10-pitch at-bat with runners on second and third with two outs. But he smoked a line drive right to the third baseman.

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Portland reliever Seth Garrison made his sixth appearance in the eighth and allowed his first two runs of the season, including a Brahiam Maldonado solo home run into the left-field netting.

NOTES: The announced paid attendance was 3,680 The Sea Dogs’ rained-out game against New Britain on Saturday will be made up as part of a doubleheader on June 28. The starting time has been moved up to 6 p.m.

Mets first baseman Allan Dykstra, who is not related to Lenny Dykstra, was a 34th-round Red Sox draft pick in 2005. He opted for Wake Forest. San Diego drafted him in the first round in 2008 and traded him to New York this spring. Mets pitching coach Marc Valdes returned to Hadlock Field, where he pitched for the Sea Dogs in 1994-95. Valdes’ 2.59 career ERA is second-best in Portland history, behind Jon Lester’s 2.57.

Staff Writer Kevin Thomas can be contacted at 791-6411 or at: kthomas@pressherald.com

 


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