MANCHESTER, N.H — Bobby Jenks, a closer/reliever turned starter for a night, got the Sea Dogs going early.

Later on, things went downhill in a hurry.

Jenks threw an effective — and pain-free — first inning for Portland Saturday night and afterward said he was heading to Philadelphia today to rejoin the Boston Red Sox and will be ready to go when they open a three-game series Tuesday.

Jenks left town and the Sea Dogs stayed behind, losing 9-5 to the Eastern League-leading New Hampshire Fisher Cats at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium. Portland dropped to 25-46 and is 2-7 against New Hampshire (45-27) this season.

The Fisher Cats turned a 5-1 deficit into their fourth straight win with eight unanswered runs on three homers in their last three at-bats.

“That’s quite a lineup they have,” said Portland Manager Kevin Boles. “They have a lot of guys in that lineup that are going to play in the big leagues. They’re going to be quality major league hitters.”

Jenks faced three batters and allowed a leadoff single and had a strikeout. Eight of his 13 pitches were strikes.

Adeiny Hechavarria, who led off with the single, was thrown out stealing.

“I was fairly happy with it,” Jenks said. “The only pitch I wasn’t happy with was the last pitch I threw. I was trying to execute a down-and-away slider in a 2-2 count and it just got too much of the plate.”

Travis d’Arnaud lined out to right field on that pitch.

Jenks has been on the disabled list since June 8 with a muscle strain between his ribs. He made only two appearances after coming back from a DL stint that lasted from May 2 to May 31 for a right biceps strain.

“What’s frustrating was finding myself and pitching like I know I can and putting some real good innings together and then it happened again, something completely different,” Jenks said. “That was the frustrating part because I was throwing the ball well again like I did at the start of the year.”

The Sea Dogs took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when Oscar Tejeda singled in Tim Federowicz, who had doubled.

In the fifth, Portland right fielder Chih-Hsien Chiang took full advantage of three consecutive walks by New Hampshire starter Robert Ray when he drilled a pitch over the right-field wall for a grand slam and 5-1 lead. It was Chiang’s second grand slam of the month.

New Hampshire went ahead 6-5 on a three-run homer by Yan Gomes in the sixth, followed by Mike McDade’s two-run shot in the seventh.

The Fisher Cats got another three-run homer, this one from d’Arnaud, in the eighth.

NOTES: Ryan Khoury broke Jeff Corsaletti’s franchise record with his 137th walk for the Sea Dogs. … New Hampshire outhit the Sea Dogs, 13-5.