NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — The trip hasn’t been pleasant, but Portland Sea Dogs Manager Kevin Boles is starting to see some positive signs.

Jeremy Hazelbaker cracked a two-run double and the Sea Dogs got quality work from three pitchers Monday night in subduing the New Britain Rock Cats 5-3 before 2,959 at New Britain Stadium.

The win ended a four-game losing streak for the Sea Dogs, who had lost 7 of 8.

“We’ve seen some signs of quality baseball and guys are just staying positive,” Boles said. “We’re going to continue to stay focused on what we need to do (each) day. We’re looking ahead. Obviously we want to play better baseball and tonight was a good sign of that.”

The Sea Dogs were handcuffed by right-hander Steve Hirschfeld (2-1) the first time through the lineup but made an adjustment in the fourth inning that led to the game’s first run.

Ryan Dent and Kolbrin Vitek opened the inning with singles. Reynaldo Rodriguez banged into a double play, but Oscar Tejeda lashed a 1-0 pitch for an RBI single.

“The last time we faced Hirschfeld, he went on the outer half of the plate. He used his fastball in for effect,” Boles said. “I thought it was a pretty good adjustment by our right-handed hitters to use that right-center approach and we were able to put some quality swings together.”

The Sea Dogs’ defense, responsible for 15 unearned runs in 19 games, let in another one in the bottom of the inning. Aaron Hicks singled and advanced two bases on pitcher Chris Hernandez’s errant pickoff throw. Hicks scored on a sacrifice fly by Deibinson Romero.

“We’re just not taking care of the baseball at times, but we’re seeing some signs of improvement,” Boles said.

Portland scored twice in the fifth.

Ronald Bermudez (2 for 4) singled to left, Dan Butler walked, and both advanced on Heiker Meneses’ bunt. Hazelbaker scored them both with a double into the right-field corner.

The Sea Dogs chased Hirschfeld in the sixth, scoring twice to make it 5-1. Reynaldo Rodriguez and Bryce Brentz singled before Bermudez’s RBI double. Brentz then scored when Meneses tapped a one-out grounder to second.

An error by Dent in the bottom of the inning led to two New Britain runs and ended the night for Hernandez (1-1). He yielded three runs, two unearned, and six hits in 51/3 innings.

The Rock Cats’ big hit was a double by Nate Hanson off reliever Aaron Kurcz, the right-hander who came to the Red Sox organization as part of the compensation for General Manager Theo Epstein going to the Cubs.

Kurcz allowed successive hits to start the seventh but struck out cleanup hitter Chris Colabello and Hicks, then retired Romero on a grounder.

Caleb Clay earned his first save by retiring 6 of 7 batters, three by strikeouts.