MANCHESTER, N.H. – An indication of how well things went Saturday night for the Portland Sea Dogs: Starter Drake Britton struck out four batters in the seventh inning to close out his longest outing of the season.

Britton’s teammates backed him with 14 hits — Portland reached that number for the second straight night — reeled off a couple of double plays in the first three innings and ran its winning streak to a season-high five with a 9-1 victory against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.

“Our guys are playing better,” said Manager Kevin Boles. “They’re allowed to improve. This is the goal, try to finish strong. Our guys are upbeat. We have a resilient group of guys. It was tough. We played some below-average baseball early on in the year.”

Now they’re 9-2 since the Eastern League All-Star break.

Britton piled up half his strikeouts in his last inning, and allowed six hits and a single run to improve to 2-3. The first batter he struck out in the seventh reached on a passed ball. So he struck out three more.

“He struggled to get in the zone early, and he dialed it back a little and pitched to contact,” said catcher Matt Spring. “They put the ball in play and our guys made good plays behind him.”

Aaron Kurcz pitched two innings of hitless relief.

The Sea Dogs and Fisher Cats wrap this four-game set today and the Sea Dogs open a three-game homestand Monday night against Trenton.

Spring got the offense started with a three-run homer in the second.

“That created a little momentum for us,” Boles said.

Third baseman Marquez Smith had four hits and first baseman Reynaldo Rodriguez contributed a two-run homer, a double and a single, and knocked in four total.

The Sea Dogs scored their runs in bunches: three in the first, fifth and seventh.

Spring pulled his homer down the left-field line with Rodriguez and Peter Hissey on base, and the Sea Dogs were up 3-0.

It was the second three-run shot in as many at-bats for Spring in New Hampshire. The last time he played at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium, on July 6, he hit a three-run homer in the ninth to power Portland to a 4-2 comeback win.

The Fisher Cats got one back in the bottom of the fourth.

The Sea Dogs quickly answered with three more in the top of the fifth, led by Rodriguez’s two-run homer. Smith knocked in the other run with a single.

Smith, Rodriguez and Bryce Brentz had consecutive RBI singles in the eighth.

NOTES: Mike MacDonald of Camden, who got this winning streak started with his first victory as a Sea Dog on Tuesday night at home against Reading, will start today against New Hampshire.