The Portland Sea Dogs scored first at Hadlock Field for a change. But it didn’t change the outcome.

The Binghamton Mets dinged Portland pitchers for a season-high 18 hits and won 7-3 Friday before an announced crowd of 6,935.

They weren’t all well-struck balls, but Portland starter Justin Haley couldn’t make it past the third inning, allowing 11 hits and six runs before being lifted for Heri Quevedo’s first relief appearance. Ten of the 11 hits against Haley (3-10) were singles.

“He wasn’t able to pitch out of tight spots,” Portland Manager Billy McMillon said. “They got a couple of – I don’t want to say weak hits – but they got a couple of well-placed hits, whereas his last outing (a 6-1 win at Binghamton on Sunday) those weren’t finding holes.

“His pitch count was starting to get elevated, they were finding hits, we just couldn’t do anything to stop the bleeding. It was just kind of a rough outing for him.”

Haley left with his team in a 6-2 hole. But Portland (32-56) had actually done something it hadn’t in its previous 16 home games – score the first run.

Cole Sturgeon led off with a walk, stole second base, advanced to third on a Carlos Asuaje bunt, and came home on a Jantzen Witte single. The Sea Dogs had gone 3-13 in that stretch of home games when falling behind.

“That’s definitely an energy booster from starting the game like that. I thought that was a textbook first inning,” Witte said after driving in his team-leading 48th run. “The point of the minor leagues is that we’re still learning this craft and just trying to get better every day. Hopefully, that’s something we can build off of.”

Portland scored single runs in the second and third as well before Binghamton starter John Gant settled in. He allowed only one more hit over the next three innings to run his record to 3-4. Binghamton (44-42) has won all seven games at Hadlock this season.

“I felt like our chances were good,” Witte said. “You hope to get one run an inning, you’ll be in a good spot to win the game. We did that, especially at the start.”

Portland’s bullpen was sharp. Quevedo, who was removed from the starting rotation after going 0-5 with a 8.86 ERA, allowed only one run in three innings while striking out five. His control was erratic – with 32 balls and 32 strikes – but he missed bats when he needed to.

“I think it was kind of interesting. We hadn’t seen him in that role. I think that will be a good role for him,” McMillon said. “He went three innings, gave us some length when Haley came out early. That was kind of a positive. He stemmed the tide and kept us in the game.”

McMillon said the plan is to keep Quevedo, 25, coming out of the bullpen for the foreseeable future.

“He wasn’t as effective as a starter as I think we had hoped,” McMillon said. “So different role, maybe a different mindset. Go through the order once instead of maybe two or three times and be more effective in those appearances.”

Kyle Kraus followed Quevedo with three shutout innings and John Cornely tossed a scoreless ninth.

But the damage had been done early by Binghamton, which got four hits from leadoff batter Gavin Cecchini.

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