This time, there was no late-game swoon.
This time, the Portland Sea Dogs got a lead and hung on to it.
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WHO: Trenton Thunder (Eric Ruth 0-1) at Portland Sea Dogs (Teddy Stankiewicz 0-0)
WHEN: Noon Wednesday
Relying on strong pitching and defense and some timely hitting, the Sea Dogs snapped a four-game losing streak with a 4-2 win against the Trenton Thunder Tuesday night at Hadlock Field.
After falling apart in the late innings in losses to both the Hartford Yard Goats and the Thunder the previous four days, Portland played nine solid innings in the second game of its three-game series against Trenton.
“It was a game where we put everything together,” Portland Manager Carlos Febles said. “(Kevin) McAvoy set the tone for us and the bullpen came in and did the rest.”
McAvoy scattered four hits in six innings improve to 3-0.
“He threw strikes, and he used his sinker,” Febles said. “He established his fastball and in his second time through the lineup, he started using his breaking ball. He did a good job of mixing his pitches and used both sides of the plate.”
McAvoy retired the side in order in three innings and when he did get into trouble, the infield bailed him out by turning two double plays.
“We did every little thing tonight, and it worked out well for us,” Febles said.
Six of the nine hitters in the Portland lineup had hits.
“We had to make some adjustments over the weekend and we didn’t make them,” Febles said. “We made some good adjustments on their pitching staff tonight.”
Wendell Rijo came through with a pair of run-producing singles.
“I saw a good fastball and I tried to drive it, and things came,” he said.
The Sea Dogs took a 1-0 lead in the second. They loaded the bases with no outs when Aneury Tavarez walked after Rainel Rosario and Jake Romanski opened the inning with singles. The run scored when Jordan Betts bounced into a 4-6-3 double play.
The Sea Dogs added another run in the third. Derek Miller led off with a single off the third-base bag. He moved to second when Tzu-Wei Lin hit a high chopper between first and home for an out. Rijo followed with a single into the right-field corner to make it 2-0.
The Thunder scored in the fourth. Tyler Wade led off with a double when his flare to left got behind Miller, who tried to make a diving catch. After moving to third on Jack Cave’s grounder to first, he scored when Tyler Austin hit a hard groundball off McCoy’s right leg for an infield hit.
Trenton threatened in the fifth. After Don Fiorio walked with one out, Juan Silva slammed a hit-and-run single into center to put runners at the corners. Tzu-Wei Lin went deep into the shortstop hole to snag Cito Culver’s groundball and started the inning-ending double play.
“McAvoy set up that double play with his sinker,” Febles said. “He executed a pitch.”
Portland scored two more runs in the fifth. With one out, Miller hustled his way into a double with a liner into the gap in right and scored when Rijo singled up the middle. Cole Sturgeon followed with a triple high off the right-field wall to make it 4-1.
The Thunder scored a run in the ninth on a walk and Austin’s triple off the wall in right.
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