The Reading Fightin Phils got the hits when they counted the most Saturday night to roll to an 8-4 victory against the Portland Sea Dogs in an Eastern League baseball game before 7,152 at Hadlock Field.

It was the Phils’ fifth consecutive win over the Sea Dogs at Hadlock. Reading has won 10 of the 15 games between the teams this season.

“They have a pretty good club,” Portland Manager Carlos Febles said. “They make you pay for every mistake.”

The Phils are 53-22 and their winning percentage of .704 leads all of major and minor league baseball. At 26-47, the Sea Dogs have the worst record in the Eastern League.

Each team had 10 hits but Portland was unable to come up with key hits, stranding seven.

“We haven’t been able to put big innings together,” Febles said.

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“We had some opportunities but we just didn’t come up with the big hits.”

Portland starter Eddie Stankiewicz (2-7) lasted just two-thirds of an inning. Following a leadoff walk, Andrew Pullin pulled a fastball 401 feet to right for his 15th home run of the season to stake the Phils to a 2-0 lead. Singles by Jorge Alfaro, Dylan Cozens and Jake Fox made it 3-0, and Stankiewicz was gone.

“We had kind of a rocky start, giving up three runs,” Febles said, “The guys competed great, but when you’re far behind early, like we’ve been doing lately, it’s tough to come back every day and win games.”

Tzu-Wei Lin led off the bottom of the first with his first home run, a 395-foot shot to right.

Reading took a 5-1 lead in the fourth on Aaron Brown’s two-run single to end pitcher Ben Taylor’s string of 51/3 scoreless relief innings since joining Portland on Tuesday.

“He just got tired,” Febles said. “We asked him to do something he normally doesn’t do, go more than two innings, and he kind of got tired.”

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Portland scored two runs in the fifth. Tom Roberson led off with his second double of the game. After Cole Sturgeon walked, Lin and Mauricio Dubon came through with two-out singles to make it 5-3.

The Phils added three runs in the seventh. A leadoff single by Jesmuel Valentin, and doubles by Alfaro, Rhys Hoskins and Fox made it 8-3.

In the bottom of the seventh, Portland loaded the bases with two outs after Jake Romanski scored from second on Dubon’s infield hit to make it 8-4, but reliever Alexis Rivero induced Cody Decker to fly to right to end the threat.

NOTES: Yoan Moncada, who hit safely in four of his first five games with the Sea Dogs, wasn’t in the starting lineup. “We just gave him an off day,” Febles said. “He’ll get one off day a week.” The Cuban native is ranked by Baseball America as the top prospect in the Red Sox system and the third-best prospect in all of minor league baseball. … Lin is now hitting a team-high .360 with runners in scoring position. … Roberson has 10 doubles to share the team lead with Sturgeon and Romanski. … In its last seven games, Portland has hit .310 (78 for 252).


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