Right-hander Tyler Pill pitched six innings Saturday night and became the winningest pitcher in the history of the Binghamton Mets, recording his 24th career victory – a 7-4 win against the Portland Sea Dogs in front of a sellout crowd of 7,368 at Hadlock Field.

Pill (8-8), who allowed six hits and three runs, ran his record to 4-0 against the Sea Dogs this season.

“He mixes pitches very well,” Portland Manager Carlos Febles said. “He’s not afraid to throw his secondary pitches when he’s behind in the count. He’s a pitcher who keeps you off balance through every outing … he knows how to pitch and he executes when he needs to.”

The start of the game was delayed 1 hour, 34 minutes because of expected heavy rain. The rain never came, but Febles said the delay was not a factor.

“After we were sitting around for two hours, we had to wait another hour and a half to start the game,” he said. “(Players) are going to have to face a lot of situations like this during a career, and you have to prepare yourself for it.”

Portland starter Jalen Beeks got off to a rocky start. His pitches were up or out of the strike zone in the first inning, and the Mets made him pay, turning three walks and three singles into a 3-0 lead as they sent nine batters to the plate.

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A left-hander making his sixth Double-A start, Beeks recovered to hold the Mets scoreless for the next four innings. He wasn’t involved in the decision.

“Any time you have a pitcher who gives up three runs in the first inning and he’s able to give you five innings, you have to count that as a plus,” Febles said.

Tzu-Wei Lin led off the bottom of the third with a single, Portland’s first hit of the game, then stole second, moved to third on Ryan Court’s one-out single and came home when Andrew Benintendi grounded out to second.

Portland tied it in the sixth with a two-out, two-run rally. After Nate Freiman and Aneury Tavarez hit back-to-back singles, Tim Roberson lined a double into the left-field corner to make it 3-3.

But the Mets scored two unearned runs in the top of the seventh against Sea Dogs reliever Ty Buttrey (0-8) to regain the lead. Kyle Johnson led off with a single. With one out, Philip Evans reached on an error by third baseman Ryan Court to put runners at the corners. After a walk, Johnson scored on Dominic Smith’s fielder’s choice grounder, and Evans scored on a wild pitch.

Portland got a run back in the eighth when Court led off with a walk, took third on a single by Andrew Benintendi and scored on Freiman’s groundout. But Binghamton answered with two runs in the ninth, on two walks and Jayce Boyd’s double into the gap in right.

NOTES: For the second consecutive game, Benintendi started in left field. … Center fielder Cole Sturgeon fielded a ball off the wall in left center and threw out Maikis De La Cruz, who was trying to stretch a double into a triple to lead off the sixth. … Binghamton second baseman L.J. Mazzilli, who drove in a run with a first-inning single, is the son of former New York Mets player Lee Mazzilli.


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