Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

July 5, 2012

A dark night, even with those stars

A walk-off homer ends it as Portland twice loses late leads with poor pitching, poor defense.

By ALLEN LESSELS Special to the Press Herald

MANCHESTER, N.H. - A couple of guys from Boston gave the Portland Sea Dogs a hand early and a kid on the way up shined Wednesday night at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium.

But in the end Portland lost 11-10 in 11 innings to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.

The Sea Dogs dropped their fifth straight, matching the skid they had to open the season.

Portland had a three-run lead in the ninth and a two-run lead in the 11th, and failed to hold either one.

"We've just got to keep battling," said Portland Manager Kevin Boles. "We have to keep battling."

The Sea Dogs and Fisher Cats have the worst records in the Eastern League. The Fisher Cats improved to 34-49 and the Sea Dogs fell to 34-51.

The Fisher Cats were down a run and down to their last out when Kevin Howard ripped the first pitch he saw from Jason Urquidez over everything in right field for a two-run homer and walk-off win in the 11th.

Carl Crawford had a pair of singles and Jacoby Ellsbury a single for Portland.

Jackie Bradley Jr. added a double and three singles to pace Portland's best hitting night of the season.

"You watch the way he attacks the game, he's been a pleasure to be around," Boles said of Bradley. "He stands out on the field, and he's an aggressive player and it's been a lot of fun watching him."

The Sea Dogs had a season-high 18 hits, with home runs by Drew Hedman in the second and Dan Butler in the ninth.

But their four pitchers, starting with Stolmy Pimentel, also gave up 16 hits and four walks. Portland made three errors.

"We need to take care of the baseball behind our pitchers and our pitchers need to execute on the mound," Boles said. "We need to make sure we throw quality strikes and we can't work from behind."

The Sea Dogs scored single runs in the first and second.

Ellsbury and Crawford each flied to left to open the first inning, then Bradley and Bryce Brentz singled to right. Marquez Smith knocked in Bradley with a double down the left-field line.

After New Hampshire took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the inning, Hedman homered to right to lead off the second.

The Fisher Cats went back in front 3-2 without a hit and thanks to a couple of Portland errors in the third.

The Sea Dogs answered with three runs on five hits in the fourth. Ryan Dent scored a pair with a double.

Portland went up 6-5 in the sixth, then 8-5 in the ninth.

It wasn't enough.

 

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