PORTLAND — Portland Sea Dogs starter Chris Martin had a perfect game going with two outs in the fourth inning. It was broken up.
Portland had a three-run lead with two outs in the ninth. That didn’t hold up, either.
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The New Britain Rock Cats beat the Sea Dogs 10-5 in 11 innings Monday night at Hadlock Field.
After Chris Colabello’s three-run homer off reliever Aaron Kurcz in the ninth made it 5-5, Colabello hit an RBI double in the 11th to give the Rock Cats their first lead.
The runs kept coming, as neither Kurcz nor Caleb Clay could bar the door.
Daniel Turpen pitched two perfect extra innings for the win that dropped Portland to 3-9.
“I thought for nine innings it was the best our guys have played,” Portland Manager Kevin Boles said. “It’s unfortunate but our guys will bounce back.”
New Britain’s rally denied Martin his first Double-A win.
Martin retired the first 11 batters. He allowed three hits over six innings, with two runs and no walks, striking out three.
“He kept the ball down and as the numbers showed, he pitched a good enough game to win it,” said Colabello, who was 0 for 2 against Martin.
Martin’s only hiccup was allowing a two-run Pedro Florimon home run in the fifth.
After giving up seven runs in his first start, Martin has allowed three earned runs over his past two.
Portland appeared to have enough offense, led by Reynaldo Rodriguez’s two-run homer over the left-field wall in the third inning.
Ronald Bermudez (3 for 5) tripled in a run, Oscar Tejeda and Jeremy Hazelbaker had RBI hits, and Kolbrin Vitek went 3 for 5, extending his on-base streak to 12.
Jeremy Kehrt followed Martin and cruised through two innings, then walked James Beresford to begin the ninth.
Kurcz entered and got two quick fly balls to center field.
But Evan Bigley kept fouling off fastball after fastball before working a 10-pitch walk, putting two runners on base.
Up stepped Colabello, 28, a Milford, Mass., resident who played for the independent Worcester Tornadoes the past seven years. He crushed Kurcz’s first pitch off the light pole in left-center to tie it.
NOTES: Juan Carlos Linares, who left Sunday’s game with a possible leg injury after sliding into second base, is OK. He didn’t start Monday but was available to play. Linares was named the Eastern League Player of the Week. Utility player Jon Hee was sent to Pawtucket to fill in for the injured Pedro Ciriaco. Chris Balcom-Miller said he might miss his next start because of a fingernail that was torn off on his right hand Monday’s paid attendance was 3,740.
Staff Writer Kevin Thomas can be reached at 791-6411 or: kthomas@pressherald.com
Twitter: ClearTheBases
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