AKRON, Ohio – Portland Sea Dogs pitcher Ryne Miller experienced a Saturday evening to forget at Canal Park.

Miller’s outing was brief and the Sea Dogs were unable to recover from a large early deficit, as the host Aeros won 12-5 in the second game of a three-game Eastern League series before 2,867.

Miller, a right-hander, struggled to find the plate with his pitches and walked five. When he did throw near the plate, Aeros batters recorded seven hits and scored nine earned runs off him.

The victory was the 12th in a row for the Aeros, which is the longest winning streak in the history of the franchise that dates back to 1989 in Canton, Ohio.

“(The Aeros) are playing hard,” Sea Dogs Manager Arnie Beyeler said. “They were struggling for a while, but this is a long season. They are diving all over the place and making plays.”

Akron scored four runs in the first, four in the second and one in the third.

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Miller walked Tim Fedroff and Jason Kipnis to start the first. Lonnie Chisenhall followed with a single and Fedroff scored on an error. Matt McBride then drove in Kipnis with a sacrifice fly and Chisenhall scored on a groundout by John Drennen. Jerad Head hit a double that scored Carlos Rivero to make it 4-0.

“They are going up with a purpose at the plate and swinging the bat,” Beyeler said. “They are making teams pay. Ryne got into some trouble and when he threw the ball over the plate, they whacked it.”

Fedroff and Kipnis opened the second with a pair of walks, and Chisenhall hit a double that scored Fedroff. McBride delivered a double that scored Kipnis and Chisenhall, and then McBride scored a run to make it 8-0 after a Rivero single.

Akron led 9-0 after three innings following a Fedroff walk and a Chisenhall double.

“It is a funny game, if you make good pitches they hit it and when you don’t they watch them go by and take a walk,” said Miller, who took the loss and is 2-4. “They are very comfortable at the plate and playing baseball really well right now.”

The Sea Dogs cut into their deficit with three runs in the fourth off Aeros left-handed pitcher Nick Hagadone and two runs in the seventh off right-hander Paolo Espino, who got the win and is 7-2.

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Hagadone walked Yamaico Navarro, Juan Apodaca and Matt Sheely to load the bases in the fourth. Will Vazquez scored Navarro with a single. Apodaca and Sheely both scored after walks to Nate Spears and Ryan Khoury.

Portland’s Chih-Hsien Chiang smacked a two-run home run to right-center that also scored Luis Exposito in the seventh to make the score 9-5. Exposito singled to reach base.

The Aeros extended their lead to 12-5 in the eighth with three runs. Kipnis and McBride each singled and scored on a Drennen line-drive triple to right. Rivero singled in Drennen with the final run.

“The guys hung in there and played hard,” Beyeler said. “We got it back within four runs and made a game of it, and then they get a few big hits late in the game.”

 


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