MANCHESTER, N.H. — Blake Swihart, on a rehab assignment from the Boston Red Sox, served as the designated hitter Thursday night and batted second in the order.

He singled in the first inning, doubled in the third and reached on an error in the fifth in his final at-bat.

But the rest of the highlights were too few and far between for the Portland Sea Dogs, who came out of the Eastern League All-Star break with a 7-2 loss to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats at Northeast Delta Stadium.

“Tough night through and through,” said Manager Billy McMillon.

“We walked nine guys and that won’t play at this level. But we saw some good things.”

The Sea Dogs outhit the Fisher Cats 9-8 but dug themselves a 4-1 hole when New Hampshire came up with four runs on three infield hits and three walks to go with a sacrifice fly in the third inning.

Portland starter Justin Haley and reliever Simon Mercedes, who came on in the third, each walked four batters in the game.

Williams Jerez worked 1 1/3 innings, and allowed one hit with two strikeouts and no walks. Jorge Marban pitched an inning, and struck out two and walked one.

Haley gave up his first hit of the game in the third and didn’t make it out of the inning.

“We hit some balls hit hard today and didn’t get a lot of luck,” McMillon said.

“That third inning was kind of a killer for us. I’m waiting for that stuff to kind of happen for us when we’re hitting. Credit to them. They put the ball in play and found some holes. We’re working at it, trying to get better.”

The Sea Dogs have lost their last five games and are 32-60 for the season.

The Fisher Cats improved to 46-42.

New Hampshire added a run in the fourth on a Dalton Pompey triple and Jon Berti single, and two more in the sixth on Dwight Smith Jr.’s two-run homer down the right- field line off Mercedes.

The Sea Dogs opened the scoring in the third. Manuel Margot singled, got to third on Swihart’s double and scored on Oscar Tejeda’s groundout.

Tejada had replaced Jantzen Witte at third base for Portland. Witte was hit on the wrist by a pitch in the first inning.

Witte played defense in the bottom of the first but when he went back to the dugout and picked up a bat, his wrist was bothering him and he came out of the game.

“When I turned my wrist over, I couldn’t squeeze the bat,” he said. “But it’s not throbbing right now. Hopefully it’s a bone bruise.”

Jake Romanski singled in Tejeda with Portland’s second run in the eighth inning.

“We’re putting some good (at-bats) together,” Witte said. “I think we’re just missing that big hit when we have guys on base. I think we’re missing that one link from our game.”

NOTES: Shortstop Marco Hernandez, the MVP of the Eastern League All-Star game at Hadlock Field on Wednesday night, was promoted to Triple-A Pawtucket on Thursday. Tzu-Wei Lin was called up from High-A Salem and started at shortstop. … Reed Gragnani was returned to the Sea Dogs from Pawtucket but wasn’t in the lineup. Right-hander Mike Augliera and outfielder David Chester were placed on the disabled list for Portland.

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