A sellout crowd of 7,368 waited patiently through nine innings for the annual Fourth of July fireworks display Sunday night at Hadlock Field, but the Hartford Yard Goats provided fireworks of their own.
The Yard Goats hit eight doubles and beat Portland 8-1 to snap the Sea Dogs’ three-game winning streak.
It was the second time this season Portland allowed an opponent to hit eight doubles. The Bowie Baysox also had eight doubles in an 11-5 win over Portland on June 7.
“They got too many good pitches hit,” Portland Manager Carlos Febles said.
“We left too many pitches out over the plate. It seemed like (Hartford) was playing pepper against the wall. We have to execute (our pitches), and I don’t think we did that tonight. We started missing spots with our pitches. You’ve got to keep your pitches down, and we didn’t do that tonight.”
Portland, meanwhile, couldn’t get anything going offensively against Hartford starter German Marquez, a hard-throwing righty who limited the Sea Dogs to four hits in six innings.
“This is the third time we have faced him, and we haven’t had much luck against him,” Febles said. “He’s got a good fastball and good secondary stuff. He kept us in check. We kind of fell behind and we couldn’t get anything going offensively.”
Marquez (7-5) is has a 2-0 record in three starts against the Sea Dogs this season.
“Something he did well was use his fastball inside,” Febles said. “It opens up the outer half of the plate. He got our guys looking in.”
Portland’s lone run came when Yoan Moncada led off the bottom of the first with his third home run since being called up to the Sea Dogs from Class A Salem three weeks ago. He pulled a Marquez curveball 379 feet into Portland’s bullpen in right.
In the third, the Yard Goats got to Portland starter Jalen Beeks, stringing together six hits (five of them doubles) to take a 5-1 lead.
“He was up in the zone,” Febles said.
Beeks, a lefthander from the University of Arkansas who was selected in the 12th round by Boston in the 2014 draft, was making his third start for the Sea Dogs since moving up from Salem last month.
“This is a kid who has good stuff, but it was not his day,” Febles said. “He threw mostly fastballs in the first two innings. Then he went to his secondary stuff and he was all over the plate.”
Hartford took a 6-1 lead when Michael Benjamin led off the fourth with a double, moved to third on Zach Osbourne’s sacrifice bunt, and scored on the second of Raimel Tapia’s four singles.
The Yard Goats scored two more runs in the sixth. Benjamin led off with a double, moved to second on Tapia’s third single, and scored on Dillon Thomas’ two-out single. Rosell Herrara followed with his third hit of the game to make it 8-1.
NOTES: The record for doubles in a game against the Sea Dogs is nine, set by the Erie SeaWolves on June 3, 2014 in an 11-9 win at Hadlock Field.
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