Patience was key for the Portland Sea Dogs on Tuesday night at Hadlock field.
The Sea Dogs took advantage of 11 walks and six errors by the Reading Fightin Phils to earn a 9-3 win in the first game of a six-game series in front of an announced crowd of 2,324.
The Sea Dogs (12-8) won for the first time since losing the last three games of last week’s series at Hartford.
“We hit some balls really hard, we just didn’t have a lot of luck tonight. But we were patient and drew our walks. We’ve been putting traffic on (the bases), even in Hartford,” Portland Manager Chad Epperson said. “We just haven’t gotten that big hit. Tonight we were able to get that big hit and score some runs, and we were aggressive on the basepaths.”
The Sea Dogs took control of the game with a five-run first inning. Roman Anthony led off with a walk and went to third base on Marcelo Mayer’s double to right field. Both scored on Kyle Teel’s double to center. Reading (10-12) starting pitcher Zach Haake walked five of the nine batters he faced before he was pulled, including bases loaded walks to Eddinson Paulino and Alex Binelas.
“I was just looking for a good pitch to hit in the zone. I got a cutter, and I was able to put a good swing on it,” Mayer said of his hit that helped spark the rally.
Paulino’s RBI single in the bottom of the second inning scored Nick Yorke with Portland’s sixth run. The Sea Dogs added a seventh run in the third when Mayer scored on a Blaze Jordan single.
Lefty Zach Penrod made the start for Portland and went five innings, allowing two runs and five hits while striking out seven. Penrod gave up a two-run home run by Marcus Lee Sang in the top of the second inning. In his last start in Hartford, Penrod allowed three earned runs and walked four in just 2 2/3 innings.
Relievers Jonathan Brand, Ryan Zeferjahn, and Felix Cepeda pitched the final four innings for Portland. Zeferjahn struck out four of the eight batters he faced.
“Penrod was good. Coming off that outing (in Hartford), I was anxious to see how he’d respond, and he was great,” Epperson said. “The bullpen was good tonight. Zef was dominant. That was as good a Double-A outing as you can see from a reliever.”
It was a game of unforced errors for Reading. Six Reading pitchers combined to walk 11 Sea Dogs to go with those six errors. The Sea Dogs swiped six bases, including Gasper’s steal of home in the bottom of the sixth, the back end of a double steal on which Nick Decker took second base, for an 8-2 lead.
“It’s one of those things, with that lefty (Anthony at the plate) and their third baseman playing over as far as he is, we can get down the line. Just make sure (catcher Caleb Ricketts) commits to second base and we can walk in there,” Epperson said.
Paulino singled to score Gasper in the eighth inning for his third RBI of the game. Sang second home run of the night capped the scoring in the top of the ninth.
“Hell of a job today, from (Penrod) all the way to Cepeda closing it out. They did a great job,” Mayer said. “We scored five early on, but (Reading) didn’t let up. I felt like it was a close game all the way.”
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