Reading, PA - The Reading Fightin Phils (1-2) pulled ahead for the first time all season with a run in seventh inning and held on to down the Portland Sea Dogs (2-1) Saturday night at FirstEnergy Stadium in Reading, PA. The loss marks the first for Portland in the 2014 campaign.
Cam Perkins led off the seventh inning with a double to left off of lefty Nate Reed and came around to score on an RBI single by Kelly Dugan to give the Fightin's the first lead of the series at 3-2.
Reading continued to put baserunners on against Reed (0-1) and loaded the bases with one out, but the southpaw battled back to strikeout Anthony Hewitt and induced a groundout off the bat of Edgar Duran to stem the tide and keep it one-run game.
With the lead, Reading was able to dial up the bullpen and brought on Jay Johnson for the eighth and Ken Giles for the ninth. Johnson earned a hold and mowed the Sea Dogs down in order in his frame, but it was Giles that slammed the door in the ninth.
Blake Swihart led off the inning with a bloop single, but Giles bounced back to strike out the side, topping out his fastball at 99 MPH by the bat of Mookie Betts for the final out of the game.
For the third game in a row, the Sea Dogs jumped out to an early lead. The red-hot Mookie Betts led off the game with a double to left and was driven home two hitters later on an infield single by Travis Shaw (2-3, BB, RBI).
The 'Dogs doubled up the lead in the second against Reading's Hoby Milner. Swihart (2-4, 2B, R) began the
frame with a two-bagger center and moved to third on a single by Sean Coyle. Stefan Welch was next and drove home the catcher with a sacrifice fly to right and earned his RBI as a Sea Dog.
The two-run lead would be short-lived as in the bottom of the second the Fightin Phils would battle back to tie it up. Sebastian Valle and Carlos Alonso hit back-to-back singles to being the Reading rally against Portland's southpaw Mickey Pena. After a fielder's choice, Duran smoked a double to left that plated two and tied the game.
Pena lasted just three innings in his season debut. The lefty gave up the two runs, both earned, on four hits, two walks and two strikeouts. On the other side of the rubber, Milner worked five innings and allowed the two earned runs on six hits, three walks and three strikeouts.
Matty Ott was the first out of the bullpen for Portland and he delivered two and two-thirds innings in relief of Pena. Michael Olmsted entered the game after Reed and pitched out of a bases loaded jam in the eighth to keep the deficit at one.
Former Red Sox farmhand, Nefi Ogando followed Milner and earned the win in relief. Ogando (1-0) gave up just one hit in his two innings and earned his first win of the year.
The finale of the four game set is Sunday at 1:35 PM from FirstEnergy Stadium. The Sea Dogs will send lefty Mike Augliera (0-0, 0.00) to the mound against Reading righty Perci Garner (0-0, 0.00). Radio coverage begins at 1:15 PM on the U.S. Cellular Sea Dogs Radio Network and www.seadogs.com. Coverage on MiLB.TV kicks-off at 1:30 PM.
The Sea Dogs home opener is set for Thursday, April 10th at 6:00 PM at Hadlock Field against the New Britain Rock Cats. Tickets for Opening Day and all 2014 Sea Dogs home games are available and can be ordered by calling the Sea Dogs ticket office at 207-879-9500 or order online at www.seadogs.com.
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