'Dogs muscle up, 4 homers in a 4-3 win

Portland with their best record since 1995

Reading, Pa. -- Deven Marrero led off the ninth inning with a solo-homer, snapping a 3-3 tie, and giving the Portland Sea Dogs (53-26) a 4-3 win over the Reading Fightin Phils (33-44) on Saturday night at First Energy Stadium. Portland socked a season-high four solo-homers, and has won the first 3 games of the series.

Aaron Kurcz (2-1) stranded two runners in the ninth inning to secure his second win of the season. Kurcz pitched two innings on one hit and two strikeouts.

Portland smacked four homers for the first time since last April 7th vs. Trenton.  Reading starter LHP Adam Loewen (ND) yielded three, but worked 7.2 innings on four hits and three runs.  David Chester (#2), Derrik Gibson (#1) and Sean Coyle (#9) hit the solo-shots between innings 2-thru-4.

Reading tied the game at three in the sixth inning off Mike Augliera (ND). Carlos Alonso drew a leadoff walk
and scored on a triple by Peter Lavin.  Kelly Dugan knocked home the second run with a groundout and Aaron Altherr hit a solo-homer. Augliera was strong in his 15th outing of the season, yielding six hits and three runs over seven frames.

Seth Rosin (1-2) took the loss, allowing the go-ahead homer to Marrero in the ninth.

Portland has won nine of 13 from the Fightin Phils this season, and improved to 42-20 against the Eastern Division. Reading has lost 11 straight and 20 of their last 25 games.

The Sea Dogs and Fightin Phils wrap up their four-game series on Sunday afternoon at 1:35 PM from FirstEnergy Stadium. RHP Mike McCarthy (6-3, 4.11) makes his 9th start of the season for Portland.  LHP Ryan Demmin (1-1, 6.00) gets the starting nod for  the Fightin Phils. Radio coverage begins at 1:15 PM on the WPEI U.S. Cellular Sea Dogs Radio Network. MiLB.TV coverage begins at 1:30 PM.