The 87 wins top the 1995 Sea Dogs' 86-56 record - Haley goes seven scoreless
Portland, Maine - The Portland Sea Dogs (87-53) took advantage of three errors and downed the Harrisburg Senators (52-88) 5-1 Saturday night at Hadlock Field. The win marks the 87th of the season, and sets a new record for the most wins ever in franchise history, besting the 1995 team's 86 victories.
The second game of the series began as a pitcher's duel with each starter tossing three scoreless innings.
Felipe Rivero had allowed a walk, but no hits to the Sea Dogs through the first 11 hitters, before Sean Coyle stepped in with one out in the fourth. The second baseman took a 0-1 fastball from the southpaw and hit a laser over the Maine Monster in left-center for a solo home run, his 16th, and put Portland in front 1-0.
The floodgates opened up defensively for the Senators and the 'Dogs capitalized for four, unearned runs in the fifth. Rivero walked the leadoff man and Kevin Heller reached on an error to the third baseman putting two on with no outs. A sacrifice bunt had moved the two into scoring position for Heiker Meneses.
With the infield drawn in, Meneses crushed a one-hopper through the shortstop's legs, for an error that
plated Stefan Welch and upped the 'Dogs lead to 2-0. Two batters later, Ryan Dent hit a fly ball to right, which was mishandled by Drew Vettleson allowing two more runs to score and Portland held the 4-0 lead. Coyle followed and capped off the inning with a double down the line in left, scoring Dent and upping the lead to 5-0.
Justin Haley was making his sixth start for the Sea Dogs and spun another beauty. The righty retired the first seven in a row and 12 of the first 15 he faced to begin his outing.
Haley struck out five in a row at one point, including three in the fourth and the first two of the fifth. He picked up another pair of strikeouts in the sixth inning and returned to the mound for the seventh inning. He retired the first two and struck out the third man he faced for his ninth of the night and ended his outing.
He finished seven scoreless innings, tying a career-high, scattered four hits, walked one and struck out nine, also tying a career-high. All six of Haley's Double-A starts have been quality starts for the young righty.
Robby Scott took over for the righty in the eighth and gave up a run on two, two-out, base hits, making it 5-1. Aaron Kurcz pitched the ninth in scoreless fashion.
Rivero (2-7) pitched well, but fell victim to his defense and took the loss. The southpaw worked four and two-third innings and allowed five runs, one earned, on three hits, two walks and eight strikeouts. Derek Self and Tyler Herron combined to throw three and one-third scoreless to close it out for the Sens.
The 'Dogs and Sens return to Hadlock Field for a Sunday matinee beginning at 1:00 PM. Portland is slated to send LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (5-8, 3.71) to the hill against LHP Zach Kroenke (3-8, 6.69) of the Senators. Radio coverage begins at 12:40 PM on the WPEI U.S. Cellular Sea Dogs Radio Network. MiLB.TV coverage begins at 12:55 PM.
The Sea Dogs will face the Binghamton Mets in the first round of the playoffs, which get underway on Wednesday, September 3rd. The first two games will be played in Binghamton, New York. The Sea Dogs will host game three at 6:00 PM on Friday, September 7th and games four and five, if necessary, on Saturday, September 6th and Sunday, September 7th. Tickets for all playoff games are currently on sale.
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