Despite a late rally, the Portland Sea Dogs leave Manchester with a 6-4 victory over the New Hampshire Fisher Cats on Wednesday night.
Portland gathered more than half of its 11 hits during the first two innings of the contest, gathering three runs in the first and another three in the second after Jeremy Barfield’s third home run of the series.
Sea Dogs starting pitcher Henry Owens saw his shutout dashed in the fourth as a Danny Jansen single brought home Anthony Alford, but the Fisher Cats couldn’t string together much more offense until the bottom of the ninth with the arrival of Portland reliever Jake Cosart.
There, Lourdes Gurriel hit his first Double-A home run to bring the home team within three, and a two out Jonathan Davis triple kept the Fisher Cats hopes alive, pushing Tim Lopes across the plate. However, Cosart forced a flyball out of Richard Urena on the next at-bat, sealing the victory for Portland.
Owens (2-3) broke a two-game losing streak to New Hampshire, allowing three hits and three walks over five innings of work, striking out five batters for the second time since demotion from Pawtucket earlier this month.
The loss went to Sean Reid-Foley, who pitched six innings in the effort, falling to 2-2 over the past month against the Sea Dogs. Reid-Foley (7-8) gave up six runs off eight hits, four of the runs earned, striking out three Portland batters.
Barfield gathered three hits for Portland in the victory, ending the series 6-for-11 with 9 RBIs and a pair of walks. Danny Mars and Deiner Lopez also contributed two hits for Portland, Gurriel had two hits for New Hampshire.
The Fisher Cats now head to Binghamton for a series starting at 6:35 p.m. on Thursday against the Rumble Ponies. New Hampshire puts Conner Greene (4-8, 4.96 ERA) against Binghamton’s Casey Delgado (6-5, 5.71 ERA).
