READING, Pa. – Don’t look now, but the New Hampshire Fisher Cats’ offense may not be invincible.
In the recent Harrisburg series, the Fisher Cats were held to just a handful of hits, a situation that repeated itself in New Hampshire’s 9-3 defeat at the hands of the Reading Fightin’ Phils on Monday night.
New Hampshire mustered just three runs in the effort, two of those runs coming off Vladimir Guerrero’s third inning home run, his 12th of the year.
That knock tied the game, but the Fightins would take the lead for good in the bottom of the third, sending three men across the plate thanks to homers from Damek Tomscha and Austin Listi.
Deivi Grullon added another home run in the fifth for Reading and the Fightins added two more runs in the sixth for good measure.
While Jon Berti did take a 2-1 pitch deep in the ninth for his second Eastern League home run of the year, it was far too little, too late.
Reading’s three home runs against the Fisher Cats follow a common theme, as Fisher Cats have now allowed 93 home runs this season with 23 coming against Reading batters.
Fisher Cats starting pitcher Josh DeGraaf took the loss, his first in over a month, falling to 3-5 at the Double-A level this year.
DeGraaf left after the fourth, allowing nine of Reading’s 14 hits on the night, with three earned runs out of the five that occurred on his watch.
The win went to Felix Paulino, making his first start after recent promotion from the Class-A Advanced Florida State League.
Paulino lasted five innings, allowing four hits and four walks, striking out six.
Guerrero ended the night with two of New Hampshire’s five hits, with Listi also grabbing two hits for Reading, one of ten Reading batters to obtain at least one.
Reading outfielder Adam Haseley led both sides with a 4-for-5 night while the Fightins’ also received two-RBI nights from Grullon, Listi, Tomscha and Darick Hall.
With the loss, New Hampshire’s lead over Trenton remains steady at two games, with Hartford climbing to within four games of the final playoff spot in the EL East with their 4-0 victory over Trenton earlier in the evening.
On Tuesday, TJ Zeuch (6-3, 3.21 ERA) takes the mound for New Hampshire against Reading’s Tyler Viza (0-3, 4.37 ERA).
Viza has allowed four earned runs in 4 2/3 innings against New Hampshire so far this year while Zeuch is 1-0 with a 4.09 ERA in two starts against Reading this season.
