PORTLAND, Maine — The Binghamton Mets beat the Portland Sea Dogs 8-5 to capture the Eastern League’s East Division title Sunday at Hadlock Field.
The Sea Dogs posted the best record in franchise history (88-54) to earn home-field advantage, but dropped the fifth game of the series to the Mets, which finished five games behind the Sea Dogs in the regular season.
The Mets advanced to the EL championship series, which begins Tuesday against West Division champ Richmond.
The Mets took the series opener on Wednesday in Binghamton 8-5, but the Sea Dogs evened the series the next night 7-0 before the final three games moved to Portland. The Sea Dogs won Friday night 6-3, but the Mets prevailed Saturday 11-4 to even the series at 2-2.
Binghamton began Sunday’s decisive game with two runs in the first inning against Luis Diaz. Brandon Nimmo hit a leadoff double and scored two batters later on Brian Burgamy’s double to left center, giving the Mets the 1-0 lead.
Darrell Ceciliani followed with a two-out walk and Travis Taijeron capped off the inning with an RBI single to left.
Portland scored a run in the bottom half of the inning against Mets’ starter Gabriel Ynoa. Rusney Castillo had an opposite field double to right-center and scored from third on a single by David Chester.
The Mets took control with a six-run fourth inning.
Wilfredo Tovar drove home the first run of the inning with an RBI single to center, which plated Taijeron from second and made it 3-1. Nimmo hit a single to right, on which Tovar advanced from first to third and scored on a throwing error by Jonathan Roof in right. Diaz walked and hit a batter with two down to load the bases before his outing came to an end.
Reliever Dayan Diaz then gave up a bases clearing, three-run double off the Maine Monster to Darrell Ceciliani and Binghamton held the 7-1 lead. Taijeron made it 8-1 with an RBI single.
The Sea Dogs began to mount a comeback with a run in the fourth, the fifth, and two more in the sixth, cutting it 8-5. Shannon Wilkerson hit a solo shot over the Monster for the first run in the fourth. Castillo knocked home the second run with an RBI single, making it 8-3.
The sixth inning saw Roof connect for a double, which scored Stefan Welch, and an RBI single by Heiker Meneses off of Hansel Robles, making it 8-5.
That would be all the scoring in the game as Binghamton held on to take home division title.
Over the final four innings, Portland sent Diaz, Robby Scott, and Wilfredo Boscan to the hill and they combined to allow just one run over five and one-third innings. Scott retired eight of the nine men he faced.
Robles and Cody Satterwhite finished up the clincher for the Mets. Robles went 2 1/3 scoreless innings and Satterwhite pitched a scoreless ninth, earning the save.