READING, Pennsylvania — The Reading Fightin Phils scored in the first five innings and held on to beat the Portland Sea Dogs 8-6 in Eastern League action Tuesday night at FirstEnergy Stadium.
Portland dropped to 2-2 on its six-game road trip.
Marco Hernandez led the offensive charge for Portland, going 3-for-5 with a homer and two RBIs. Reading’s Cam Perkins homered and drove in three runs.
Jerome Williams made a Major League rehab start for Reading, working 3 ⅔ innings on three hits and two runs.
Both teams scored single runs in the first inning. Hernandez led off the game with a homer to center, his fifth of the season. Reading responded with a two-out RBI single from Andrew Knapp.
Reading took a 2-1 lead in the second, scoring its second two-out run. Harold Martinez led off with a single and scored on a single by J.P. Crawford.
Cam Perkins gave the Phils a 4-1 lead in the third, blasting a two-run homer to left off Augliera. The homer was the first for Reading in July.
Portland’s Manuel Margot extended his hitting streak to six games with a two-out RBI single in the fourth, scoring Keury De La Cruz, and cutting Reading’s lead to 4-2. Reading responded in the fourth, receiving a two-run single by Brock Stassi. The hit knocked Mike Augliera (2-12) out of the game. Augliera suffered the loss, allowing eight hits and six runs over 3 ⅓ innings.
Hernandez’s hot hitting continued, picking his third hit of the game in the fifth, a single, driving home Tim Roberson. Once again, Reading responded, courtesy of Brian Pointer’s two-out RBI double.
The Sea Dogs cut the lead to 7-5 in the sixth inning off Hoby Milner (2-1). Jantzen Witte led off with a double and scored on Sam Travis’ triple. Following a walk, Margot forced in a run with a fielder’s choice. Portland added a run in the eighth on David Chester’s sacrifice fly, but Perkins executed a perfect squeeze bunt in the eighth for the game’s final run.
Stephen Shackleford pitched a perfect ninth for his 18th save of the season.