PORTLAND, Maine — The Hartford Yard Goats scored in five of nine innings and defeated the Sea Dogs 6-3 on Sunday in an Eastern League baseball game at Hadlock Field.
Hartford took the quick lead on back-to-back doubles by Pat Valaika and David Dahl off of Mike McCarthy (L, 0-2) to plate the game’s first run.
Making a spot start, McCarthy allowed four runs on eight hits in five innings, walking none and striking out three.
Hartford scored two more runs in the fourth on an RBI triple by Rosell Herrera and an RBI single by Jan Vazquez to make it 3-0.
Portland answered with a run in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI single by Ryan Court to score Andrew Benintendi, who had tripled.
Dahl reached base five times for Hartford, while Valaika finished a triple shy of the cycle.
Antonio Senzatela (W, 2-1) allowed two runs on five hits in 5 2/3 innings, walking none and striking out four.
Portland struck for two more runs on a two-out, two-run double for Cole Sturgeon off of Shane Broyles. All three Sea Dogs’ runs in the game were scored with two outs.
On Saturday, Nate Freiman hit a two-run homer over the Maine Monster in the bottom of the first inning and the Sea Dogs held on to defeat the Yard Goats 2-1.
Andrew Benintendi hit a two-out single to left and then Nate Freiman crushed Kyle Freeland’s offering to put Portland ahead 2-0.
Making a spot start, Mitch Atkins (W, 1-1) delivered a season-high six scoreless innings for the Sea Dogs. He allowed just four hits while walking none and striking out a season-high eight batters.
Kyle Freeland (L, 4-5) was making his third start this season against Portland and threw seven innings for the Yard Goats, allowing only the two runs on Freiman’s homer. Freeland allowed eight hits while walking one and striking out four.
Hartford struck for a run in the top of the seventh off of Luis Ysla. After a leadoff triple by Ryan McMahon, Rosell Herrera lined a sacrifice fly to left to cut the Sea Dogs’ lead to 2-1.
Ysla survived two innings, allowing just the run on three hits and three walks while striking out one and stranding four baserunners.
Nik Turley pitched the ninth for Portland and was able to work around a leadoff walk and strand the tying run at third to end the ballgame.