PORTLAND, Maine — The Hartford Yard Goats rallied with three runs in the seventh inning and took game one of their five-game series with the Portland Sea Dogs 8-5 on Thursday night at Hadlock Field.
Hartford struck first with two runs in the first inning, but Portland immediately answered with four runs in the bottom half. Down 2-1 with two outs, Nate Freiman, Jake Romanski and Tim Roberson each singled to give the Sea Dogs a 4-2 lead.
The Sea Dogs ran Yard Goats’ starter Alex Balog out of the game in the first. Balog allowed four runs on five hits in two-thirds of an inning.
Portland extended its lead to 5-2 in the fourth on a solo homer by Roberson off Johendi Jiminian — Roberson’s first home run of 2016.
Sea Dogs’ starter Teddy Stankiewicz allowed four runs on 10 hits in six innings, walking one and striking out three.
The Yard Goats began to claw back in the fifth with a two-out RBI single by Dillon Thomas to score Zach Osborne. Rosell Herrera then led off the sixth with a solo homer off Stankiewicz to cut the deficit to 5-4.
Hartford blew things open in the seventh against Williams Jerez. The first five batters reached base, with Pat Valaika tying the game on an RBI single and Herrera putting Hartford ahead on another RBI single.
Austin House kept the Sea Dogs at bay with 2⅔ innings of scoreless relief. Jerry Vasto pitched a scoreless eighth while Matt Carasiti struck out the side in the ninth.
