PORTLAND — One team threatened. The other team executed.
When it came to run production, the Portland Sea Dogs didn’t hesitate to capitalize on their opportunities Wednesday in a 7-2 victory over the Binghamton Mets at Hadlock Field.
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The Mets put their leadoff hitter on base four times in the first four innings, but managed to get only one run out of those opportunities.
The Sea Dogs had few early scoring chances. Instead, they rallied from a 1-0 deficit in the third inning with help from the lower part of their batting order.
“The 3-4-5 hitters, there’s going to be nights where they’re going to carry the team and there’s going to be nights where they struggle,” said Sea Dogs first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who hit his first Double-A home run in the eighth. “But it’s a big, big help when the lower half of the lineup is contributing.”
Rizzo, Yamaico Navarro and Juan Apodaca, Portland’s fifth, sixth and eighth hitters, combined for four hits, two runs and three RBI.
“When you’re successful, you can get somebody different to help out every night,” Manager Arnie Beyeler said. “If everybody can contribute, they get the opportunity to do it (and) they make the best of it and they execute.
“That’s one of the things that’s been happening here lately. Guys have been getting the opportunity and they’ve been executing.”
Navarro and Luis Exposito each had two hits, including fourth-inning RBI doubles, as the Sea Dogs scored five runs in the middle innings for their sixth win in seven games.
Portland starter Felix Doubront struck out four and walked four in six innings, and the Sea Dogs (19-12) won despite being outhit, 10-8.
“They did a nice job of leaving the runners out there early in the game and played good defense behind (Doubront),” Beyeler said. “He made the good pitches when he needed to, had some big strikeouts and got some big outs.”
Beyeler said his team was strong in all facets of the game.
“It’s probably the best game we’ve played all year, from the standpoint that we hit well, ran, played defense, got some clutch hits and moved the runners around, and played the game real well,” he said.
After Zach Lutz grounded into a double play in the top of the third, Binghamton (19-14) took a 1-0 lead on Marshall Hubbard’s single to right field that scored Nick Evans. But Hubbard was tagged out in a rundown between first and second, ending the inning.
Apodaca’s home run, Portland’s first hit against starter Mike Antonini, tied the game in the bottom of the third. An inning later, Exposito’s one-out double drove in Ryan Kalish, who had singled, to give the Sea Dogs the lead, and Navarro doubled to drive in Exposito for a 3-1 lead.
Portland increased its lead to 5-1 in the sixth on Rizzo’s sacrifice fly and Navarro’s second RBI double.
Hubbard drove in Binghamton’s second run on a sacrifice fly in the eighth, and Rizzo’s home run in the eighth gave Portland a 7-2 lead.
Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi can be reached at 791-6415 or at:
rlenzi@pressherald.com
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