PORTLAND ”“ Some nights, the quality at bats just aren’t there.
For the most part, that was the case for the Portland Sea Dogs, who fell rather quietly to the Trenton Thunder, 4-2, before a sell out crowd of 7,368 at Hadlock Field.
Portland’s seven hits were bunched mostly among three hitters ”“ Ray Chang, Jorge Padron, and Chih-Hsien Chiang each had two ”“ which means that when Dogs were getting on, they weren’t getting home.
“You have to give their guy (Trenton starter Cory Arbiso) a lot of credit,” said Dogs catcher Ryan Lavarnway. “He kept us off balance. Kept us from getting good swings.”
There were exceptions, although they were few.
Trailing 3-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth, the Dogs received a shot in the arm when Padron smacked a lead off single up the middle.
He later scored on a Chiang single, which left the bases loaded with nobody out.
However, Arbiso left the runners nailed in place when he retired Jose Iglesias, Anthony Rizzo, and Chang in order.
The Sea Dogs cobbled together another run in the eighth, when Chang singled with one away, and was later driven in by Padron, who stung a 1-2 fastball thrown by reliever Wilkins Arias.
Portland threatened to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth.
But with one on and two away, Rizzo, who homered twice against Altoona the day before, sent a towering fly ball to deep center that fell just short of the wall.
“We did our job,” quipped Trenton manager Tony Franklin. “We kept him in the park.”
CHIN MUSIC: When former Portland shortstop Yamaico Navarro was promoted to Boston from Triple A Pawtucket, earlier in the day, he became the third ex-Dog this year to make his big league debut. The others were Ryan Kalish and Felix Doubront. A grand total of 17 former Sea Dogs are now on the Boston active roster or disabled list. ”¦ The teams will meet again tonight (6 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.), with tickets available for both tilts. RHP Stephen Fife (6-5, 4.95) will get the start for Portland tonight against Thunder RHP Hector Noesi (7-4, 3.30). In the stands tonight will be Fife’s parents, who made the trip here from Idaho. They have yet to see their son pitch during his three year professional career.
— Contact Dan Hickling at dhickling@journaltribune.com.
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