PORTLAND — So much for the home field advantage. The Portland Sea Dogs (23-34) entered last week looking to move up in the standings with a six-game homestand in front of them. Alas, the Sea Dogs dropped five of their six games at Hadlock Field and ended the week deeper in the cellar of the six-team Eastern Division, now 10 games behind second-place Trenton and a playoff spot.

Portland is now a puzzling 11-22 at home, while on the road, the Sea Dogs are a respectable 12-12. Certainly the home crowd can’t be blamed for the Sea Dog’s Hadlock malaise. Attendance has been strong. Sunday’s sellout crowd of 7,368 was tops in the league that day and overall; Portland’s average attendance for the year of 4,798 is fourth among the 12 Eastern League teams.

Portland has won only once in their last eight games. During that span they have been shut out three times and failed to score over three runs in any contest, except for the four runs they accumulated in their only victory.  Sadly, the Sea Dogs have not had a runner cross home plate in their last 26 innings. They have not scored since the first inning in the first game of their three weekend losses to Bowie.

Perhaps the upcoming six-game road trip ”“ in fact the team will be away for 14 of its next 17 games ”“ will improve Portland’s recent play.

The Richmond Flying Squirrels (Double-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants) host Portland for a three-game series which begins this evening at 6:35 p.m. The two teams play at the same time Wednesday and Thursday. The Flying Squirrels occupy third place in the Eastern League’s Western Division with a record of 28-26, and trail second-place Bowie by two games. Last week, Richmond took two of three games from Portland at Hadlock Field. All three of those games had identical 4-3 scores.

Portland’s batting leader, Jantzen Witte, saw his average fall from .326 to .316 over the week. The first baseman added two RBIs during that period to bring his team topping total to 37. Infielder/outfielder Oscar Tejeda, second on the team in hitting, dropped .06 to .304.

Part of the Sea Dogs scoring drought is reflected in their lack of home runs and speed. Kerry De La Cruz tops the power hungry Sea Dogs with just four homers, and Mike Miller, who was promoted to Pawtucket in May, still leads the team with 5 stolen bases.

The Sea Dogs are hoping their fortunes will have changed for the better by the time they return home next Tuesday.

— Freelancer K.Z. Levinsky can be reached at sports@journaltribune.com