PORTLAND

Trey Ball led the way with seven scoreless innings as the Portland Sea Dogs (59-61) shut out the Altoona Curve (63-59), 2-0 on Thursday afternoon at Hadlock Field to take the rubber game of the series.

Portland and Altoona split their season series, with each winning three times.

Ball (6-10) matched a career-high with seven innings and nine strikeouts. The southpaw allowed just four hits and walked one.

Cole Sturgeon led off the Sea Dogs’ fifth with a triple down the right-field line off of Mitch Keller (0-1). Two batters later, Deiner Lopez doubled to put Portland on the board. Danny Mars followed with an RBI single to make it 2-0 ’Dogs.

Mars extended his hitting streak to 17 games, the longest streak by a Sea Dog this season and second longest in the Eastern League this season.

Keller had a quality start in the loss for Altoona, allowing two runs on four hits over six innings while walking two and fanning eight.

Jake Cosart worked a perfect eighth for Portland and struck out two. Bobby Poyner closed out the ninth for the second straight day and worked around a two-out single by Pablo Reyes to earn the save, his eighth.

The Sea Dogs next head to Binghamton for a five-game series with the Rumble Ponies over the next three days. Tonight’s game is the first of back-to-back doubleheaders, with first pitch scheduled for 5:35 p.m.