Sea Dogs Rally in the Ninth, Lose in 10 Innings to Trenton 3-2

Ryan Lavarnway breaks out
Photo Jason Gendron

It was Red Sox-Yankees, Double-A style as the Portland Sea Dogs hosted the Trenton Thunder. The teams wore the uniforms of their respective big league clubs in a "Turn Ahead the Clock" game. The Yankees hope that clock turns quickly for starting pitcher Manny Banuelos. The top prospect took the mound to start the game for the Thunder, and he didn't disappoint. The lefty threw 4 scoreless innings of 4-hit ball with one walk and one strikeout. He threw 40 strikes on 66 pitches.

The starting pitcher for the Sea Dogs, Michael Lee pitched well in his Double-A debut. The tall righty pitched 3 2/3 innings, giving up one run on 3 hits, striking out 4 and walking only one batter. Lee's only mistake was a Leadoff home run by Melky Mesa in the second inning.

The Thunder extended their slim lead to 2-0 after back-to-back doubles to start the sixth off of reliever Tommy Hottovy. Hottovy then proceeded to strike out the next three batters. In total, Sea Dogs pitchers had 13 strikeouts to only 6 hits.

The Sea Dogs would cut the deficit to 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning. Ryan Lavarnway lead off with a single down the left field foul line, and moved to second on a single by Jorge Padron. Will Middlebrooks flied out to deep right field, allowing Lavarnway to move to third. Oscar Tejeda hit a single threw the left side of the infield to put the Sea Dogs on the board.

Santo Luis replaced Hottovy with two outs in the seventh, and proceeded to dominate the Thunder offense. Luis struck out five Trenton batters over the next 2 1/3 innings without giving up a hit. This gave the Sea Dogs a chance to get back in it.

Luck bounced the Sea Dogs way in the bottom of the ninth. Che-Hsuan Lin lead off with a bouncing ball to the pitcher, and advanced to second on an errant throw to first base. After Alex Hassan struck out, Tim Federowicz hit a bloop single to shallow right on full count pitch, plating Lin. Jon Hee pinch-ran for Federowicz, and stole second to on Lavarnway's strikeout to get into scoring position. However, Padron would line out to right to send the game to extra innings.

The extra inning was just too much for Luis, as he walked 3 of the first 4 batters in the inning. Cody Johnson stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and hit a sacrifice fly deep to left that easily scored Austin Krum.

Thunder lefty reliever Naoya Okamoto entered in the bottom of the 10th, and got both Middlebrooks and Tejeda to ground out to third base. Ryan Dent singled up the middle to give the Sea Dogs some life, but Mitch Dening struck out looking to end the game.

Fernando Hernandez picked up the win after blowing the save in the ninth. Okamoto picked up his first save of the season for the Thunder.

Luis took the loss for the Sea Dogs, and did it without allowing a hit, but three walks did him in.

Lavarnway started off the game 3 for 3 with 3 singles, but struck out in his last two at-bats. Oscar Tejeda and Che-Hsuan Lin both went 2 for 4, with Tejeda getting an RBI.

The two teams play game 2 of their 3-game series tomorrow at 7pm.
-Wil Kramlich-


POST GAME AUDIO
Manager Kevin Boles

Starting Pitcher Michael Lee


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