Miguel Gonzalez was having one of his best outings of the season. That is until things started to unravel in the fifth inning. The spot starter gave up 3 straight hits to start the deciding inning, ending an outing that started with 8 straight retired batters. The SeaWolves scored 4 runs on 5 hits in the inning and cruised to a 6-2 win.
The Sea Dogs offense struggled for the second time in 3 games, as L.J. Gagnier made the Dogs look foolish. After striking out 15 times on Wednesday, the Sea Dogs nearly matched that total with 14 punch outs tonight. The Sea Dogs #3 and #4 hitters, Mark Wagner and Will Middlebrooks each went 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts.
Gagnier lasted into the sixth inning before he was taken out due to pitch count. Along the way he gave up 1 run on 3 hits, with 3 walks and 10 strikeouts. he threw 63 of his 101 pitches for strikes.
Gonzalez made the SeaWolves look just as foolish as the Sea Dogs offense through his first 3 innings. He struck out 4 of the first 6 batters he faced, then got 2 fly outs in the third before Bryan Holaday softly singled with 2 outs to break up the no-hitter. Erie finally got to Gonzalez in the fourth, as Brandon Douglas led off with a single and scored 2 batters later on an RBI groundout by Rawley Bishop. Gonzalez then got a groundout and a fly out to end the inning.
Gonzalez would not get out of a jam again in the fifth. He allowed the 7, 8, and 9 hitters to collect hits to lead off the inning, as Holaday's double scored Deik Scram for Erie's 2nd run of the night. Jeremy Kehrt came on in relief of Gonzalez, and promptly gave up a 2-RBI double to Jamie Johnson. Two batters later Justin Henry would bring home Johnson with an RBI single.
The Sea Dogs got a run back in the sixth as Gagnier began to fade. Alex Hassan led off with a triple, and scored 2 batters later on an RBI groundout by Middlebrooks. Ronald Bermudez would then draw a walk to knock Gagnier out of the game. Luis Marte came in and got Dan Butler to pop out to end the inning.
Erie would tack on another run in the seventh inning, but it could have been more. Holaday led of with a single that 2B Ryan Khoury just couldn't quite get to. Johnson then doubled to put men at 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Brandon Douglas then hit a fly ball to left field that Holaday thought was deep enough. However, Hassan's throw to home was on the mark, and Butler was able to force Holaday wide of the plate and tag him out before he could reach back towards the bag. Johnson would then score as Henry tripled to deep right-center to make it 6-1 SeaWolves.
Portland would match the lone run in the bottom of the inning as Hazelbaker led off with a double, stole 3rd easily, and scored on an RBI double by Khoury.
The game fittingly ended as Jon Hee struck out swinging on 3 pitches in the bottom of the ninth.
Gagnier improved to 4-5 on the season, and Marte picked up his 2nd save.
Gonzalez dropped to 0-4 and his ERA has now ballooned to 6.21. More importantly, he is okay after taking a line drive off his left arm by Scram in the fifth.
Gonzalez was efficient with his pitches, as 54 of his 69 pitches were strikes. 24 of those 54 strikes were fouls, as Erie batters had to fight off some quality pitches.
Hazelbaker made two nice defensive plays in his new digs in right field. In the second inning he made a leaping grab at the wall to rob Audy Ciriaco of an extra-base hit, and made a diving catch in shallow right to end the fourth inning.
game 2 of the 3-game series comes tomorrow night at 6pm. Alex Wilson will take the mound, looking for his 10th win of the season.
Sea Dogs Manager Kevin Boles
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