PORTLAND, MAINE – No lead remains safe from the New Hampshire Fisher Cats pitching staff so far in 2021.
Despite an early 6-1 lead, the Fisher Cats fell 9-8 to the Portland Sea Dogs on Tuesday night.
New Hampshire Starting Pitcher Maximo Castillo settled down after a Joey Meneses RBI double in the first put Portland on the board. However, Castillo began to unravel after Tate Matheny’s first home run of the year in the fourth. That blast brought two men across the place and Tanner Nishioka’s solo home run in the fifth would be the first of two more runs, chasing Castillo from the contest.
Meneses went deep in the seventh to give Portland an 8-7 lead, a lead that would hold until Austin Martin’s RBI single in the eighth brought Samad Taylor across the plate, evening things up at 8-8.
However, that lead wouldn’t hold either as Ryan Fitzgerald’s RBI double in the eighth gave Portland the lead again, with Double-A Northeast saves leader Jose Adames striking out the Fisher Cats in order in the ninth.
Adames now has nine saves on the year, while New Hampshire’s entire pitching staff remains without any. Blown saves are another matter, as Curtis Taylor (2-2) picked up his third blown save of the season en route to picking up the loss. Tyler Olsen (2-0) was the winner of record, earning his second win this week after he helped the Sea Dogs escape the eighth after Martin’s late clutch hit.
New Hampshire’s pitching woes squandered what had been a decent offensive night for New Hampshire, which collected 13 hits in total. Martin joined Taylor Kevin Vicuña, L.J. Talley and Gabriel Moreno in the multi-hit club.
Nick Podkul hit a double along with Vicuña and Taylor, with Taylor also going deep in the third and walking three times as well.