HARTFORD, Conn. – A quartet of early home runs proved too much to overcome as the Hartford Yard Goats defeated the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, 9-6 on Saturday night.
Three of those four Hartford home runs came during the Yard Goats first turn at-bat, with Alan Trejo, Vince Fernandez and Mylz Jones going deep to put for quick runs on the board, countering Alberto Mineo’s RBI single for New Hampshire earlier in the inning.
The Fisher Cats battled back in the second with two runs of their own, highlighted by a solo shot from Chad Spanberger, only to see Hartford’s Bret Boswell add a two-run homer in the bottom half of the inning.
A three-run New Hampshire rally in the seventh proved insufficient as the Yard Goats put up insurance runs in the sixth and seventh, off reliever Francisco Rios.
For Yennsy Diaz (1-1), the early struggles stood in contrast to last week’s near perfect Double-A debut, giving up six runs off five hits and four walks in the loss.
It wasn’t a great start for Hartford’s Rico Garcia either, but he would have gotten the win with just one more inning of work. Instead, that honor went to reliever Jordan Foley.
In spite of the win, Foley (1-1) also struggled, giving up three runs off five hits, seeing his ERA rise to 7.36 before he left partway through the sixth inning.
Ben Bowden earned his second save of the year for Hartford after a perfect ninth.
For the victors, Jones led the way with a 3-for-4 day, with Trejo also contributing a 2-for-4 effort. At the plate for New Hampshire, Mineo collected a quarter of New Hampshire’s eight hits, with Kacy Klemens also tacking on a pair of RBI.
The series concludes with a Sunday matinee between New Hampshire’s Andrew Sopko (0-1, 1.80 ERA) and Hartford’s Ashton Goudeau (0-1, 9.82 ERA).