Errors prove costly in SeaDogs series opener

PORTLAND, ME — The New Hampshire Fisher Cats (2-4, 32-42) fell to the Portland Sea Dogs 4-2, 40-35) on Monday night at Hadlock Field, 4-3. The Fisher Cats committed four errors and left 11 men on base in the loss. Three of the Sea Dogs’ four runs were unearned.

New Hampshire starter Devereaux Harrison (L, 3-5) tossed five innings and struck out four behind 103 pitches, the most from any starter this season. Harrison allowed three runs in the Monday loss, with one of the three as earned.

The Fisher Cats tagged Portland’s Isaac Coffey (W, 5-2) for seven hits but scored one run on the right-hander in his five innings. The Fisher Cats finished 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position to Portland’s 2-for-11.

New Hampshire started the scoring in the top of the third inning. After third baseman Alex De Jesus and first baseman Rainer Nuñez singled, right fielder Devonte Brown was plunked by a pitch to load the bases with no outs. Second baseman Cade Doughty bounced into a double play and drove in De Jesus to put New

Hampshire in front, 1-0.

Portland’s response came in the bottom of the third inning with a pair of runs, one earned, on three hits to take a 2-1 lead. The Sea Dogs plated two more unearned runs between the bottom of the fifth and sixth to stretch the lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, Sea Dogs catcher Kyle Teel reached on a throwing error by New Hampshire’s Harrison and advanced to second. Portland’s Eddinson Paulino drove in Teel with two outs to extend the Sea

Dogs advantage to 3-1.

Portland plated another unearned run in the bottom of the sixth as designated hitter Alex Binelas reached on a De Jesus fielding error. The Sea Dogs moved Monday’s’ score to 4-1 as Binelas scored on a fielder’s choice off the bat of left fielder Tyler McDonough.

Reliever TJ Brock fired a clean inning in the bottom of the seventh with a pair of strikeouts. Toronto’s sixth-round selection in 2022, Brock has eight strikeouts and three walks in five innings since his first game with the Cats on June 12, with opponents averaging .125 against him. 

After the seventh error between Portland and New Hampshire in Monday’s game, Nunez clobbered his seventh home run of the season with De Jesus on first to trim the deficit to 4-3, a ball that traveled 433 feet over the left-field wall.