Kevin Haverbusch shines for Portland in second game.
PORTLAND – Another day, another hero for the Portland Sea Dogs.
Kevin Haverbusch had a three-run double with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning as the Sea Dogs salvaged a split with a 5-2 victory over the Trenton Thunder in the second game of Monday night’s doubleheader at Hadlock Field.
Mitch Jones went 3-for-3 with a home run and four RBIs as Trenton took the opener, 10-2.
“When you come out and take a shellacking like that, it’s tough to rebound some time,” said Portland manager Ron Johnson. “But we’ve done it so far throughout the season. Those guys never hang their heads.”
Tony Schrager and Kevin Youkilis opened the sixth inning of the nightcap with back-to-back singles.
Trenton manager Stump Merrill then summoned left-hander David Glick to face the left-handed hitting Justin Headley, who walked on four pitches.
David Shepard, the Thunder’s fourth pitcher of the game, struck out Andy Dominique and got Justin Sherrod to bounce to shortstop Andy Cannizaro, who threw home for the force out.
Haverbusch then drove a 1-0 pitch down the left-field line to break it open.
Anastacio Martinez (1-0) allowed a hit and a walk in the seventh, but got Mike Vento, who represented the tying run, to fly out to center to end it.
Edison Reynoso struck out eight of the first nine batters he faced and had a perfect game going until Headley singled with two outs in bottom of the fourth.
The right-hander, who came into the game with an 8.68 earned run average, finished with 11 strikeouts in five innings.
“He complemented an above-average fastball with some nasty off-speed stuff,” Johnson said of Reynoso. “Obviously the stat sheet wasn’t a true definition of what that guy was bringing to the table.”
Haverbusch’s high fly ball fell on the warning track for a double when Jones got turned around in left field with one out in the fifth.
One-out later, Jeremy Owens drilled a 3-2 pitch just over the wall in center field for his team-leading fifth home run to give the Sea Dogs a 2-1 lead.
“He left a fastball out over the plate,” said Owens. “I got good wood on it and it jumped out for us.”
The Thunder tied it without the benefit of a hit against Martinez in the top of the sixth inning.
Byron Myrow walked to start the inning and went to third on an error and scored on a fly out.
“I knew he was going to be a little bit rusty,” Johnson said of Martinez, who hadn’t pitched in five days.
The Thunder used a variety of broken-bat and flair hits capped off by Jones’ three-run blast into the screen in the fourth inning to jump out to a 10-1 lead in the opener.
Herndon, who was victimized by a few bloop hits during his last start in Norwich last Wednesday, left after the fourth inning having given up 11 hits and nine earned runs.
“I’ve just got to keep making my pitches,” said Herndon. “They just keep on falling in for some reason. You have to stay positive when stuff like that happens.”
With the Sea Dogs having another doubleheader tonight and one on Saturday in New Britain, Herndon (1-3) had hoped to pitch deeper into the game.
“That’s probably the most frustrating thing, knowing we have all those doubleheaders,” said Herndon. “I really didn’t do my job.”
Chien-Ming Wang went the distance for the Thunder, allowing five hits and striking out four while not issuing a walk.
Portland scored single runs against Wang (3-1) in the third and fifth innings.
The run in the third was unearned.
Schrager doubled leading off the bottom of the fifth and scored on Owens’ one-out single.
That was all the Sea Dogs could muster against Wang.
The right-hander, who is rated the Yankees’ No. 7 prospect by Baseball America, retired the final eight men he faced, including striking out the side in the sixth.
“I was really impressed with both of their starters,” said Johnson. “I’m happy we took one of those games.”
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