The Mets prevail in the 11th inning and send the Sea Dogs to their ninth straight loss.
By Randy Whitehouse
Staff Writer

PORTLAND – A return to the friendly and foggy confines of Hadlock Field wasn’t enough for the Portland Sea Dogs to break out of their week-long funk.

Marvin Seale’s sacrifice fly drove in the winning run in a three-run 11th inning as the Binghamton Mets handed the Sea Dogs their ninth-straight loss with a 9-6 victory before a sellout crowd of 6,975 Thursday night. They fell seven behind New Haven for first place in the Eastern League’s Northern Division and with their ninth loss in a row tied the franchise record for consecutive losses set in 1994.

Seale’s misplay of a fly ball to center in a dense fog gave Portland the lead in the seventh inning of a seesaw game, but Binghamton’s Victor Diaz tied the game at 6-6 with an RBI single in the eighth, where it remained until the 11th inning.

“We were down and we could have just faded, but we kept plugging. We even overcame the mistake we made in the field,” said Binghamton manager John Stearns. “You’ve got to feel for Portland. I know what they’re going through. I’ve been there and it’s not fun.”

Coming off a winless road trip, the Sea Dogs (59-57) were hoping getting back home would turn things around so they could maintain their tenuous one-game lead over Trenton for the Eastern League Northern Division’s wild card spot.

To get back in the win column, Portland thought it needed its bats to heat up after managing just 14 runs on the eight-game trip. But awaiting the Sea Dogs in the opener of their short four-game homestand was Mets’ starter Bob Keppel, who no-hit the Sea Dogs in Binghamton in his last start.

“We’ve got two choices; we can either look at the negative or the positive,” said Portland manager Ron Johnson. “The positive situation is we scored six runs tonight and we got (10) hits, and on the road, we had a tough time doing that.”

No more difficult time than against Keppel. Raul Nieves broke up Keppel’s mastery of the Sea Dogs with a single on his second pitch of the game. Portland would go on to knock him out of the game after just four innings, in which he yielded eight hits.

“We didn’t even talk about (the no-hitter),” Johnson said. “These guys know what he throws. He’s a good pitcher. He had his day in Binghamton, but it was kind of nice to put some good swings on him today.”

Binghamton (56-63) chased Portland starter Ryan Cameron (5 2/3 innings, five hits, eight strikeouts, two walks), then victimized reliever Jake Chapman for three runs in the seventh to take a 5-4 lead as Greg Catalanotte had difficulty tracking down Frank Corr’s two-run double in right field. It was Catalanotte’s second adventure in left that cost the Sea Dogs a couple of runs.

Both teams made costly miscues in the field, but it was ultimately the bullpens that made the difference. Royce Ring (2-0) got the win for Binghamton with two innings of one-hit relief. Rene Miniel (0-1), in his first inning of relief following a dominant performance by James Johnson (2 1/3 innings, one hit, four Ks) took the loss.

“You win games by doing what Mr. Ring did and pounding the strike zone. Our biggest negative to me tonight was when we walked (Justin) Huber (which put a runner in scoring position just before Diaz’ game-tying single),” Johnson said. “There was two outs. You’ve got to make him hit the ball.”

Portland dug itself into a quick hole with some sloppy defense in the first. Chris Basak led off the game with a double, and after a strikeout, Craig Brazell hit a fly ball down the left field line that Catalanotte overran and had drop out of his glove. Two batters later, Mike Jacobs put the Mets on the board first with a two-run single to right-center.

Portland’s defense righted itself in the second, when catcher Kelly Shoppach erased two straight baserunners, one trying to advance to third on a ball in the dirt and the other attempting to steal second with two out. Jeremy Owens threw more leather in the fourth, making a spectacular diving catch to his left in right-center field to take extra bases away from Jacobs.

The Sea Dogs took their first lead in the second. Justin Sherrod belted a leadoff home run off the Citgo sign to cut the deficit in half. Then Catalanotte, who came into the game batting .050 (1 for 20) with 10 strikeouts) since being called up Friday, made up for his miscue in the bottom of the second by smashing a two-run homer into the Sea Dogs bullpen in right field.

Portland widened the lead to 4-2 in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Sean McGowan.

Sea Dogs notes: Former President George Herbert Walker Bush threw out the first pitch before the game and received a standing ovation from the sellout crowd…Pitcher Jake Chapman rejoined the Sea Dogs in Portland Thursday after missing the last two games of the road trip to return home because of personal reasons..Justin Headley remains on the disabled list with a sore left shoulder even though he is eligible for activation. He’s expected to remain on the DL for at least two more games…Pitchers Charlie Zink and Matt Karcher were sent back down Sunday after spending two days with the team to make room for Tim Kester and Junior Herndon on the active roster. Zink was called up from Single-A Sarasota and Karcher from the Gulf Coast League…Herndon faces right-hander David Mattox (6-5. 3.32 ERA) in tonight’s second game of the series. The entire series is sold out…With his home run off the Citgo sign above the Maine Monster in the second, Sherrod and a lucky fan were given $5,900 to split by Citgo…Portland was hitting just .214 this season against Binghamton going into Thursday night’s game. The Sea Dogs had scored only 47 runs in 16 games against the Mets.

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