PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – Jose Vaquedano tossed six shutout innings while Jeremy West and Brandon Moss continued their torrid offense, leading the Portland Sea Dogs past the Connecticut Defenders 5-4 Thursday. Nate Schierholtz and Brian Munhall homered in Connecticut’s loss.

The Sea Dogs (43-26) led from the first inning, taking a 1-0 lead on West’s RBI double. Portland added single runs in the second, sixth, seventh and eighth innings.

The Defenders (32-38) scored all their runs on homers: Schierholtz’s solo shot in the seventh and Munhall’s three-run blast in the ninth.

Vaquedano struck out three and gave up three hits and no runs as he improved to 5-2 in a six-inning outing.

In his past 11 games, West has hit safely in 10 and collected seven RBI while Moss has posted multi-hit performances in five straight.

AP-ES-06-22-06 2113EDT