PORTLAND – There’s nothing like a gloomy home opener to take the shine off a promising start to the season.

Michael Bowden, the third-ranked pitching prospect in the Red Sox organization, struggled in a steady, cold drizzle at Hadlock Field and Portland’s offense stayed stuck in the mud, even when the rain temporarily subsided in the later innings. The end result was the Sea Dogs’ second loss of the season, 3-1, before 5,358 fans in the 2008 home opener.

“It rained the whole time he was pitching so it was a tough night to go out there,” Portland manager Arnie Beyeler said. “He did nice job tonight. He just ran some pitch counts up and some guys put a couple of good at bats on him.”

“I wasn’t commanding my fastball well, and if I can’t command that, then my secondary stuff doesn’t come into play,” Bowden said. “For what I had, I thought I minimized the damage that could have happened.”

Portland lost its second straight home opener to New Britain and dropped to 5-1 on the season. New Britain is 3-3.

The Sea Dogs came home sporting a .192 team batting average and weren’t getting any breaks from New Britain starter Anthony Swarzak. The righthander pounded the strike zone (77 pitches, 53 strikes), throwing five shutout innings while allowing just five hits and fanning four.

Three of Portland’s six hits were doubles, by Andrew Pinckney, Jeff Natale and Bubba Bell. Natale drove Bell home for Portland’s only run on a two-out single to center in the eighth to snap the Sea Dogs’ 0-for-24 slump with runners in scoring position.

“Tip your hat to (Swarzak) tonight, and their bullpen did a nice job of not letting us really put anything together,” Beyeler said.

Kyle Aselton, Armando Gabino and Ben Julianel limited Portland to one run and three hits in four innings of relief.

Bowden (4 1/3 innings, three runs, two earned, five hits, four Ks, two walks) whiffed the first two batters of the game and had his fastball cranked up to 95 MPH while putting Dustin Martin into a 2-2 count. Then the New Britain right fielder, who is hitting .563 on the young season, fouled off a series of pitches and sent Bowden’s 10th offering of the at bat into the left field corner for a double. Luke Hughes followed and stroked a single to left to stake the Rock Cats to a 1-0 lead.

“I got to see him a bunch during spring training. I’m sure we faced him six times because the Red Sox are in our town (Fort Myers),” Martin said. “He just kep feeding me fastballs, some good fastballs, up and in, so I was just kind of spoiling them for him. Finally, I got a two-seam away and put some good wood on it.”

“It was the same thing the last time I pitched to him,” said Bowden, who got a no-decision when the Sea Dogs beat the Rock Cats, 2-1 on April 5. “He’s been a tough out for me. His bat’s been pretty hot lately. I thought I threw quite a few good pitches to hit and he just kept fouling them off.”

New Britain doubled the margin in the third when Trevor Plouffe walked, stole second, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on Martin’s sacrifice fly to left.

Swarzak faced just two batters over the minimum through the first 4 1/3 innings, yieling just a single to Aaron Bates in the second and a single to Zach Daeges in the fourth.

“Swarzak’s a pretty good pitcher. He’s got pretty good stuff,” Beyeler said. “He pounded the zone with his fastball, established that and mixed some stuff in. He was down in the zone all night long.”

Steve Tolleson sent a 3-1 pitch from Bowden into the screen above the Maine Monster in left to lead off the fifth inning. Plouffe singled and raced all the way to third when Bowden threw away a pickoff attempt to first. After a walk to Martin put runners at the corners with one out, Beyeler pulled Bowden (83 pitches, 49 strikes). Reliever Chad Rhoades loaded the bases with a walk but avoided further damage with a strikeout and pop out to second.

Rhoades, Mike James and Jose Vaquedano turned in more fine work by the Portland bullpen, combining to surrender four hits in 4 2/3 shutout innings. Sea Dogs relievers went into the home opener compiling a 0.95 ERA in 28 1/3 innings of work.