PORTLAND — On a Sunday afternoon when the 39-degree game time temperature was exacerbated by a 16 mph wind blowing in from right field, it was fitting that the New Britain Rock Cats froze the Portland Sea Dogs’ four-game winning streak in slow, deliberate, keep-your-hands-in-your pockets fashion.

New Britain put a number on the board in five of the first seven innings, and left-hander Sean Gilmartin kept Portland handcuffed until the sixth inning of a 6-3 win.

Red-hot Mookie Betts’ RBI double in the sixth was one of the few highlights for the Sea Dogs (6-4), who were denied their first four-game sweep at home since September 2010.

Paid attendance was 4,847. The actual number to witness Sea Dogs’ starter Mike McCarthy’s first pitch appeared to be less than half that.

“It’s not your ideal baseball conditions, but both teams have to play in it,” said Portland shortstop Derrik Gibson, who had three of the Sea Dogs’ five hits to go along with a couple of defensive gems. “It’s like this in the northeast. When you go play with the Red Sox, you’re going to be playing in the same thing. You just have to get used to it.”

By the time consecutive hits from Reynaldo Rodriguez, Aderling Mejia, Kyle Knudson and Corey Wimberly plated a pair of runs to make it 5-0 in the top of the sixth, roughly 400 brave souls remained.

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Nate Hanson and Rodriguez — an Eastern League all-star with the Sea Dogs in 2012 — each belted a pair of doubles for New Britain (4-6). Hanson was 3-for-5. Daniel Ortiz went 3-for-4, including a double.

Gilmartin struggled to throw first-pitch strikes but allowed only two hits through the first five frames. Shannon Wilkerson’s leadoff double in the fourth went for naught when Travis Shaw lined into a double play.

“He mixed it up good,” Gibson said of Gilmartin, who struck out three and walked two. “He’s been in Triple-A. He knows how to pitch, not just throw. He works both sides of the plate, mixing in his breaking ball stuff and really trying to get you off balance, and he did a pretty good job of that today.”

Gibson provided life for Portland, opening the sixth with his second hit. Betts the doubled to the gap in left center to knock in the Sea Dogs’ initial run.

Betts made it 5-2 when he stole third and scampered home on catcher Knudson’s throwing error. Gilmartin coaxed a pop out and two lazy fly balls to escape the inning and put his first victory of the spring in the hands of the Rock Cats’ bullpen.

Gibson (3-for-3) also led off the eighth with a double and later scored for Portland.

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“I’m just trying to stick with my plan,” Gibson said. “Being a big part of the field, and let it all come to me (at the plate) and not try too hard.”

The Sea Dogs sat out two of their top three prospects, infielder Deven Marrero and catcher Blake Swihart, in the raw, drizzly matinee.

Beaten by a total of 17 runs in the previous three games, New Britain set the tone with a pair of broken-bat hits in the top of the first.

Corey Wimberly beat out a leadoff squib down the first-base line. Wimberly advanced to second on Brad Boyer’s sacrifice, stole third and scored on Hanson’s sawed-off, chalk-eluding double to left.

Rodriguez roped a double to christen the second. He moved up on Mejia’s sacrifice and scored on a Knudson groundout.

McCarthy cruised through the third and fourth, allowing only a single to Ortiz, but he plunked Wimberly with one out in the fifth.

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Betts made a beautiful play for the second out, ranging to his left to dig out a slow roller and throw out Boyer. Wimberly nudged ahead 90 feet in the process, however, and scored on a Hanson double.

Mejia and Knudson had RBI singles to greet Sea Dogs reliever Nate Reed in the sixth.

Cole Johnson, Ryan O’Rourke and Lester Oliveros combined to allow only one hit and one run in relief of Gilmartin. Oliveros worked a perfect ninth for his second save.

Portland plays the first of three against Binghamton at 6 p.m. Monday. Henry Owens, who pitched an abbreviated no-hitter in the season opener at Reading, is scheduled to start.


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