Reading Routes Sea Dogs in Series Opener
Austin Hyatt (3-3, 5.10) sparkled for Reading tossing seven scoreless innings and racked up eight strikeouts in his start.
Meanwhile, Reading squared up Britton's pitches for nine hits in the lefty's 3.2 innings of work. Britton gave up eight runs in his outing which ties his career high. He also struck out two and walked four.
Jackie Bradley Jr. found his groove at the plate on Monday night going 2-for-3 raising his batting average to .327. Bradley led-off the game for Portland with his second triple of the season and followed by doubling for the ninth time of the season in the 3rd inning. Bradley had two of the four Sea Dogs base-knocks on the night.
The Reading Phillies jumped all over the scoreboard in the first inning to take an early 4-0 lead. Tyson Gillies led-off the game with a double and came around to score on a single by Darin Ruf. Cody Asche drove in two runs with a single and Sebastian Valle capped the inning with a sacrifice fly scoring Leandro Castro.
Reading tacked on a run in the fourth and fifth innings off of Caleb Clay who came in to the game in relief of Britton in the fourth inning. Leandro Castro and Tyson Gillies record RBI singles in the fourth and fifth innings respectively. The Phillies came through once again for two more in the seventh. Miguel Abreu followed Jiwan James' single with his 12th double of the season. Cesar Hernandez then brought both base runners home with a single to centerfield.
Sea Dogs' reliever Ryan Pressly shined in his Double-A debut. Pressly entered the game in the 7th inning for Clay and threw 2.2 scoreless frames giving up one hit and striking out two.
The Sea Dogs cracked through in the 8th inning off of Reading reliever Jordan Whatcott who came into the game in relief of Hyatt. Ronald Bermudez came in to pinch-hit for Bradley and promptly singled following a Ryan Dent lead-off walk. Marquez Smith doubled home Dent and Bermudez would come around to score on a Bryce Brentz RBI groundout capping Portland's two run inning.
Portland added two more in the ninth as a result of back-to-back fielding errors by Reading. Derrik Gibson scored on the second error and Dent wound up at third. Marquez Smith finished the Monday's scoring line with an infield single.
The Sea Dogs will be back at it for game two of the three game series against the Reading Phillies Tuesday, July 17th. Right hander Julio Rodriguez (5-3, 3.84) will take the mound for the Phillies. Portland has yet to announce a starter. Catch all of the game action on 95.5/95.9 FM WPEI. Tickets are available and can be purchased by calling the Sea Dogs Ticket Office 207-879-9500 or order online at www.seadogs.com.