(Reading, PA) - While there's no time limit in baseball, it's amazing how timeliness plays such an important role. Scanning through Monday night's box score between the Fightin Phils and Sea Dogs, one might see that the visitors had 7 runs on 13 hits while finishing 7-for-21 with runners in
(Reading, PA) - While there's no time limit in baseball, it's amazing how timeliness plays such an important role. Scanning through Monday night's box score between the Fightin Phils and Sea Dogs, one might see that the visitors had 7 runs on 13 hits while finishing 7-for-21 with runners in scoring position. Now that might seem like the Sea Dogs would leave with the win, but in a true seesaw affair where no lead was safe, it was the Fightins (13-20) who prevailed 10-7 as they improved to 3-1 against their division foes.
The Sea Dogs held their only lead in the first when they got a bases loaded walk from Tate Matheny , who extended his on-base streak to 28 against Fightins starter JoJo Romero . Looking for his first win in his seventh start, the lefthander fanned Luke Tendler to strike out the side and keep the bases loaded.
Reading soon scored three times in the bottom of the first against Mike Shawaryn , who faced eight batters and surrendered a sacrifice fly to Damek Tomscha before Zach Green and Cornelius Randolph went back-to-back with RBI base hits for a 3-1 lead. Malquin Canelo's sacrifice fly in the second tacked on a run, and Tomscha followed with his sixth home run for a 5-2 advantage through two.
Neither side scored again until the sixth inning, which started when the 'Dogs scored twice off Seth McGarry to cut into the Fightins lead and make it a 5-4 game. Again, the offense had a response, and Jan Hernandez hit a two-run bomb to left that was measured at 460 feet to push the lead back to three. Portland scored twice more in the top of the seventh, but in the home half Canelo led off with a homer off Trey Ball to keep the Sea Dogs at bay.
In the eighth inning, Vìctor Arano made his return to FirstEnergy Stadium for a rehab assignment as he looked to work his way back to Philadelphia. Despite yielding a pair of doubles and a run, last year's closer also struck out a pair and left the tying run at second base. For their final act at the plate, the Fightin Phils got another sacrifice fly to center from Tomscha, and Zach Coppola scored his second run on a throwing error from catcher Jhon Nunez , who sailed a throw into center field when he tried nabbing Canelo at second base. Edgar Garcia kept rolling with a perfect ninth for his third save, giving the Fightins game one and a 2-2 start on the homestand with three games remaining.
America's Classic Ballpark is proud to be a part of Pennsylvania's Americana Region. Season tickets for the 2018 season are available online at Fightins.com, by phone at 610-370-BALL, and in-person at FirstEnergy Stadium. Follow the Fightin Phils on Twitter at @ReadingFightins and like them on Facebook via www.facebook.com/fightins.
