Rock Cats Can't Hold Back Portland Rally

Published on June 26, 2010 under Eastern League (EL1)
New Britain Rock Cats News Release


NEW BRITAIN, CT - Deolis Guerra turned in a solid starting performance for the Rock Cats, but the bullpen failed to hold the lead as Portland went on to an 8-5 victory to spoil the night for an all-time record sellout crowd of 8,497. It was the second-straight capacity-filled crowd at New Britain Stadium.

The Rock Cats jumped out to an early lead with three runs in the second inning against Casey Kelly, the Boston Red Sox' top pitching prospect. Joe Benson started things off with a one-out triple to right field. With Steve Singleton at the plate, Benson scored on a Kelly wild pitch before Singleton followed with a double to right. Kelly continued to struggle with control throughout the inning. He hit Jair Fernandez with a pitch before another wild pitch allowed both runners to move into scoring position. Singleton then crossed the plate on a Mark Dolenc groundout for the 2-0 advantage. Yancarlos Ortiz added an RBI single.

The Sea Dogs struck back in the top of the third when Che-Hsuan Lin led off with a double and scored on Nate Spears' single to close the gap, 3-1. Lin and Spears would both finish the night with three hits apiece.

Singleton (3-for-4) led off the fourth with a solo home run to right field. The Rock Cats added another run in the fifth with the help of two fielding errors by the Sea Dogs. Benson delivered an RBI groundout with the bases loaded to score Chris Cates and put the Rock Cats ahead, 5-1.

Guerra managed to hold the Sea Dogs to one run through the first six innings. In the seventh, he allowed a one out double to Ryan Khoury and walked William Vazquez. A fielding error by Ortiz at third allowed Lin to reach first to load the bases. Spears came through for the Sea Dogs with a two-run base hit that knocked Guerra out of the game. Ray Chang then greeted reliever Cole DeVries with a double to left that scored Lin and Spears to tie the game. Luis Exposito followed with an RBI single that put the Sea Dogs ahead for the first time all night. Anthony Rizzo added an RBI double to round out the six-run inning.

Guerra finished with three runs on eight hits through 6 1/3 innings before he handed the ball over to the bullpen. DeVries (1-4) suffered the loss.

For the Sea Dogs, Kelly struck out six but allowed five runs (4 ER) on six hits in five innings. Santo Luis (5-1) picked up the win with 2 1/3 shutout innings in relief.

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Eastern League Stories from June 26, 2010


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