Even with their two top prospects resting for the opener, the Portland Sea Dogs kicked off the holiday weekend in fine fashion Friday night at Hadlock Field.
Three consecutive singles set the stage for Nate Freiman, who delivered the first of his two home runs to light the fuse for a 6-2 Eastern League baseball victory over the Hartford Yard Goats.
Not only did the Dogs end a four-game losing streak, they added a 10-2 victory in the nightcap to sweep a doubleheader for the first time in two years.
Freiman, who leads the team with seven home runs, sat out the second game. His replacement, fellow ex-big leaguer Cody Decker, homered as well to open the scoring in Game 2.
“The guys at the top – Lin, Dubie and Robie – set the tone,” said Freiman, referring to Tzu-Wei Lin, Mauricio Dubon and Tim Roberson. “Hitting’s contagious. By the time I got up there, we had had a couple good at-bats and (that) put us in a good frame of mind. I just saw a couple pitches to hit and took some good swings.”
Freiman’s first home run hit the board in left-center and traveled an estimated 379 feet. His next swing, in the third, resulted in a 424-foot blast to straightaway center that followed a home run by Roberson to right-center of 382 feet.
At Hadlock, Freiman is batting .361 with six homers and 27 runs batted in. On the road, where he’s played 10 fewer games, his numbers drop off to .138 with one homer and two runs batted in.
“I like it here,” said the native of Wellesley, Massachusetts. “This is a nice park to play in. Beautiful stadium. It’s always nice to be at home.”
Freiman flied out to deep center in his third at-bat to finish with two hits, as did Roberson and Aneury Tavarez. That was more than enough offense for Kevin McAvoy (5-3), who scattered six hits in five innings and struck out a career-high eight batters.
“You definitely feel you can be a little more aggressive,” McAvoy said of being staked to a 4-0 lead in the first. “You’ve got a lead. You can pitch to contact.”
After an impressive April, McAvoy stumbled in May and June, and spent time on the disabled list with arm tightness. He lost three straight starts in early June, never managing to complete the fourth inning, before going seven innings in a 10-4 victory on June 21 and four in a no-decision his previous outing.
“I felt better my last three starts, really,” he said. “The three before that I was really trying to find my fastball. I was up in the zone with everything. I’ve been working with (pitching coach) Kevin Walker to get everything down: Change-up, down. Sinker, down. Curveball, down.”
McAvoy said he also did a better job of mixing his pitches Friday night.
“Last outing I was fastball heavy,” he said. “I’m starting to learn guys at this level will make that adjustment and get to it. It doesn’t matter if it’s moving. I used a lot more curveballs (Friday) and that’s really why I was more effective than I have been recently.”
Top prospects Yoan Moncada and Andrew Benintendi played in the second game, with Moncada delivering a two-run double and three-run homer, and Benintendi completing the Prospect Cycle with a squib single and a ground-ball triple to the right-field corner.
Taylor Grover (1-0) earned the victory in relief of starter Nik Turley, who struck out six and yielded only three hits in four innings, one fewer than the minimum to be awarded the decision.
NOTES: The Sea Dogs went 9-18 in June, marking their 10th straight losing month despite a team batting average of .274 that ranked fourth in the Eastern League. A league-worst ERA of 5.94 did them in. Their last winning month? In August 2014 they went 17-11. … Roberson extended his team-leading hitting streak to 10 games with a double in Game 2. … The paid attendance was announced as 4,084. … Portland’s last doubleheader sweep was July 5, 2014 against New Britain.
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