The Portland Sea Dogs got a solid six inning start from Dedgar Jimenez on Monday afternoon, and after blowing a 3-0 lead Tate Matheny hit a two out walkoff grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the hosts to a 7-3 Eastern League baseball win over the Altoona Curve at Hadlock Field. Portland takes three of four in the series with Altoona.
Luke Tendler singled in Matheny to open the scoring in the bottom of the second to make it 1-0 Portland. Bobby Dalbec and Josh Tobias extended the lead with RBI singles in the fifth making it 3-0. Jimenez who got a no decision cruised through his 6.0 innings of work before being relieved allowing no runs, six hits, with one walk, along with six strikeouts.
Altoona (23-26) struck back off Portland relievers Jake Cosart and Jordan Weems. A passed ball in the seventh on Sea Dogs catcher Jhon Nunez allowed a Curve runner to score to make it 3-1. Then in the eighth Alfredo Reyes hit an RBI single to make it a one run game. Durbin Feltman came in for the ninth inning for a chance to save it and pick up the win for Jimenez, but had a blown save when he allowed a one out solo homer to Jared Oliva. Matt Eckelman came in for relief in the bottom of the ninth for the Curve. After Jeremy Rivera grounded out, Brett Netzer singled. Dalbec popped out to second for out number two. Tobias and Cody Ashe then both walked to set up the dramatics for Matheny. Matheny launched the first pitch he saw just over the right field fence for the walk off grand slam. It was his first home run of the season, sending the big Memorial Day crowd at sun splashed Hadlock home happy. Matheny now has two grand slams out of the three career homers he has at Double A.
Feltman (2-1) ended up with the win in relief allowing the one run and one hit in one inning of work. Netzer, Dalbec, and Matheny all had two hits a piece as Portland improved their record to 16-32. Altoona used five total pitchers with the first four going two innings a piece, while Eckelman (1-2) was tagged in the loss allowing four runs on two hits in just 2/3 of an inning. Oliva and Arden Pabst led the visitors with two hits each.
Portland begins a three game series at Hartford on Tuesday night.
