Portland, Maine- Devlin Granberg had a game winning RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning Sunday afternoon, leading the Portland Sea Dogs to their third straight walkoff win 6-5 over the Harrisburg Senators at Hadlock Field. Portland took five of six games in the series.
Portland took the early lead on a solo homerun from Ryan Fitzgerald in the second inning. Chris Sale in his second rehab start with the Sea Dogs, allowed his first run as a member of the team when Osvaldo Duarte answered the Fitzgerald solo shot with one of his own in the third. The hosts got a solo homer from Pedro Castellanos in the bottom half though, and a two-run blast by Tyreque Reed to make it 4-1. Portland led 5-3 until the ninth, and that is when Harrisburg (25-46) got a pair of singles to lead off the inning and then a two-run double by Rhett Wiseman to even the score that would send the game to extra innings. In the 10th, the Senators had a good chance with one out when Alex Scherff came on to pitch and after a strikout walked two batters to load the bases. Scherff escaped any damage though when he got Cole Freeman to fly out. Granberg would lead off the bottom half and hammered an 0-1 pitch to right center for a single, scoring designated runner Castellanos from second base to win it.
Sale went 3.2 innings allowing two runs on six hits with no walks and nine strikeouts. He hit one batter and threw 64 pitches, 46 for strikes. Scherff (1-0) got the win, and Jeisson Rosario and Granberg had three hits a piece as Portland improves their Double A best record to 45-24. Wiseman and Duarte had three hits each for Harrisburg, while Jhon Romero (1-2) was the tough luck loser facing just one hitter in the 10th. The Sea Dogs are off on Monday before opening up another six game series at Hadlock Field against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats on Tuesday night. Sale is expected to make 1-2 more minor league rehab starts before re-joining the Red Sox, including Saturday at Triple A Worcester.