PORTLAND — Reading became the first Eastern League baseball team to score more than one run against Sea Dogs right-hander Anthony Ranaudo, and wound up with a 5-1 victory Tuesday night at Hadlock Field.
The loss was only the second in 10 games for the Sea Dogs (19-11). Reading (13-17) ended a seven-game losing streak that started with a Sea Dogs sweep in Pennsylvania last week.
Ranaudo (4-1), a first-round draft pick of the Red Sox in 2010, had yielded no more than a run in any of his five previous starts.
That changed with two out in the sixth inning Tuesday, when Jim Murphy cleared the Maine Monster for Reading’s second home run of the game (and only third of the season against Ranaudo) to break a 1-1 tie.
Doubles by Cameron Rupp and Derrick Mitchell – who had homered in the fourth – along with an infield error gave Reading a 4-1 lead.
That was enough for Reading starter Hector Neris (3-1), an undrafted free agent from the Dominican Republic. He held the Sea Dogs to four hits in six innings and the only one that did any damage was a two-out home run by Travis Shaw in the fourth.
Nevis tossed three perfect innings and, except for Shaw, didn’t allow a baserunner to third. He struck out two and walked none.
NOTES
Rehabbing Red Sox left-handed reliever Franklin Morales, on the disabled list since late March with a lower back strain, is scheduled to pitch the first two innings Wednesday night. He will be followed by the previously-scheduled starter, Drake Britton (2-2, 4.75). … Shortstop Xander Bogaerts did not play for the fourth game in a row since he ended Friday night’s 5-4 comeback victory with a blooper resulting in a three-way collision in shallow center. … The announced paid attendance was 3,532 …
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