BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Sea Dogs pitcher Justin Haley has been putting up better numbers recently.
Now he’s starting to get the results to show for it.
Haley threw six scoreless innings for the third time in four starts Sunday night and the Portland Sea Dogs took a shutout into the ninth inning of a 6-1 Eastern League victory over the Binghamton Mets.
Working with the lead from his first pitch, Haley allowed more than one baserunner in only one of his six innings.
“That’s always nice,” Haley said of the 2-0 advantage in the first inning. “We have a lot of good hitters that are swinging well right now.
“If we start putting up some zeroes, we have the kind of bats that can really turn around our season and help us starting putting together some consecutive wins.”
Haley (3-9) posted just his second win in the last nine starts. The Sea Dogs as a whole have been going through similar struggles.
The last time last-place Portland won back-to-back games was in Binghamton on May 27-28.
The Sea Dogs will take the field for the series finale on Monday trying to end the drought.
Haley won 10 games in 2014 between Salem and Portland and ranked second in the Boston farm system in earned run average at 2.35, behind only Brian Johnson.
He was 1-8 with an ERA above 6.00 in mid-June before working it back under 5.00 with the recent efforts.
Without any major changes, Haley said the improvement has been a matter of refining pitches in the bullpen between starts and sticking to his strengths in game situations.
“Quality fastball, a solid slider with good movement late and a quality changeup,” Haley said of the combination he took to the mound Sunday. “Just staying down with my stuff is the biggest thing.”
Haley struck out six and walked one. Williams Jerez followed with two hitless innings and Madison Younginer allowed a unearned run in the ninth.
Portland took a 2-0 lead in the first on back-to-back sacrifice flies by Jantzen Witte and Sam Travis after a Binghamton error.
Witte doubled and scored on a Manuel Margot triple in the fourth.
In the fifth, Marco Hernandez reached on an error and scored on a single by Carlos Asuaje to give Portland a 3-0 lead.
The Sea Dogs added a pair of runs in the ninth. Sam Travis lead off the inning with a single, stole second and, after Margot walked, moved to third on a balk. He later scored on another balk and Margo scored on a single by Jake Romanski.
NOTES: On Saturday, the Sea Dogs adding right-handed pitcher Kyle Kraus, who was with the team earlier this season. Kraus was 0-1 with a save and a 4.98 ERA in 13 games, including two starts, for Portland. Krause had two saves in four games for Class A Salem before his call up. He didn’t allow an earned run in eight innings of work. He also pitched 22/3 scoreless innings in one appearance for Triple A Pawtucket earlier this season.
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