The baseballs looked promising as they headed toward right field, but Blake Perkins was taking no chances Thursday afternoon. Homerless since April, he put his head down and ran hard.
“I was sprinting,” he said. “The first one I thought I got better, but it’s been a while, so I just had to make sure.”
Perkins sent balls over the fence at Hadlock Field twice as part of a five-homer barrage for the visiting Somerset Patriots, who delivered an 8-2 thumping to the Sea Dogs before a matinee crowd of 6,924 that was populated most noticeably by summer campers in colorful T-shirts.
After winning eight in a row, the Sea Dogs have dropped two games in succession. Because the Eastern League uses a split-season format, the Sea Dogs are 11-4 in the second half and lead the six-team North Division in the playoff race to join first-half champ Somerset.
That Somerset and Portland are the Double-A affiliates of the Yankees and Red Sox is not lost upon Perkins, a 25-year-old switch-hitting outfielder who was a second-round draft pick of the Nationals in 2015 and was traded to the Royals in a deal involving reliever Kelvin Herrera in the summer of 2018.
“It’s probably not as fierce as in the big leagues, but I feel like it’s bred into you,” he said. “It’s the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry and the fans for sure let us feel it during these games. And when Portland comes to our place it’s the same way. It’s fun.”
Perkins spent last season with Kansas City’s Double-A affiliate in Arkansas, then signed with the Yankees as a minor-league free agent. He started this season with a bang, belting six home runs in April and batting .296 with a 1.136 OPS.
He didn’t fare so well in May and June, however, and limped into July with a .216 batting average and a .727 OPS. On Thursday, he had a run-scoring double and two home runs – off three different Portland pitchers – to extend his hitting streak to eight games. His batting average is up to .243 and his OPS to .778.
“It’s a good feeling,” said Perkins, whose last home run in April came off former Sea Dogs pitcher Brayan Bello, who was recently with the Red Sox. “I obviously know it’s been three months, but that’s not something I’m too worried about.”
Max Burt, Michael Beltre and Anthony Volpe also homered for the Patriots, who are 8-7 in the second half after going 44-25 in the first half. Somerset led 6-0 before the Sea Dogs got to Patriots starter Luis Medina (3-3) in the fifth inning. Singles by Tyler Dearden, Ricardo Cubillan, Alex Binelas and Christian Koss produced a pair of runs.
Portland’s only extra-base hit was Kole Cottam’s one-out double in the sixth. The Sea Dogs loaded the bases with two out, bringing the potential tying run to the plate, but reliever Carlos Espinal induced a first-pitch grounder by Binelas, and the home team never seriously threatened again.
Left-hander Jay Groome, Boston’s No. 1 draft pick in 2016, was scratched from his scheduled start because of a promotion to Triple-A Worcester. That left Sea Dogs Manager Chap Epperson with a bullpen game. Dylan Spacke went three innings in his fourth spot start. Zach Bryant, Joan Martinez and Ryan Fernandez finished up. The Patriots went deep on all four relievers, twice against Bryant in the fourth.
“When you elevate pitches and fall behind, those things lead into good swings,” Epperson said. “That club over there, obviously they have some power in their lineup. We left some handicap breaking balls up in the zone. They got it up in the air and it went.”
NOTES: Dearden made an impressive sliding catch in left field in the ninth. … Replacing Groome (scheduled to start Friday night in Norfolk) on the Portland roster is right-handed reliever Michael Gettys, promoted from Class A Greenville. Gettys is a former outfielder who hit 31 home runs for San Diego’s Triple-A team in 2019, but converted to pitching late last season. … On a visit to Cooperstown last week, Sea Dogs coach Katie Krall donated the Sea Dogs batting helmet she wore while coaching first base to the Baseball Hall of Fame. … Portland native David Littlefield, a scout for the Tigers and former general manager of the Pirates, is in town for the homestand. … Perkins said the youthful enthusiasm of all the campers did not go unnoticed. “A lot of screams and a lot of asking for balls,” he said. “Hopefully for these kids, they enjoy coming out to the ballpark like I did at their age.”
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