BANGOR – There’s an old adage about trouble coming in threes, but for the Bangor Lumberjacks, three couldn’t look much better.

The Lumberjacks finished off a three-game sweep of Northern Division leader Quebec with a 5-1 victory and lowered their “magic number” for clinching a Northeast League playoff berth to three (any combination of Bangor wins and Brockton losses).

“Everybody’s on the same page and we’re playing really solid baseball right now,” said Bangor manager Kash Beauchamp. “This last series is as good as we’ve played this season.”

Thanks to another stellar starting pitching effort, this time from Adam Thomas, the Lumberjacks – now tied with Quebec for first at 25-11 – notched their fifth straight win and ninth in their last 11 games.

“Everything’s clicking with us right now,” said Thomas, who fell just one out short of his fifth complete game but notched his first win in four starts against Quebec this season. “They’re a really good, aggressive, fastball-hitting team and I’m a fastball pitcher, but I moved from middle-away to middle-in on the righties and that got them off balance.”

Thomas also mixed his changeup in more than usual to keep the Capitales honest as he allowed seven hits and four walks in 8 2/3 innings. The third-year pro righthander threw 83 of 133 pitches for strikes and notched six strikeouts.

The Capitales actually outhit Bangor 7-6, but Bangor’s came at more opportune times. Paul Powell had two singles and an RBI while Derry Hammond hit his 21st home run of the season and collected his sixth and seventh RBIs of the last two games.

“I still don’t feel I’m at the point I want to be yet because I’m still swinging at balls out of the strike zone, but my timing is coming back and I do feel pretty good now at the plate overall,” Hammond said.

The Lumberjacks scored twice in the second to jump on top. After a leadoff walk to Hammond and a flyout to left, Josh Tranum walked. A flyout to center put runners at the corners before back-to-back RBI singles to right by Paul Powell and Shin Uchino plated both runners.

Bangor used the long ball to put up three more runs in the fifth as Rolando Bello jumped all over an 0-1 fastball from Jess Turner for a leadoff homer to right and Hammond belted a 1-0 heater some 370 feet to left for a two-run shot with one out.

“He’d been throwing me a lot of offspeed stuff and I hadn’t really seen any good fastballs to hit, but I guess he tried to get ahead with one there,” said Hammond.

The Capitales foiled Thomas’ shutout bid in the seventh, when Lee Delfino roped a one-out double down the left field line and scored on Benoit Emond’s two-run single to center.

Isaac Pavlik, who’s served as starter, long reliever and closer this season; came on to record the final out with the bases loaded for his fourth save of the season.

“I’m doing a little bit of everything, but as long as I’m throwing, I’m happy,” said Pavlik.

LUMBERJACKS 5, CAPITALES 1

Quebec (25-11) Bangor (25-11)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Emond, rf 3 0 1 1 Bello, 2b 3 1 1

Tomlinson, cf 5 0 2 0 Hargreaves, c 5 0

Hopper, dh 4 0 1 0 Garcia, rf 3 1 0

Lantigua, 3b 3 0 1 0 Hammond, lf 3 2 2

Melo, 2b 4 0 0 0 Burke, dh 3 0 0

McNabb, lf 3 0 0 0 Tranum, 1b 1 1 0

Morton, 1b 4 0 0 0 Baker, cf 4 0 0

Delfino, ss 4 1 1 0 Powell, ss 4 0 1

Lepine, c 4 0 1 0 Uchino, 3b 4 0 1

Totals 34 1 7 1 Totals 30 5 6 5

Quebec 000 000 100 ? 1

Bangor 020 030 00x ? 5

LOB?Capitales 10; Lumberjacks 9; 2B?Delfino; HR?Bello (1), Hammond (21); SB?Hopper, Melo; Garcia 2

Quebec IP H R ER BB SO

Turner (L, 4-4) 6 5 5 5 6 5

Johnson 1 0 0 0 0 2

Santos 1 1 0 0 2 2

Portland IP H R ER BB SO

A. Thomas (W, 8-5) 8 2/3 7 1 1 4 6

Pavlik (S, 4) 1/3 0 0 0 0 1

T?2:45; ATT?1,648