Dogs’ Gabbard grounds Aeros for 5-0 victory

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PORTLAND – A day after six of his teammates distinguished themselves as Eastern League All-Stars, Portland starting pitcher Kason Gabbard pitched like one.

Gabbard completely grounded the Akron Aeros – allowing one hit through seven innings while walking one batter and striking out seven – and one of those all-star teammates provided all the offense he would need as the Sea Dogs started off the second half of the season with a 5-0 victory on a humid Thursday night at Hadlock Field.

“I had a pretty rough first half, but I’m changing some things and it’s working for me now,” said Gabbard, who entered the game with a 6-7 record, a 5.56 ERA and 90 hits allowed in 87 1/3 innings. “I changed my arm slot and I’m moving back on the left side of the mound. … Just little things that make a difference all together.”

All-Star shortstop Hanley Ramirez accounted for four runs with an RBI double and a three-run homer.

“Hanley’s ability allows him to change the game in a lot of ways, whether it be arm strength, speed on the bases, or flat-out raw power as he did tonight,” said Dogs manager Todd Claus, whose decision to bat Ramirez in the cleanup spot for the first time this season was due to the fact he “was just playing around with the lineup today.”

When you have the quantity and quality of hitters Claus does, and your starting pitchers are throwing lights out every game, you can afford to play a little.

Gabbard’s outing extends a string of solid outings by the Portland pitching staff, which has allowed no earned runs and just six hits over the last three games – a stretch of 23 innings.

“I don’t know how much more you can ask out of your starters,” Claus said. “A quality start is six innings with three runs or less. It doesn’t say anything about no runs and one hit.”

Guess they’ll have to start calling them extra-quality starts.

“The command of his fastball was outstanding and he had a little bit of run and a little late life on it, according to what our hitters were saying,” said Akron manager Torey Lovullo.

The Sea Dogs finally broke through in what quickly became a pitchers’ duel between Akron starter Ronald Bay and Gabbard. David Murphy led off the bottom of the fourth by walking on a 3-2 count before scoring from first on Ramirez’s double to left. Ramirez’s liner to left was misjudged by Akron left fielder Jon Van Every, who failed to run back and was caught flat-footed as the ball sailed over his head.

The Dogs exploded for four more runs the very next inning. Alberto Concepcion started things off with a one-out single to shallow left field. An outfield flyout later, Kenny Perez singled to right center. David Murphy followed with a high, lazy fly ball to very shallow left that looked destined to be caught as three Aeros players converged, but shortstop Ivan Ochoa called his teammates off just before he slipped on the grass. The ball fell harmlessly among the three fielders as Concepcion scored from second, Perez advanced to third, and Murphy reached safely.

SEA DOGS 5, AEROS 0

Akron (46-42) Portland (48-40)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Gutierrez, cf 4 0 0 0 Durbin, lf 4 0

Torres, 2b 4 0 0 0 Perez, 2b 4 1 0

Snyder, dh 3 0 0 0 Murphy, cf 2 2 1

Mulhern, 1b 3 0 0 0 Ramirez, ss 4 1 4

Francisco, rf 3 0 1 0 Moss, rf 4 0

Osborn, 3b 3 0 0 0 West, dh 4 0 0

Van Every, lf 2 0 0 0 Sandberg, 1b 2 0

Herrera, c 3 0 0 0 Nieves, 3b 4 0 0

Ochoa, ss 3 0 0 0 Concepcion, c 4 1 0

Totals 28 0 1 0 Totals 32 5 11 5

Akron 000 000 000 – 0

Portland 000 140 00x – 5

E-; LOB-Akron 4, Portland 7; 2B-Durbin, Ramirez, West; HR-Ramirez; DP-Akron 2; SB-Francisco; Van Every

Akron IP H R ER BB SO

Bay (L,1-1) 6 10 5 5 3 2

Gomez 2 1 0 0 1 1

Portland IP H R ER BB SO

Gabbard (W,7-7) 6 1 0 0 1 7

Beam 1 0 0 0 1 1

Deschenes 1 0 0 0 1 2

Mann 1 0 0 0 0 1

T-2:17; ATT-6,755