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Iggy Suarez goes 4 for 6 and drives in five runs as Portland survives a four-hour, nine-minute game.

By KEVIN THOMAS, Staff Writer May 31, 2008

MANCHESTER, N.H. — It was fireworks night at Merchantsauto.com Stadium, and the fans waited.

And waited.

And ...

Before the fuses were lit, the Portland Sea Dogs and New Hampshire Fisher Cats played a four-hour, nine-minute baseball game, featuring 25 runs, 37 hits, 14 walks, and seven pitching changes.

Portland survived the marathon with a 15-10 victory Friday night before a patient crowd of 7,325.

Several Sea Dogs enjoyed glorious nights at the plate, led by the No. 9 batter, Iggy Suarez.

Hitting several balls hard, including a foul ball that missed being a home run by 10 feet, Suarez went 4 for 6, with three doubles, totaling a career-high five RBI.

He was not alone in the hit-fest.

Tony Granadillo's slump can be declared over. He stroked four hits with four RBI.

Both Zach Daeges and Bubba Bell enjoyed three-hit nights, with Daeges getting two doubles, and three RBI.

Daeges extended his on-base streak to 29 games.

Jeff Corsaletti kept getting on base with a double and four walks.

Portland pounded out 21 hits, tying the franchise record. With all that offense, Manager Arnie Beyeler did not see the outburst. Beyeler is out of town, attending his daughter's high school graduation. Bruce Crabbe, the Red Sox roving minor league infield instructor, filled in.

Crabbe got to watch the hits, but he also saw the pitches.

It is hard to believe that this was a battle of first-round draft picks, New Hampshire's Rickey Romero and Portland's Kyle Jackson. It is even harder to fathom that these two pitchers locked into a duel on May 20, both allowing one run over six innings.

On Friday, neither pitcher reached the fourth inning.

Romero and the Fisher Cats fell behind 6-0 after two innings.

But Johnson could not hold the lead. After two scoreless frames, Johnson got hit hard in the third -- six hits, two walks and seven runs (six earned).

Romero, drafted in 2005 and signed for $2.4 million, now has a 6.48 ERA. Johnson, picked in 2006 and signed for $850,000, has a 4.25 ERA.

Mike James (2-1) relieved Johnson and picked up the win (11/3 innings, two hits, one walk, one run), thanks to another Sea Dogs rally.

Down 8-6, the Sea Dogs got to reliever Jamie Vermilyea (3-3) for five runs in the fifth and three in the sixth. Suarez got two doubles off him, sparking the Sea Dogs in both innings, as Portland took a 14-8 lead.

Sea Dogs reliever Kyle Jackson seemed to have things under control, pitching two scoreless innings.

But Jackson then faced five batters in the seventh and did not record an out.

New Hampshire closed to 14-10 and had slugger Travis Snider (eight home runs) come up with bases loaded.

Reliever Beau Vaughan entered. Snider hit his first pitch off of Vaughan's ankle. Vaughan grabbed the ball and fired to catcher John Otness, who threw to first baseman Aaron Bates for the double play. Vaughan struck out the Jacob Butler to end the threat.

NOTES: The game got even longer in the eighth inning when one New Hampshire player and two coaches were ejected. Second baseman Scott Campbell was kicked out for arguing a called strikeout. Manager Gary Cathcart got into it with home plate umpire John Conrad and was also thrown out. Hitting coach Ken Joyce, a Portland native, came out to replace Cathcart, but began arguing. Then he got the thumb.

Staff Writer Kevin Thomas can be contacted at 791-6411 or at:

kthomas@pressherald.com