enlarge Jill Brady/Staff Photographer

Juan Apodaca sends a fly ball to center field in the seventh inning Sunday for a sacrifice fly, one of his four RBI during Portland’s 8-3 win over New Hampshire.

enlarge Jill Brady/Staff Photographer

Portland Sea Dogs shortstop Iggy Suarez avoids the sliding Darin Mastroianni of the Fisher Cats and throws to first to complete a double play. Portland won, 8-3.

TODAY'S GAME

WHO: Sea Dogs (Felix Doubront 6-2) at Reading Phillies (Kyle Drabek 6-1)

WHEN: 7:05 p.m.

PORTLAND — Juan Apodaca can't quite explain it, but he agrees. The combination of playing in July and against New Hampshire is a very good thing for Apodaca, a catcher for the Portland Sea Dogs.

Apodaca hit a two-run homer into the left-field net, had an RBI double and added a sacrifice in an 8-3 win Sunday against the Fisher Cats. It was Apodaca's second four-RBI game against New Hampshire this month.

"No real explanation. I just try to concentrate every day. I'll take it, of course I'll take it," Apodaca said.

Apodaca, whose playing time has increased since Mark Wagner's promotion to Triple-A Pawtucket, is hitting .393 in July. He and Sea Dogs Manager Arnie Beyeler credited recent work with hitting coach Dave Joppie for the surge.

"He's working with Joppie on using the bottom half of his body more, and he's getting better and driving baseballs," Beyeler said.

"I started working with my lower body and I seem more strong and see the ball better," Apodaca said.

The ability to drive pitches was especially evident in Apodaca's last at-bat. Down 0-2 in the count against 6-foot-6 right-hander Leon Boyd, Apodaca waited on a breaking pitch and drove it to right to score Jorge Jimenez and push Portland's lead to 7-3.

"That's a (great) at-bat there, with their outfielders and the way they throw it, to drive the ball deep enough to get in a key run," Beyeler said.

Portland starter Adam Mills won his sixth straight start. He went five innings and gave up three runs, the last two unearned when Scott Campbell hit a two-run homer after a two-out error by shortstop Iggy Suarez.

Ryne Miller went two innings and Chad Rhoades and Dustin Richardson one each, holding the Fisher Cats to one hit.

"We had some guys that needed to get some work today and they threw the zeros up," Beyeler said.

While Apodaca supplied some power, the Sea Dogs also scratched for some runs. Hit-and-run plays led to single runs in the first and eighth innings, with Jimenez and Josh Reddick punching balls to the left side to move runners to third.

Three consecutive infield singles helped Portland to a three-run second inning. The first run scored when Ryan Khoury (2 for 3) led off with a ground-ball single through the shortstop hole and sprinted home on Apodaca's double to the right center-field wall.

After an out, Suarez and Reddick reached on grounders into the shortstop hole, with Reddick's scoring Apodaca. Ryan Kalish followed with a dribbler up the third-base line to load the bases, and Suarez scored on a groundout by Jimenez.

Apodaca's homer in the third pushed the lead to 6-0.

NOTES: The Sea Dogs, who improved to 49-51, departed after the game for an eight-hour bus ride to Reading, Pa., to begin a seven-game road trip.

The crowd of 7,368 was the 11th sellout at Hadlock Field this season.

Mills became the first Sea Dogs pitcher to win five games in a month since the Red Sox affiliation began. Josh Beckett was the last pitcher to win five in a month for Portland, then a Florida Marlins affiliate.