Cup of Coffee: Sea Dogs hit four home runs to extend winning streak

7/19 Cup of Coffee: The Sea Dogs have won 13 straight and are now 14-1 in July after a shellacking of Reading on Sunday. Portland was the beneficiary of home runs from Devlin Granberg (pictured), Hudson Potts, Jeisson Rosario, and Pedro Castellanos, which was more than enough to support Josh Winckowski. Worcester was rained out while Greenville was only able to finish one of two scheduled games. In Salem, Chih-Jung Liu and Matthew Lugo led the way. 

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Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders @ Worcester Red Sox, PPD (rain)

Both Saturday's suspended game and Sunday's regularly scheduled game were not played due to rain. Both games will be played when the RailRiders return to Worcester from August 17-22. 

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Portland Sea Dogs 15, Reading Fightin Phils (PHI) 4

The Sea Dogs made it 13 in a row with a dominant offensive performance. The top six hitters in the order combined to go 17 for 29, led by Devlin Granberg who went 4 for 6 with a home run. The most damage came on a Hudson Potts grand slam, and he finished the day 3 for 5. Jeisson Rosario also homered while going 2 for 4 with a walk and stolen base, and Pedro Castellanos went 3 for 6 with a double and a home run. Castellanos now has an OPS over 1.000 since the start of June. 

Josh Winckowski was able to cruise through five innings, allowing two runs on six hits. It was a great bounce-back start after he did not get out of the first inning in his last game. Durbin Feltman closed things out with two strikeouts in a scoreless inning. 

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Asheville Tourists (HOU) 9, Greenville Drive 2 (Game One)

The Drive took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first but it was downhill from there as the Tourists ran away with the first game of the day. Chase Shugart was tagged for seven runs in 4 1/3 innings, though he did strike out six and walk only one. The Drive took the early lead on a two-run home run from Brandon Howlett, but they managed only two hits after that. The home run was the 11th for Howlett and his fourth in 12 games in July. 

Asheville Tourists @ Greenville Drive, suspended (rain)

The second game of the day was not going Greenville's way either, but it was suspended in the second inning with Asheville ahead 3-0. 

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Salem Red Sox 7, Fayetteville Woodpeckers (HOU) 3

It has been a bit of a rollercoaster for Chih-Jung Liu in his short time in Salem, but he rebounded on Sunday to improve to 2-0. Liu allowed two runs in five innings, walking one and striking out two. Casey Cobb followed with two scoreless innings as he lowered his ERA to 1.45. It was the Matthew Lugo show on offense as he went 2 for 3 with a double and two walks. Nick Decker also reached base four times with a single and three walks, and Alan Marrero also drew three walks. 

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Player of the Day: You could take your pick from the Portland offense, but Devlin Granberg was able to edge out his teammates. A college senior who received an under-slot bonus in the sixth round of 2018, Granberg hit .273/.364/.405 in 2019 and was largely off the prospect radar. That has changed this year as Granberg is now hitting .337/.394/.629 in 49 games between Salem and Portland. He has already launched 12 home runs and is striking out in just 16.7% of his plate appearances. The 25-year-old will need to prove himself at each level, and he has done just that so far for Portland. 

Photo Credit: Devlin Granberg by Kelly O'Connor

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