On Thursday, Portland got a solid effort from Adam Mills (0-5), who threw 6 2/3 innings, allowing four hits, two runs, one earned, striking out seven.

But the Sea Dogs were shut out for the second straight night. Jeff Manship (3-6) turned in his best performance with the Rock Cats, allowing three hits over six innings, striking out seven.

Manship, 23, made his Double-A debut two months ago at Hadlock and gave up six runs on eight hits over four innings. He has steadily improved.

"His problem (before) was that he wasn't down with his pitches like he usually is," New Britain pitching coach Steven Mintz said. "Tonight everything was down below the knees and moving."

New Britain relievers Zach Ward and Ben Julianel combined for three perfect innings. The Sea Dogs didn't get a hit after the fourth inning and of their seven base runners, none reached third.

Were the two straight shutouts the result of stellar New Britain pitching or slumping Sea Dogs bats?

"Good pitching beats good hitting all the time," Sea Dogs Manager Arnie Beyeler said.

Mills pitched out of jams early, stranding runners in scoring position in the first three innings. He then retired 10 straight until a crucial leadoff walk in the seventh after an 0-2 count.

After a sacrifice and flyout, Mills yielded an RBI single by Matt Tolbert to center. Shortstop Argenis Diaz got the relay and tried to pick off Tolbert at first, but no one was covering and Tolbert went to third on the errant throw. Richie Lentz relieved and gave up an RBI double.

"Millsy did a nice job but they moved the guys around and got them in," Beyeler said.

"We had a couple of opportunities to do that and we didn't get that done."

The Stockton Ports scheduled starter Thursday Travis Banwart was a late scratch in favor of left-hander Derrick Gordon. The JetHawks surely wished the Ports did not make the switch. Gordon responded by no-hitting the JetHawks through five innings. He struck out five and walked two before leaving the game for a reliever in the sixth.

Centerfielder Jason Place broke up the Ports no-hit bid with an infield single in the sixth inning. Lancaster scored their only run in the ninth when Ryan Kalish singled into left to bring home Place.

Stockton slugger Chris Carter laced a homer to centerfield to put the Ports ahead 1-0 in the second inning. Stockton 1B Matt Spencer added a long two-run homer to right in the fourth off Lancaster starter Chris Jones as the Ports went ahead 3-0. Jones kept his team in the game, yielding just three runs in seven innings.

Darin Holcomb had one of the biggest nights at the plate in his young professional career - a three for four effort with six RBIs - to lead to the Tourists to an 11-1 win over the Greenville Drive. Holcomb's night ended with the South Atlantic League MVP a triple shy of the cycle.

Greenville picked up their lone run in the first inning on a Zachary Penprase groundout but it was all Asheville from there. Holcomb's three-run homer gave the Tourists their first lead of the night in the first and after Helder Velazquez added his ninth home run of the season later that inning, Asheville was off to a 4-1 lead.

After Everth Cabrera's solo home run to open the third, Holcomb once again hit with runners in scoring position. He delivered again with a single to bring in a pair of runs, the second of which was his 100th RBI of the season, to give the Tourists a commanding 7-1 lead. Holcomb becomes the 25th Tourists player and just the 5th in the Colorado Rockies era to reach the century mark in RBI. The last Tourists to reach 100 were Matt Miller and Joe Koshansky in 2005.

The Lowell Spinners were held to five hits in a 6-2 loss last night to Hudson Valley.

But the Spinners received several help from Brooklyn, which blanked Oneonta, 6-0, to cut Lowell's magic number to clinch the New York-Penn League's Stedler Division championship to just two.

Lowell can clinch the title tonight by defeating Hudson Valley and if Oneonta loses.

Last night, one of Lowell's best pitchers, Bryan Price, suffered a rare tough night.

He fell to 1-3 -- and his earned run average soared to 3.09 -- after allowing 5 hits and 4 runs in 4 innings of work. Three Spinners pitchers combined to allow 11 hits.

Lowell took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first and scored a run in fourth to go on top, 2-1. But Hudson Valley rallied for three runs in the bottom of the fourth and never looked back.