The Hartford Yard Goats scored 10 runs for the second straight game and defeated the Fightin Phils 10-6 on Thursday night at FirstEnergy Stadium in Reading, Pennsylvania. The victory was the fourth in five games for the first-place Yard Goats, who led the Eastern League Northeast Division by 1 1/2 games over Portland and Somerset entering play Friday night. Brenton Doyle homered, Michael Toglia had an RBI double and Hunter Stovall added a two-run triple as five Yard Goats had multiple hit games. Reliever Dugan Darnell worked 2 1/3 scoreless innings to record the win and improve to 3-0.
The Yard Goats went ahead in the first inning off Reading’s McKinley Moore. Daniel Montano led off with a single, took second on a wild pitch and scored on a double by Michael Toglia. Later in the inning, Kyle Datres’ grounder scored Grant Lavigne to make it 2-0.
Reading made it 2-1 in the bottom of the first as Wendell Rijo cranked a two-out homer off Noah Gotsis, who retired nine of the first 10 batters, including the side in order in the second and third innings.
In the fourth, Kyle Datres and Brenton Doyle both scored on wild pitches to make it 4-1. The Fightin Phils cut it to 4-3 in the bottom of the fourth, but the Yard Goats added three more runs in the fifth, highlighted by a two-run bullet homer by Brenton Doyle. Reading made it 7-5 with two runs in the bottom of the fifth but the Yard Goats scored another three in the sixth to make it 10-5. Hunter Stovall had the big hit in the sixth inning with a two-run triple.