Kratz, Smith Move Fisher Cats Closer to Playo

Manchester, NH-David Smith and Erik Kratz each homered in a five-run third inning and Kurt Isenberg allowed 1 run in 7 innings as the New Hampshire Fisher Cats topped the Portland Sea Dogs 7-1 Thursday night before a standing room only crowd of 6,565 at Merchantsauto.com Stadium.

With the win, New Hampshire (66-64) moves into a tie for second place with Portland (65-63) for second placed in the Northern Division.

Isenberg (4-9), in winning for the first time since June 29, allowed 1 ER on 3 hits, walked four and struck out five. Jean Machi worked two innings of scoreless relief for New Hampshire.

The Fisher Cats took a 1-0 lead in the second inning. Ryan Klosterman singled, stole second, and went to third on an error on the throw. He scored on a single by Dustin Majewski (3-for-4, RBI).

In the third inning, Sergio Santos (2-for-5) singled and scored on Smith's 21st homer. Rob Cosby doubled, Juan Peralta walked and Kratz homered off losing pitcher Felix Diaz (3-3) to put New Hampshire up 6-0. The homer by Kratz, his 7th, was the RELCO Enlightening Play of the Game.

Portland scored its only run in the fifth inning on a single by Jeff Natale. It scored Salvador Paniagua and snapped New Hampshire's season high scoreless streak of 21.1 IP.

Ryan Patterson added an RBI double in the seventh inning for the Fisher Cats to put the team up 7-1.

The Fisher Cats host the Sea Dogs at Merchantsauto.com Stadium on Friday night at 7:05pm. The first 2,000 fans in attendance receive a Trenton Thunder Nomar Garciaparra Bobblehead. Chris Smith (4-8, 3.84) starts for Portland against Ricky Romero (2-5, 4.68) for New Hampshire.