RESULTS

Thursday: Portland 3, Thunder 2
Friday: Thunder 9, Portland 1
Saturday: Portland 5, Thunder 2
Sunday: Portland 9, Thunder 5

Key to the Series: Relief pitching, and Lars Anderson. Noel Castillo twice allowed tie-breaking home runs to the Portland first baseman.Wilkin De La Rosa, stellar up until this point, also blew two saves in the set. In his 3 1/3 innings, the left-hander gave up three earned runs on seven hits and three walks. When your seventh- and eighth-inning guys are giving up runs left and right, the team is obviously not going to be successful.

Honorable mention: If there was anything good about this series for the home team, it was the emergence of Austin Romine and Brandon Laird as middle-of-the-order threats. Here are the stat lines for each man during the four-game set.

Romine: 5-for-13, four doubles, three walks, RBI
Laird: 5-for-16, double, two home runs, seven RBIs, two walks

As an additional note, courtesy of Jay Dunn, Laird has been super clutch this year. With runners in scoring position and two outs, the third baseman is hitting 5-for-11 with 7 RBIs.