MWL1 Dayton Dragons

Dragons GameDay

Published on April 23, 2009 under Midwest League (MWL1)
Dayton Dragons News Release


Thursday, April 23, 2009 Game # 13

Fifth Third Field l Dayton, Ohio l 7:00 p.m. (EDT)

Radio: 1410 ESPN Radio WING-AM

Great Lakes Loons (8-4) at Dayton Dragons (1-11)

RH Ethan Martin (2-0, 0.90) vs. RH Curtis Partch (0-1, 4.82)

Today's Game: The Dragons (affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds) host the Loons (affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers) in the third game of a four game series. 2009 Season Series (all in Dayton): Great Lakes 4, Dayton 1.

Last Game: Great Lakes defeated Dayton 4-3 in the second game of the series. Alfredo Silverio's two-run single in the top of the sixth inning broke a 2-2 tie. The Dragons scored one run in the bottom of the sixth to pull to within one but had just one hit after the sixth, a two-out single in the seventh. Cody Puckett hit a home run for Dayton and Brandon Menchaca had two hits to lead a nine-hit Dayton attack. Great Lakes' Javy Guerra continued his dominant start to the season with a perfect ninth inning to earn his second save of the series, his third of the year against Dayton, and his fourth save overall.

Scoring Changes: The following changes were made after last night's game: Error charged to Dayton third baseman Frank Pfister on dropped foul pop-up in top of first inning; both runs in first against Josh Ravin changed to unearned. Ball hit by Great Lakes' Tony Delmonico in top of fourth changed from error against Pfister to base hit. Ball hit by Dayton's Jordan Wideman in bottom of fifth changed from error on Alfredo Silverio to double. Run against Bobby Blevins in that inning changed from unearned to earned.

Today's Starting Pitcher: Curtis Partch makes his third start of the season for the Dragons. He was the losing pitcher April 11th vs. Great Lakes (5 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 SO). In his last start, Partch pitched at Fort Wayne and received no decision (4.1 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 4 SO). Partch returns to the Dragons after going 5-11, 5.00 with the club in 2008 when he spent the entire season and post-season on the Dayton active roster. Partch is a native of Merced, California and played at Merced Junior College. He was drafted by the Reds in the 26th round in 2007. Partch finished strong in 2008, posting a 2.78 ERA over his final 10 games (four starts) over the last six weeks of the season. Partch was the Reds Pitcher of the Year in their 2008 Florida Instructional League program.

Skipper: Todd Benzinger makes his professional baseball managerial debut in 2009. Benzinger enjoyed a nine-year major league playing career from 1987-1995 with the Reds, Red Sox, Royals, Dodgers, and Giants. Todd is a former first baseman who recorded the final putout of the 1990 World Series with the Reds to complete their four-game sweep of the Oakland A's. Benzinger is a native of the Cincinnati area and currently resides in West Chester, Ohio. He has enjoyed a highly-successful career coaching girls' high school basketball since 1999.

Individual Notes

- David Sappelt has hit in nine straight games and 11 of the 12 games on the year. He is tied for the league lead in hits with 16.

- Sappelt is tied for the league lead in stolen bases with six. He was thrown out attempting to steal last night for the first time in '09.

- Kevin Coddington has hit in four straight games, going 7 for 14, .500.

- Byron Wiley is 6 for 14, .438 over his last four games.

- Humberto Sosa is 3 for 6 (.500) with five RBI with runners in scoring position. Sosa has hit in six of his last seven games.

- Sappelt and Sosa are the only Dragons to start all 12 games.

Team Notes

- The Dragons hope to end a club-record 10-game losing streak tonight. The Dragons only victory this season was a 6-1 win over Great Lakes the second day of the season, Friday, April 10th.

- Six of the Dragons 10 losses during the losing streak have come by one run.

- The Dragons have led by at least two runs in six of the 10 losses during the losing streak.

- The Dragons have scored the first run of the game in six of their 12 contests this season.

- The Dragons bullpen is 0-5 with an 8.67 ERA over the last eight games and has been charged with three blown saves.

- The Dragons have scored 19 of their 38 runs in the first three innings of games this season. They have been outscored 27-19 over the first three innings, but 49-19 after the third inning. They have scored just 10 runs after the fifth inning this season and only one run in the ninth.

- Dragons opponents are batting .338 with two outs and runners in scoring position and have produced 35 runs in 65 at-bats in those situations.

- The Dragons Opening roster includes seven players who have previously played for the club. They are pitchers Curtis Partch, Andrew Bowman, Aguido Gonzalez, Josh Ravin, and Mace Thurman; infielder Humberto Sosa, and outfielder Brandon Menchaca.

- The Dragons roster includes 20 players who played last season with the Billings Mustangs, the Reds Rookie-level affiliate. The Billings team posted a record of 42-32 and won both the first half and second half North Division titles in the Pioneer League.

Upcoming Probable Pitchers (All game times are Dayton time)

Friday (7:05 p.m.): Dayton RH Oscar Castro (0-1, 6.75) vs. Great Lakes RH Justin Miller (1-1, 2.84)

Saturday (2:00 p.m.): Dayton RH Leonardo Astorga (0-2, 21.00) at South Bend RH Ryan Cook (1-0, 1.50)

Sunday (2:00 p.m.): Dayton LH Matt Fairel (0-1, 3.29) at South Bend LH Taylor Sinclair (0-0, 3.60)

Monday (6:30 p.m.): Dayton RH Josh Ravin (1-1, 2.40) at South Bend RH Trevor Harden (2-1, 3.18)

Tuesday (6:30 p.m.): Dayton RH Curtis Partch at South Bend LH Wade Miley

Television/Radio: Friday's game will be televised on WHIO Digital Channel 7.2 (Time Warner cable channel 708). Tom Nichols handles play-by-play and former Reds infielder Chris Sexton provides color commentary. All Dragons games can be heard on radio on WING 1410-AM with Nichols and Alex Vispoli.

Check out the Dayton Dragons Statistics

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