MWL1 Dayton Dragons

Dragons Lose, but Magic Number Trimmed to Five

Published on August 25, 2008 under Midwest League (MWL1)
Dayton Dragons News Release


Lansing, Mich.-C.J. Ebarb drilled a double down the right field line to drive in the tie-breaking run in the bottom of the eighth inning as the Lansing Lugnuts defeated the Dayton Dragons 3-2 on Monday. Despite the loss, the Dragons' "magic number" to clinch a playoff berth was trimmed to five. The Dragons remained three games ahead of the Fort Wayne Wizards in the Eastern Division wildcard race with seven games to play. Fort Wayne lost 1-0 in 11 innings to South Bend.

The eighth inning rally started in an unusual way for the Lugnuts. With two outs and the bases empty, Dragons reliever Jeff Jeffords struck out Jonathan Baksh swinging on a breaking ball in the dirt, but the pitch skipped past Dragons catcher Devin Mesoraco and Baksh reached on a third strike wild pitch. The Dragons then guessed correctly by calling a pitch-out as Baksh attempted to steal second, but Baksh still beat the throw to get into scoring position. The Dragons issued an intentional walk of Jonathan Jaspe and called upon left-handed reliever Aguido Gonzalez to face the left-handed batting Ebarb. Gonzalez got ahead in the count 0-2 before barely missing on two straight curves. He then threw another curve that Ebarb grounded hard past diving first baseman Michael McKennon to drive in the eventual winning run.

The Dragons had a ninth inning base runner with two outs when Justin Reed was hit by a pitch, but Lansing's Frank Gailey struck out Keltavious Jones looking to end the game.

The Dragons took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Jones reached on a two-base error, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a two-out single to left by Neftali Soto.

In the fifth, the Dragons scored again. Jones walked to start the inning and went to third on a double to left by Zack Cozart. After Soto struck out, Denis Phipps delivered a sacrifice fly to right to bring in Jones and make it 2-0. Cozart advanced to third on the play, but Brandon Waring struck for the third out.

Lansing tied the game in the fifth with two runs against Juan Rafael, who enjoyed an otherwise solid night. Rafael went six innings and allowed four hits and two runs with one walk and four strikeouts but was not involved in the decision. Jeffords (3-5) was charged with the loss.

The Dragons collected seven hits and continued to struggle against Lansing pitching. Dayton entered the game batting just .222 on the year against Lugnuts pitchers. Soto had three hits and drove in a run for the Dragons, but also had a key strikeout in a run-producing situation. The Dragons stranded eight runners and on three occasions, had runners at second base with no one out but could not get the runner in.

The Dragons play at Lansing again Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. in the second game of the four game series. Luis Montano (11-8, 4.01) will start for the Dragons. The Dragons will close out the regular season with a four game series at home against West Michigan starting Friday at Fifth Third Field.

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Midwest League Stories from August 25, 2008


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