And Harrison Jr.’s questioning of home plate umpire Tyler Hovick’s interpretation of the strike zone sent him down the tunnel to his office in the twilight of the evening.
At question was an 0-2 pitch from Bryce Hubbart to Fort Wayne’s Nick Vogt in the seventh inning that Hovick called a ball instead of strike three. Two pitches later Vogt hit an RBI single for an important third run in a tight game. What prompted Harrison Jr. more than anything to approach Hovick between innings was that a similar thing happened Wednesday night during the TinCaps’ three-run first inning.
The Dragons won that game 5-4, but Harrison Jr. hadn’t forgotten.
“I came out and I said, ‘I know you’re trying. I think you’ve missed two pitches to the same guy. That was strike three all the way in the zone, and both times it’s led to runs,’” Harrison Jr. said.
And in a conversation that continued virtually unnoticed as fans sang “Take Me Out To The Ballgame,” Harrison Jr. was ejected. Then first-base coach Jefrey Sierra and base umpire Gerritt Nelson intervened as the conversation turned into an argument.
“I go talk to him during the seventh-inning stretch to not make a scene to not show him up,” Harrison Jr. said. “Ego. Ego. That’s all I got.”
The loss snapped the first-place Dragons’ four-game winning streak. But at 17-11 in the second-half East Division standings of the Midwest League, the Dragons lead Lansing by 3 games and West Michigan by 3.5 games in the race for the division’s second playoff berth.
“We’re not questioning what we can do,” Harrison Jr. said. “Offensively we’ve got to do what we’ve been talking about this season and have more productive outs.”
The Dragons, who were shut out three straight games before their four-game winning streak, had a great start to the game when Carlos Jorge doubled. But a strikeout, weak grounder and fly ball ended the threat. They got two walks in the third, but batted balls failed to move runners along. Two more walks in the fifth were snuffed out by a double play.
The Dragons have had many late-inning rallies this season, but on this night the strike zone was a scary place. After Victor Acosta was hit by a pitch with one out in the seventh, the next seven Dragons struck out. A weak grounder ended the game.
The Dragons lead the league in striking out at over nine a game. They had struck out only three times Friday until the late skid to finish with 10.
“We can’t strike out seven times in a row at the end of the game,” Harrison Jr. said. “And we start the game off bad. We get a base hit – we’ve got to have more productive outs. We don’t make productive outs, that’s when we lose the game.”
A pair of RBI doubles, one in the second and one in the third, was all Fort Wayne’s three pitchers needed. Starter Braden Nett entered with an 8.71 ERA, but his best start came against Dayton on June 30 when he pitched four hitless innings.
Nett, the Padres’ No. 16 prospect, allowed only Jorge’s double and walked four in five innings for his longest outing in 11 starts. Fernando Sanchez pitched the next three innings and allowed the Dragons’ only other hit, an infield single by Cam Collier. Manuel Castro pitched the ninth for his seventh save.
Nett, Sanchez and Castro were in a zone. There’s no imagining that.
Roster changes: The Reds promoted right-handed relief pitcher Dylan Simmons and infielder Johnny Ascanio to Dayton from Single-A Daytona. Simmons, a 15th-round pick in 2023 out of Pittsburgh, was 5-4 with a 4.34 ERA in 20 appearances with Low-A Daytona. Ascanio, signed in 2019 from Venezuela, was hitting .220 with three homers and 22 RBIs at Daytona.
The Reds released right-handed relief pitcher Pedro Alfonseca. He had an 8.04 ERA in 20 appearances for the Dragons. Left-handed pitcher Reiver Sanmartin has completed his injury rehab assignment and has been transferred to Triple-A Louisville. Right-handed pitcher Connor Overton, who is on the Louisville injured list, has been transferred from the ACL Reds to Dayton as a continuation of a minor-league injury rehab assignment.
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