What frustrates the Dragons are the one-run losses. After a walk-off win on Tuesday and a come-from-behind win Wednesday, they lost 3-2 on three straight nights. They are 16-29 in one-run games.
“We’ve been in tight games and just haven’t really finished them off the way we would like,” manager Bryan LaHair said. “Our back is to the wall, but we’ve still got 12 games.”
Those 12 games will have to be the Dragons’ best run of the season. They are in fourth place and 3.5 games behind first-place West Michigan in the second-half standings. The Dragons’ only ticket to the playoffs is by winning the second half.
Lansing (56-63, 25-29) took a 2-0 lead against Carson Rudd in the first inning on a two-run double by Colby Thomas. Rudd made it through 3 2/3 innings without allowing another run. Jayvien Sandridge, the Dragons’ third pitcher, issued two one-out walks in the sixth and allowed two runs.
The Dragons had two runners on with one out in the first, a runner on second with one out in the second, the bases loaded with one out in the fourth and runners at first and third to start the fifth but couldn’t score.
They went down 1-2-3 in each of the last three innings while relievers Zach Maxwell and Myles Gayman were dominant to give the offense a chance.
Maxwell pitched the seventh and eighth and allowed only a walk to the first batter he faced. He struck out the side in the eighth, and Gayman did the same in the ninth.
Maxwell joined the Dragons from Daytona at the All-Star break. He is known for his 6-foot-6, 275-pound presence and fastball that has been clocked as high as 100 mph.
“I played with a lot of these guys last year in Daytona coming up, and it’s just good to be with this group of guys,” he said. “Things aren’t really going our way, but it’s easy to show up and compete with these guys every day and to give your best.”
Maxwell’s best has come in his 10 appearances with the Dragons. His ERA at Daytona was 3.79 in 21 appearances. At Dayton his ERA is 2.25 with 11 hits,12 walks, and 31 strikeouts in 20 innings.
“I really like our pitching coach here Todd [Naskedov],” Maxwell said. “I was with him last year. In pregame stuff, we’re talking about things and mentality things, where to throw certain pitches, where my stuff plays better. And I really feel like it’s starting to translate well with my numbers on the field.”
Maxwell, who pitched at Georgia Tech and was drafted by the Reds in the sixth round in 2022, started hitting the high 90s his senior year of high school in Georgia. He hit 99 several times with his fastball Sunday. But he’s learning how to mix the fastball with his hard slider.
“It’s knowing that the fastball can play up and I can throw the slider down off of it and just know how to use those pitches,” he said. “I don’t really just rely on heat to get all these guys out. It’s really learning how to pitch with some of your secondary stuff, and then go back to the heat when you need to. It’s really just that rocking chair, that give and take that he’s helped me with.”
TUESDAY’S GAME
Dayton at Great Lakes, 7:05 p.m., 980
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