The near collision caused Perez to short-arm his reach just enough for the ball to bounce off his glove for an error. Austin Hendrick and Justice Thompson scored easily and the Dragons were an improbable 5-4 winner.
And in the celebration, his teammates pulled off his No. 8 jersey.
Jorge joined the Dragons from Low-A Daytona on Aug. 11 during their 12-game road trip. He got his chance in the ninth when Edwin Arroyo walked to load the bases.
“My teammate Arroyo walked and said, ‘Hey, Papi, that’s you, you got this,’” Jorge said. “I always rely on myself, and when I hit the ball, hey a walk off right here.”
For the first seven innings, Lansing made the defensive plays – robbing doubles on the warning track, throwing out baserunners – while Dayton ran into outs and struggled at the plate.
Everything changed in the eighth inning. Thompson reached base on a throwing error that sent him to second. Arroyo singled to center and Thompson scored because of a throwing error from the outfield. A good throw would have gotten Thompson out easily. Instead the score was 4-1.
With two outs, Jack Rogers hit a two-run homer, his 12th this season, to cut the deficit to 4-3. Cade Hunter singled but was thrown out trying to steal second on his first attempt this season while power-hitting Ruben Ibarra was at the plate.
In the ninth, Austin Hendrick singled with one out, Thompson beat out a tapper toward third for a hit with two outs and Arroyo walked to set the stage for the winning play. Because of the errors none of Dayton’s runs were earned.
The Reds signed Jorge, 19, out of the Dominican Republic in 2021 and he is rated their No. 10 prospect by MLB.com. He batted .295 with nine homers and a .400 on-base percentage in 86 games in Daytona. He’s played center field and second base and is batting .226 in eight games with the Dragons
“I just use adjustments and to try to help the team,” Jorge said.
Reliever Jacob Heatherly, 25, joined the Dragons the same day as Jorge. He pitched the seventh and eighth innings and allowed a run, but his first game in Dayton was in 2019. Since then he has battled injuries and pitched in only five games in 2021 before starting this season at Daytona.
“It’s a huge blessing,” he said. “All the work that I’ve put into these four years of being away from the game, it just feels so good to be back here. And I’m feeling stronger from it.”
Heatherly was 6-3 with a 2.78 ERA in 27 relief appearances in Daytona before returning the Dayton. He is from Cullman, Alabama, and was a third-round draft pick in 2017 out of high school. He said quitting baseball crossed his mind briefly.
“Maybe at one point, like two years after being hurt, I had thoughts, and I decided no, that wasn’t right for me to do – I would regret it,” Heatherly said. “So I put my head down and got to work to get back to where I am now and it’s paid off.”
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