The Dayton Dragons were already drowning in a sea of Wisconsin Timber Rattlers hits and runs when the storm hit. And it ended in an 11-2 Wisconsin victory with the Dragons at bat with one out in the ninth inning.
The Dragons lost their fourth straight game and are 0-3 this week against Wisconsin. The Rattlers amassed 18 hits in Tuesday’s 9-8 come-from-behind win, 16 hits in Wednesday’s 8-5 victory and 12 on Thursday. They entered the series batting .230. They are hitting .387 in this series.
Pitching and defense have been the Dragons’ life raft this season but not this week. Starters Kevin Abel, Chris McElvain and Jose Acuna combined to allow 14 earned runs.
The Dragons (9-12, 42-45 overall) have struggled to find consistency on offense. They had a good night Tuesday before a ninth-inning collapse. On Wednesday and Thursday they fell behind early.
“The message is always every at-bat’s important,” manager Bryan LaHair said after Wednesday’s game. “We don’t give any at-bats away.”
Thursday started like that for the Dragons. Jay Allen, who is hitting .152, worked a walk to start the first inning. Austin Callahan, the Dragons’ leading hitter at .263, lined a single. With one out, the Dragons tried to get even more going with a double steal but Allen was out at third.
Austin Hendrick followed with a single to drive Callahan home, but he was thrown out trying to take second on the throw to home. After that the Dragons collected only three more hits. They were already down 8-1 when Tyler Callihan doubled to start the fourth and came around to score on a throwing error.
A little excitement surfaced in the seventh when new reliever Zach Maxwell made his Day Air Ballpark debut. The 6-foot-6, 275-pound right-hander from Georgia Tech struck out three batters and threw only six balls. His fastball stayed at 99 and 98 mph and hit 100 once. He struck out the leadoff man in the eighth, but the Rattlers got to him for two runs before the inning ended.
The Dragons are 5-12 since starting the second half 4-0, but they aren’t out of the playoff hunt if they can turn the season around. Great Lakes won the first half and is in the four-team playoffs. That means the second-half winner or the best overall record if GL wins the second half, gets in the playoffs.
Fort Wayne is 13-8 in the second half and tied with Great Lakes for first place four games ahead of the Dragons. Dayton was one game better than Fort Wayne and West Michigan in the first half, so as long as the Dragons do no worse than finish second behind Great Lakes they will be a playoff team.
“The game challenges everybody a little bit differently,” LaHair said Wednesday. “It’s about how you respond to it and how you grow from it, how you learn from it. And what we’re trying to get these guys to understand now is it’s just about moving forward each day and trusting themselves.”
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