The young ballplayers aren’t even from Dayton, but a couple of them bought Dragons ballcaps. They are from Pennsylvania and in town for a tournament. They were disappointed in the loss, but they’ll soon forget it and move onto the next fun thing on their trip.
Forget. That’s what the Dragons (34-28) must do now. The loss was their fifth straight and knocked them out of first place for the first time since they claimed that spot on June 8.
Dragons manager Jose Moreno’s rule after games is to think for 30 minutes about what just happened – win or lose – then move onto the next game. And in the throes of a losing streak, he gave them a metaphor to consider as they try to recover the focus that led them to first place and put them on a five-game winning streak last week.
“This team is like a big ship, a big boat,” he began. “We went from February into spring training and took off on a cruise and we put together a real good crew. On July 10 we faced a big storm, and for the last five games we’re losing. And when that problem comes, how are going to do it? As a group, or as the captain of the ship, do we go back to the pier? Or do we put together all the information and preparation and have every department try to do their part in order to continue in the direction to where we want to go? Our direction is to get better.
“That’s the way we put it together after the game because they’re trying. They’re trying very hard. We have to be ready when a slump like this happens, and we have to be mentally tough to bounce back.”
Great Lakes (35-28) righted its ship after an 8-10 start and has climbed into first place for the first time. The Loons swamped Dayton starter Eduardo Salazar with eight runs on eight hits and two walks in four innings. Brandon Lewis hit a two-run homer in a rare feat of blasting it over the batter’s eye in center field.
And Justin Yurchak continued to hit everything in sight. He was 3-for-4 and is 9-for-13 in the first three games of the series. He hit a two-run homer and is batting .380. He hit .095 in May.
“Players know when they make mistakes, so we have to continue as a coach to be positive,” Moreno said. “Everything is going to be fine if we play good, but what about if things go in a different direction? We have to be the same, we have to be consistent with the message we have.”
All the Dragons could muster was a run on a wild pitch and a two-run double by Juan Martinez. Down 8-3, the Dragons had no answers for three relievers who held them to one hit over the final four innings.
“It’s just one day at a time, one at-bat at a time,” said Dragons outfielder and lead-off hitter Jacob Hurtubise. “We’ve got to take things pitch by pitch and just continue to do what we’ve been doing throughout the course of the season. I don’t think four or five games is going to define our year, but I think mentally we’ve just got to come back and know that we’re a good team, we’re a good staff, we can hit the ball and just trust our stuff coming back tomorrow.”
Hitting streak: Francisco Urbaez had two hits to raise his average to .337 and extend his hitting streak to 10 games. He’s batting .337 and is second in the league behind Yurchak.
Attendance: The Dragons drew 6,390 fans Thursday. It’s the ninth crowd over 6,000 this season.
SATURDAY’S GAME
Great Lakes at Dayton, 7:05 p.m., Dayton CW, 980
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