Now the Dragons and relief pitcher Simon Miller, who has been one of the best in the league, must be more resilient than ever and win the next two games of the best-of-three semifinal series to keep their season alive. If the Dragons win Thursday and Friday at Lake County, they will advance to the best-of-three championship series for the first time.
“We’re here, we’re in the spotlight, we don’t need motivation,” Dragons manager Vince Harrison Jr. said. “We’re exactly where we deserve to be, where we need to be. We didn’t win the game on paper, but we did everything we’re supposed to do.”
The Dragons appeared headed to a 1-0 lead in the series when Miller took the mound in the ninth inning with a 2-1 lead and a 1.47 ERA. But the right-hander from Texas didn’t have it for the first time in his 19th appearance with the Dragons. Lake County pieced together three singles and double to take a 4-2 lead.
“Simon Miller’s been great for us this year — he’s been great,” Harrison Jr. said. “And that happened right there. It happens every night in the big leagues. So am I gonna hesitate to go to him again? Hell no.”
Strong starts and shutdown relief work have been a winning formula for the Dragons. Ryan Cardona allowed only a solo homer in the first inning and left after seven innings with a 2-1 lead. He allowed two hits, two walks and struck out six.
“He was a warrior,” Harrison Jr. said. “We pushed that guy to a hundred pitches.”
Then John Murphy, who like Miller has eight saves, struck out two in a perfect eighth inning.
Cardona said the team will be just as confident in Miller the next time he pitches as they were Tuesday. And they would have been confident in him if they had tied the score and he went back out to pitch the 10th.
“He knows he’s going to be a major-leaguer, at least I believe that, and I think BG (pitching coach Brian Garman) and our staff believes it,” Cardona said. “It happens. It’s baseball.”
Miller and Murphy will both be available to pitch Thursday if needed.
Not surprisingly, the Dragons almost made their own comeback in the bottom of the ninth. Carter Graham started the inning with an infield single that hugged the third-base line and rolled to a stop before it reached the bag. Victor Acosta followed with a double to put two runners in scoring position.
Connor Burns scored Graham on an infield single at the first baseman when the pitcher didn’t cover first. With one out, Jay Allen II placed a bunt toward first base but it was hit just a little too hard and Acosta was thrown out at the plate trying to score from third, denying the Dragons the tying run.
“That was on his own,” Harrison Jr. said of Allen’s bunt. “He’s trying to make a play for the team. That’s just a guy trying to win a game, trying to make a play.”
Then Ethan O’Donnell struck out with the tying run at second and the comeback and game was over.
“We knew we got to win the next game anyway whether or not we won tonight or lost,” Cardona said. “It don’t matter. We got to win the next one.”
The Dragons, true to form, were aggressive throughout the game. In the first inning, O’Donnell was on first and Allen was second. They tried a double steal, but the throw to second was cut short by the shortstop and he threw out Allen at the plate on a close play. That play, which has worked a few times this season, the bunt that didn’t produce a run and the choice to pitch Miller were turning points.
“We can go back and second guess any and everything,” Harrison Jr. said. “But the bottom line is that was a really good game.”
The Dragons caught breaks in the fifth and sixth to take a 2-1 lead. Allen’s just-out-of-reach soft liner to center brought Acosta home to tie the score. Leo Balcazar began the sixth by reaching on an error and later scored on a wild pitch for the lead.
When the game ended, unpleasant words were exchanged near the mound, and Allen, who was at first base had to be held back.
“Whatever happened after the game, I don’t know,” Cardona said. “But we’re fired up.”
THURSDAY’S GAME
Dayton at Lake County, 6:35 p.m., 980
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