The Dayton Dragons play 17 more games before they enter the Midwest League playoffs. That’s 17 games to tune their bats to more than strikeouts and home runs.
When the Dragons won the first-half title, they hit lots of homers. But they also put lots of runners on base, hit lots of doubles, and produced rallies.
But the hitters most responsible for that output and carrying the Dragons to a first-half division title were promoted to AA. The new guys are young and trying to figure out how to be like their predecessors.
That’s minor-league baseball.
On Tuesday, August 18, the Dragons didn’t hit much and struck out a lot in a 7-2 loss to Quad Cities at Day Air Ballpark.
The boxscore reveals 16 strikeouts, three hits and three walks. The runs came on Jacob Friend’s two-run homer in the fifth inning that cut the Dragons’ deficit to 3-2. Otherwise, only Justin Lebron reached second base. And that didn’t happen until the eighth inning when he reached on a fielder’s choice and advanced on a wild pitch.
The Dragons were 0-for-1 with runners in scoring position. Last week when they lost four of six games at Lake County, the Dragons scored a season-low 19 runs for a six-game series and hit .103 with runners in scoring position. The seven home runs weren’t enough to flip the series.
“Right now we either hit a homer or we strike out, so that’s tough,” manager Julio Morillo said. “You don’t have the dynamic you like if you don’t have people on base.”
Quad Cities, tied for first place in the West Division, put runners on base and took advantage, spoiling the home debut of Lebron, the Reds’ first-round draft pick this year.
Lebron debuted last week in Lake County and hit two homers, including a grand slam, and batted .381. The ball found him to start Tuesday’s game on a grounder by Asbel Gonzalez. The ball skipped by Lebron for an error. Then Gonzalez stole second and moved to third on a throwing error by catcher Diego Omana. A groundout got him home for the first run.
Otherwise, starter Ovis Portes pitched one of his best outings with three innings, one hit and six strikeouts.
Reliever Andrew Shaffner surrender Derlin Figueroa’s 26th homer in the fourth for a 3-0 River Bandits lead.
Jordan Little relieved Shaffner in the fourth with two outs and the bases loaded and got the final out to keep the lead at three.
After Friend’s homer, Little got into trouble in the seventh. But he got two strikeouts, the second with the bases loaded. However, Little’s pitch count was 48, and with a hard cap of 50 he didn’t get the opportunity to get the final out.
That, also, is minor league baseball.
Morillo called on Jimmy Romano. He hadn’t allowed a run in his past 13 innings covering seven appearances. But his first pitch to Nolan Sailors was a fastball down the middle. And Sailors, looking for a fastball, hit it over 400 feet to dead center for a grand slam and a five-run lead.
“Little started mixing up his pitches, getting them out with a fastball up, so he gave us a chance to get Romano into the game,” Morillo said. “Romano has been good. It's just he made a made a mistake. In that situation you come and you throw fastball right down the middle, that's what most of the time happens.”
Lebron’s debut was tough all around. He struck out twice, flew out to deep center and reached on the fielder’s choice.
How the Dragons finish will depend largely on how the infield of Lebron at shortstop, 2025 second-round pick Tyson Lewis at third and 2026 second-round pick Eric Becker hit at the top of the lineup. The Dragons also need center fielder Kyle Henley to return from the injured list and a couple other hitters to get hot.
“I think this is the team that's going to end the season here,” Morillo said.
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