Dragon Tales: Offensive Onslaught

Last night marked an evening of excess for the Dayton Dragons. They won the game by a final score of 17-7 against the Lansing Lugnuts, a team they might have to face in the playoffs.  Lansing is known for its offensive prowess but also for their defensive ineptitude.  Both were on display in front of a small Lansing crowd of 1,616 fans.  The lone disappointment for the Dragons was the performance of the bullpen but often the tendency of young pitchers is to not be as crisp with a 9 run lead as you are in a one run affair.

First lets consider the season bests recorded by the Dragons Monday night.

• Most Hits in a Game, tied with 21
• Most Runs in a Game, 17
• Most Runs in an Inning, 7
• Most Hits in an Inning, 6
• Most Consecutive Base runners, 9
• Most Batters with 2 or more hits, 7
• Extended Daniel Wolford‘s scoreless inning streak to 32.1

In addition, Billy Hamilton went 4-6, also reaching base on an error.  He scored 4 runs and stole 3 bases bringing his league leading season to 89.  2003 marked the last time a minor league player recorded 90 stolen bases when Freddie Guzman did while playing for three different teams in the San Diego Padres minor league system.  Billy has 14 games to reach his goal of 100 steals so this will be an interesting chase.

Chris Berset, who could not buy a hit through the first 4 months of the season is closing out strong.  From April through July he went a miserable 14 for 102 for a .137 batting average.  Now in August he has 14 hits on just 44 at bats (.318) to raise his season average to .192.  Last night, he had 3 of the Dragons 4 extra base hits with 2 doubles and a Home Run.  Ronald Torreyes contributed 4 RBI; Kurtis Muller and Donald Lutz both had three hits.  The offense was humming.

Starting pitcher Daniel Corcino also had a good outing and suffered a bit from defensive lapses.  His first three innings of work were exceptional but he was forced to dig a little deeper in the 4th and 5th innings allowing a run on a wild pitch in the 4th and an unearned run in the 5th.  The unearned run scored after Lansing RF Eli Boike hit a ball into deep center field that Theo Bowe could not field and reached third for a triple.  After striking out the next batter for the second out, Corcino with two strikes induced Jake Marisinick to pop up the ball to the left side of the infield.  Dragons announcer Tom Nichols indicated he saw David Vidal call for the ball but instead it dropped between him and SS Billy Hamilton while Hamilton was charged with his 37th error.  Nichols briefly indicated he was a bit confused with the scoring decision.  My guess is when you see a player in the field with 36 errors you assume he made the mistake.  Hamilton is still learning how to play his position and utilize his great speed but I do think he is given errors that he does not deserve.

Brian Pearl was terrible in relief.  He allowed 4 hits and a walk while recording just a single out on a strikeout.  Daniel Wolford entered the game and did allow one of his inherited runners to score but completed 2.2 innings of scoreless work to extend his streak as mentioned earlier.  This streak now is over 3 games long and is a testament to his ability.  Finally Pat Doyle finished the game allowing a run in one inning of work.  As nice as Wolford’s streak is this is Pat’s 3rd appearance in a row allowing an earned run.  It is hoped he can tighten things up.

The Dragons magic number is now 6.  They only need to win 6 of their last 14 games regardless of what their competition does to clinch a berth in the playoffs so odds are decidedly in their favor.  Hopefully, the Dragons will not only reach the playoffs, but reward the front office decision to keep this team intact and have success in their MidWest league playoff run.

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