Arroyo, Reds’ No. 3 prospect, makes Day Air Ballpark debut

Dragons shortstop Edwin Arroyo connects for a double Tuesday night in his first game at Day Air Ballpark. He later scored for a 2-1 lead. CONTRIBUTED/Jeff Gilbert

Dragons shortstop Edwin Arroyo connects for a double Tuesday night in his first game at Day Air Ballpark. He later scored for a 2-1 lead. CONTRIBUTED/Jeff Gilbert

Edwin Arroyo played in his ninth game at shortstop for the Dayton Dragons on Tuesday night. But it was first one at Day Air Ballpark.

“I was telling the guys it’s almost like opening day for me, so I was just excited,” Arroyo said. “Just trying to make the team win and just do the best that we could.”

Arroyo, rated the Reds’ No. 3 prospect, injured his left groin in the season’s third game at Lake County. He missed the Dragons first homestand before returning to the lineup during last week’s trip to West Michigan.

In his second at-bat Tuesday, Arroyo slugged a double off the right-field wall to ignite a two-run inning. He stood at second base pointing to the dugout.

“The boys in the dugout were excited so it was like a dream,” he said.

The dream of a victory, however, evaporated in the seventh and eighth innings. The Dragons lost a four-run lead and the game, 6-5, to first-place Lake County.

“It was a good game,” Arroyo said. “We didn’t have that much luck. They hit, too.”

The Dragons (6-10) are starting to hit and built a 5-1 lead in the middle innings. Blake Dunn’s two-run single followed Arroyo’s double. Austin Callahan and Tyler Callihan knocked in runs in the three-run fifth.

The Dragons had seven hits following three days of getting nine hits twice and 11 hits once to close out the series at West Michigan. They left town a week ago 11th in the 12-team league in batting average at .183. They are last now but have raised their average to .201.

“It’s the normal type of at-bats I’m accustomed to seeing out of these guys,” manager Bryan LaHair said. “They’re starting to get comfortable, get settled in and making adjustments. We’ve got some good hitters. They’re going to hit.”

Lake County (10-5) started hitting with two outs in seventh inning against reliever Manuel Cachutt. After a walk, the Captains turned the field into a pinball machine with four hits in five pitches to cut the Dragons’ lead to 5-4. Two walks by Vin Timpanelli set the stage for a two-run double in the eighth to give the Captains the lead.

Arroyo, acquired from Seattle last summer in the Luis Castillo trade, was 5 for 22 with a homer and double at West Michigan. He’s hitting .257 for the season.

“Honestly, just do my best every time and continue going up,” he said. “That’s pretty much the only goal. Just try to be consistent in everything. If there’s anything I got to fix or something just probably talk to the coaches or figure it out. But there’s not a specific thing. I just want to stay healthy and keep it going.”

LaHair watched Elly De La Cruz and Noelvi Marte, the top two rated Reds minor leaguers, play shortstop in Dayton last year. Now he has Arroyo back in the lineup.

“Anytime you have a talent like that back on the field, or on the field period, it’s always good for your team,” he said. “So we love having him out there, and we’re going to have a lot of fun watching him play.”

Ex-Dragon update: Outfielder Jacob Hurtubise still knows how to get on base. He’s played in 10 of 15 games for Double-A Chattanooga and has a team-high .477 on-base percentage. Hurtubise played in 102 games for the Dragons in 2021 and had a .413 OBP. This season he is also batting .281 with two homers, seven RBIs and three stolen bases.

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