Two things will haunt the Dragons. First, a baserunning error that cost them at least one run in the seventh inning. Second, the Loons’ four-run rally in the ninth that cost the Dragons the game, a 4-3 defeat they will desperately want to erase from their memory.
When the last-place Dragons (9-20) went quietly 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth, silence engulfed Day Air Ballpark, the dugout and the clubhouse.
The nightmare began the way bad dreams often do. Things looked good at first for the Dragons in the seventh when Ariel Almonte, Johnny Ascanio and Connor Burns walked to load the bases with one out.
Then Myles Smith was happily hit by a pitch to force in a run for a 2-0 lead. Carlos Jorge popped up, but Yerlin Confidan followed with something the Dragons have had precious little of this season.
A two-out single.
Ascanio scored from third, and Burns was about to score from second when Confidan made a mistake rarely seen, if ever, in baseball. The throw from right field was cut off by first baseman Jackson Nicklaus at the same moment Confidan rounded first.
Confidan all but ran into Nicklaus and was tagged out just before Burns stepped on home plate. Confidan was the third out, so Burns’ run didn’t count.
Deflating as that was, the Dragons still led 3-0 and the Loons (15-14) had only two hits. Jose Montero allowed one hit in five innings, Jonah Hurney allowed one hit over the next three and Dylan Simmons was set to pitch the ninth.
Simmons, a 15th-round pick out of Pittsburgh in 2023, had allowed one run on five hits and four walks in 9⅓ innings. But that stat line collapsed in his eighth appearance, undone by two things pitchers want to avoid.
First, Simmons walked ninth-place hitter Wilman Diaz to start the ninth. Walks will haunt as the saying goes, especially when it sets up the top of the batting order.
Kendall George and Josue De Paula singled to get the Loons their first run. Logan Wagner followed with a sacrifice to cut the Dragons’ lead to 3-2.
Still, the Dragons, losers of seven of their last eight, were in a good enough position to win with a runner on first and one out. But Zyhir Hope didn’t see it that way. He crushed Simmons’ second big mistake, an 0-2 pitch to deep right-center for a two-run homer, the lead and another close and crushing loss for the Dragons.
The numbers can’t be ignored. The Dragons are batting .193 as a team, are the lowest scoring team in the Midwest League and are last in slugging percentage and on-base percentage.
The Dragons were in position to win despite only two hits and striking out 12 times in the first six innings against Loons starter Patrick Copen.
Pitching gave the Dragons a chance to win. Until the ninth.
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