Ashcraft and relievers Spencer Stockton and Pedro Garcia combined for a three-hitter to lead the first-place Dragons to a 2-0 victory over last-place Fort Wayne at Day Air Ballpark.
Ashcraft (4-1) allowed two hits and two walks and struck out seven on 80 pitches. His scoreless streak has come over his last four starts, three of which he’s won. Ashcraft, rated the Reds’ No. 28 prospect by Baseball America, is doing it with a fastball in the 96-98 mph range and a hard slider ranging from 82-87 mph.
“Outstanding, outstanding,” Dragons manager Jose Moreno said at the mention of Ashcraft’s name. “His breaking ball was over for a strike, and he was throwing it in any count, early in the count, two strikes, behind in the count. It’s very difficult to hit when you throw 98 and you throw that breaking ball for a strike.”
After his first four starts, Ashcraft had a 5.74 ERA. But it wasn’t all bad. He allowed five earned runs over his first three starts. The fourth start, however, was the rough one. Quad Cities roughed him up for five runs in 1 2/3 innings. His 23-inning streak began with his next start and his ERA is down to 2.33.
“He’s learned from his mistakes and he’s making real good adjustments,” Moreno said. “Right now he’s ahead in the count most of the time, he’s attacking hitters with any pitch and that’s why he’s doing well.”
Stockton was just moved to the bullpen after a couple of bad starts. He allowed a hit and a walk in three innings.
“Sometimes you don’t know what the role’s going to be on the team that you’re playing for,” Moreno said. “Maybe that’s the path he’s going to be on in the future, so we’re very happy for Stockton after two or three bad outings.”
The Dragons (23-16) have won seven of nine and maintained a two-game lead over Lake County in the High-A Central League East Division. The Dragons are seven games over .500 for the first time since they were 47-40 on July 8, 2017.
Scoring late has been the Dragons’ preference with eight comebacks from at least three runs down. For the second straight night, they scored early and leaned on pitching.
“We have different areas in our game that we have to maximize the opportunities that we have,” Moreno said. “Today we have pitching and defense. We don’t have the big offense today.”
Jose Tello, in his second game back from the injured list, hit his second home run of the season in the first inning high off the batter’s eye in center field. Victor Ruiz tripled in the Dragons’ other run in the second when Tincaps right fielder Tirso Ornelas lost the ball in the sun.
Hitting and running: Miguel Hernandez was 0-for-3 and saw his 10-game hitting streak end. Jacob Hurtubise had two of the Dragons’ five hits but was caught stealing twice.
Numbers: The Dragons drew 6,231 fans for their second highest crowd of the season. The game was played in two hours and 20 minutes, the Dragons’ fastest nine-inning game this season.
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