In the first game back on the field for both teams since returning from the four-day all-star break, the pitchers on both sides were dominant early. Neither team had a hit until West Michigan’s Max Anderson delivered a one-out single in the bottom of the fourth, and neither team had scored until the sixth.
West Michigan took advantage of three consecutive singles, including two infield hits, to load the bases with no one out in the sixth. After Dragons pitcher Easton Sikorski got a strikeout for the first out, West Michigan’s Roberto Campos drilled a double to the gap in left-center field to clear the bases and give the Whitecaps a 3-0 lead.
The Dragons got the tying run to the plate in the top of the seventh and again in the ninth but they could not deliver the big hit. The only hits in the game for the Dragons were singles by Hector Rodriguez and Cam Collier.
Dragons starting pitcher Jose Franco had his third straight scoreless outing, working four shutout innings. Franco, returning from Tommy John surgery, has been limited to three innings since joining the Dragons in late May, but he was effective over four innings on Friday.
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