“Ever since the beginning, even in the second half, he’s always said that we haven’t even played our best ball yet,” Cade Hunter said. “And that’s even when we’re winning games by landslides. He’s always pushing us, he’s always telling us never to be satisfied, and I think that’s why we’re playing such good baseball right now.”
The Dragons’ playoff push remained in high gear Tuesday night with more timely hitting and more good pitching. Hunter hit the big two-run single in a four-run fifth inning that led the Dragons to a 4-1 victory over Cedar Rapids.
The Dragons maintained a 2 1/2-game lead in the Midwest League East Division over West Michigan, a 2-1 winner over Lake County on Tuesday.
“I think our expectations have changed,” Harrison Jr. said. “Our guys expect to win. They know what we expect of them. The message for the last month has been we’re the only team I think that can beat us. So if we can take care of what we do, we can be good.”
Along with the daily expectation of playing well enough to win, comes the goal of winning the second half and advancing to the playoffs for the first time since 2017. The Dragons have 17 games left to hold off West Michigan and Great Lakes. The Dragons are 31-18 this half after finishing 34-32 in the first half.
“We’re finally piecing it all together,” Hunter said. “We’re a very talented team, and when we play together, play clean baseball, we’re pretty dangerous.”
Tuesday was another example. The Dragons made all the plays on defense, got more good pitching and pieced together enough hits just like they did last week with five straight wins at Fort Wayne.
They didn’t do much with the bats until Leo Balcazar and Victor Acosta lined singles to begin the fifth. Then John Michael Faile, in his home debut, blooped a single to right to load the bases. Faile joined the Dragons last week from Daytona and homered in three straight games, including a go-ahead grand slam.
This time it was Hunter’s turn for the big knock, a line single to right that scored Balcazar and Acosta. An errant throw to third allowed Faile to bounce up from a slide and score easily for a 3-0 lead. Then Hunter stole third and scored when the third baseman muffed the throw and was charged with an error.
“We all know that someone’s going to pick us up day in and day out, and I’m happy I was able to step in in that situation and get it done for us,” Hunter said.
T.J. Sikkema allowed four hits and struck out five in four innings. He wasn’t efficient with 77 pitches, but he was effective enough to give the Dragons another strong start. Easton Sikorski (4-2) followed with 2 1/3 innings and allowed the only run. Simon Miller finished with 2 2/3 innings for his sixth save and lowered his ERA to 1.19 in 13 appearances.
Faile signed with the Reds as an undrafted free agent last year out of Division II North Greenville in South Carolina. He set Division II career records with 81 home runs and 339 RBIs and won his conference’s triple crown in 2022. He has three homers, seven RBIs and is hitting .364 in five games for the Dragons.
“He’s had some opportunities and had some really big hits, momentum changers, in Fort Wayne,” Harrison Jr. said. “Today’s hit wasn’t the prettiest ball, but it was well placed.”
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