For the second straight night, the Dragons took an early lead but could not prevent big innings from the Fort Wayne offense as the TinCaps came from behind to win.
Trailing 1-0, the Dragons scored three runs in the third to jump ahead. The rally began when Leo Balcazar walked with two outs and the bases empty, and John Michael Faile lined a hit to center to move Balcazar to third. Yerlin Confidan reached on an infield single off the glove of the shortstop that brought in Balcazar to tie the game. After Victor Acosta reached on an error to load the bases, Ricky Cabrera was hit by a pitch to force in the go-ahead run, and Anthony Stephan drew a bases loaded walk to make it 3-1.
But Fort Wayne responded with a three-run bottom of the third to go back in front, 4-3, and the Dragons did not have a hit over the remaining six innings of the game. Fort Wayne added two more runs in the fifth to push their lead to 6-3, and they tacked on two in the sixth to close out the scoring.
Dayton starting pitcher Jose Montero, who entered the game with a 1.29 ERA in three starts, had his first subpar game of the year. He lasted four and one-third innings, allowing six runs (four earned) on just three hits, but he walked four and hit three batters while striking out four. Montero (2-1) was charged with the loss as his ERA jumped to 2.95.
The Dragons finished with only three hits. Faile had a double and single to extend his hitting streak to 12 straight games and lift his batting average for the year to .317.
The Dragons have lost three straight games. In each of those games, they held a lead of at least two runs at some point during the contest but were outscored over the late innings.
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