Lansing scored five runs in the ninth inning, held the never-say-die Dragons to one run in the ninth and did what no Midwest League team had done in over two weeks. The Lugnuts beat the Dragons 5-4 to end a 15-game winning streak.
“It’s part of the game,” center fielder Carlos Jorge said. “We have been doing a really good job pitching, but tonight it didn’t work out. But we already made history, so I’m proud of us.”
The Dragons’ previous longest winning streak was 13 games in 2002. This season’s streak finished two games short of the league record of 17 set by Cedar Rapids in 1965. The Dragons have three games remaining in the season.
“We are really proud of each other,” Jorge said. “The team is playing really good baseball right now. Tomorrow this game is not going to affect us at all. Tomorrow, we’re going to come back here and compete again like we have been doing.”
The Dragons (28-32 second half, 49-76 overall) got to the ninth inning doing what they had done well for 15 games since the Lugnuts last beat them in Lansing on August 16. Good pitching and just enough offense to build a 3-0 lead. But for the first time during the streak those eight good innings weren’t enough.
The Lugnuts (26-37, 61-68) sent 10 batters to the plate in the ninth and got in position to score when Irvin Machuca allowed a leadoff double, walked a batter and hit a batter sandwiched around two outs.
Leadoff hitter Cameron Leary was next. He checked his swing on a two-strike pitch. The play was appealed to the base umpire and he said no swing. Leary lined the next pitch to left for two runs to slice Dayton’s lead to 3-2.
“In hindsight, I do think Leary check swung before he got the hit, but that’s just one part of that whole inning,” Dragons manager Vince Harrison Jr. said.
Dylan Simmons was summoned to relieve Machuca. Simmons hit Casey Yamauchi in the back with his first pitch to load the bases again. Then a wild pitch brought home the tying run.
Another walk brought cleanup hitter Pedro Pineda to the plate and he lined a two-run single to left for a 5-3 Lansing lead.
“We didn’t get beat,” Harrison Jr. said. “I think we did a lot of things to contribute to us losing. But we didn’t get beat. And that’s still the hardest part to deal with right now.”
The Dragons’ attitude of playing freely continued into the bottom of the ninth. Jack Moss led off with a single and Carlos Sanchez was awarded first base on catcher’s interference.
Yerlin Confidan sacrifice bunted them into scoring position for the first out. That left the game up to Alexander Vargas, who had doubled, and Diego Omana who had two singles. Vargas lined out to right for a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to one run. And Omana lined out the right to end the game.
“We bunted with Confy because we felt good about Vargas having some good swings, Omana had good swings, and we lined out twice to end the game,” Harrison Jr. said. “I’m not upset about that at all. There’s nothing to second guess there. It’s just unfortunate how it happened.”
Jorge’s turn at bat didn’t come in the ninth, but, as always, he was rooting hard in the dugout for his teammates to keep the inning alive.
“That was the whole point of the success that we have been having because we have been picking each other up,” Jorge said. “We never give up. Tonight was a big example of that.”
The Dragons put themselves in position to win with single runs in the first, third and fifth innings.
Peyton Stovall doubled in the first and scored on Carter Graham’s single. Jorge, who had three hits, doubled in the third and scored on Stovall’s single. Vargas doubled in the fifth and scored on Omana’s single.
Starter Nick Sando continued to pitch well with five shutout innings, two hits, three walks and six strikeouts to lower his ERA to 4.06. In his last 11 starts, Sando has allowed no more than two earned runs. Will Cannon added three shutout innings and has allowed only one earned run in his last 18 1/3 innings.
The loss was the Dragons’ first at home since August 10 and snapped an eight-game home winning streak. The club record is 10. That record would have been nice to get, too.
The goal on Friday? Start a new streak.
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