“We’ve been talking since spring training how important it is to fight in every at-bat,” Dragons manager Jose Moreno said. “At some point the pitcher is going to make a mistake and give you what you’re looking for.”
On the 10th pitch, Hernandez got the fastball he was hunting. He ripped it up the middle for a two-run single to put the Dragons ahead and push them to a 10-8 victory over West Michigan on Thursday night at Day Air Ballpark.
“At the beginning I was a little late the first two or three pitches,” Hernandez said through an interpreter. “After that, I tried to stay short and put the barrel on the baseball.”
The Dragons (33-23) have won four straight and lead the High-A Central League East Division by two games. Coming from behind has been part of their identity.
“It’s been like that all year,” Moreno said. “They’re tired because we don’t have too many extra players because of injuries. I’m really happy for them.”
Francisco Urbaez, who was 4-for-5 and raised his average to .331, led off the eighth with a double. Walks to Victor Ruiz and Michael Siani loaded the bases with one out. After James Free struck out, Hernandez sent Urbaez and Ruiz home with the tying and go-ahead runs. Mariel Bautista singled for the final run.
Ruiz said he needed the adrenaline he felt while standing on second base during Hernandez’s winning at-bat.
“You know as a baserunner that you’re going to be the difference,” Ruiz said through a translator. “Maybe my legs weren’t in real good shape because I was tired, but I knew I had to score.”
Everyone was tired when this one ended. It was the longest nine-inning game in Dragons history at 4 hours and 12 minutes. And it came just nine days after setting the previous record when the Dragons won at Lansing in 3:58 by the same score of 10-8.
John Ghyzel was on the mound at the end of both record-setters and earned the save each time. He pitched a 1-2-3 ninth Thursday for his third save. Ghyzel, who saved 19 games for the Dragons in 2018, fired the first pitch of the ninth over the catcher’s head into the backstop. But he settled down after a leadoff walk with his high-90s fastball and got a double play on a hard liner to Free at first base.
“I like the attitude, the mindset and the mound presence he has that you need in late innings,” Moreno said. “And he goes with his best stuff.”
The early innings, which seemed like a different game, were all Dragons for the second straight night.
The first six Dragons reached base against starter Adam Wolf and each of them scored. Jacob Hurtubise, Urbaez, Quin Cotton and Ruiz singled. Cotton and Ruiz had RBIs for a 2-0 lead. Free reached on an error to make it 3-0. After Siani singled, Hernandez hit a sacrifice fly and Bautista hit a two-run triple for a 6-0 lead. Wolf threw only 22 pitches.
The Whitecaps scored three runs in the second, but Ruiz doubled in a run in the bottom of the inning for a 7-3 lead. The Whitecaps’ Gage Workman hit a two-run homer in the fifth to make the score 7-5. The Whitecaps took an 8-7 lead with two unearned runs in the sixth and one in the seventh on a bases-loaded wild pitch by Braxton Roxby (2-2). But Roxby got of the jam and pitched a scoreless eighth.
And the long night, it seemed, was just beginning.
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