The Dragons broke a 25-inning scoreless streak when they scored in the top of the second inning to take an early lead. Cade Hunter walked with two outs, went from first to third on a single by Victor Acosta, and scored on an infield single by Yan Contreras, a hard ground ball off the glove of the third baseman, to make it 1-0.
The Dragons added another run in the third when Allen II lined a double to the warning track in left field and Rodriguez followed with a run-scoring single to left to make it 2-0.
Dragons starting pitcher Gabriel Aguilera bounced back from several rough starts to fire five scoreless innings. He allowed just one hit, and infield single, while walking three and striking out two.
Reliever Arij Fransen replaced Aguilera in the sixth and allowed two runs in his first inning of work as West Michigan tied the game at 2-2. The tying run scored on a bases loaded walk on a close 3-2 pitch, a call that was disputed by Fransen.
But the Dragons immediately regained the lead in the seventh. With one out, Carlos Jorge doubled to left-center field and Allen followed with a hit to right to drive in Jorge with the tie-breaking run. Allen scored on a hit by Rodriguez to give the Dragons a 4-2 lead.
West Michigan threatened in the bottom of the eighth against Fransen, who was replaced by John Murphy with two men on base and two outs. Murphy got a strikeout to end the threat and then tossed a perfect ninth inning for his fifth save.
The Dragons collected eight hits after picking up only four combined hits in the first two games of the series. Rodriguez was 3 for 4 with two runs batted in. Allen was 2 for 4 with two runs scored, a double, and the tie-breaking RBI.
TUESDAY’S GAME
Fort Wayne at Dayton, 7:05 p.m., 980
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