“It’s been a tough year so far, but we’re not worried about it,“ Faile said, dripping in sweat in his catcher’s gear. ”We show up each and every day, do what we know how to do, and hopefully we build from that."
For the Dragons (8-17 second half, 29-61 overall), the way to build and avoid things like seven-game home losing streaks is to play more games like they did Thursday.
Faile, batting ninth, was in the middle of everything good for the Dragons. He singled in the final run with two outs in the Dragons’ three-run second inning. And after South Bend tied the score 4-4 in the sixth, he hit a two-run homer, his 10th, in the bottom of the inning to cap a three-run rally.
Faile batted cleanup in 29 games early in the season and was the Dragons’ best hitter at times. But his batting average has dropped to .217, he hadn’t homered since June 17 and lately he’s playing only two to three days a week.
“It’s just good to see a couple of them fall,” he said. “It’s been a rough couple months, but I’m trying not to focus on the past and continue to try and get better each and every day. The approach was simple today: get the foot down, put the ball in play, take all the thinking out of it.”
And he got to catch. Faile has been a catcher all his life, but since he entered pro ball last year he has been learning to play first base. He caught for the third time this season and sixth time the past two seasons. He steered lefty Nick Sando through five two-hit, two-run innings and three relievers to a combined six-hitter.
“I love catching,” he said. “It’s like a running joke around here, ‘Hey, John Mike gets to catch.’ But I’ve been doing it for 15 years. I love being back there.”
Manager Vince Harrison Jr. was happy to win, but he was most happy about how his team responded to stress in the sixth inning. The Dragons jumped out to 2-0 leads the previous two nights in the first inning but failed to score again and lost both games.
This night the big three-run sixth was the positive change he’s sought. Harrison Jr. says players are always up for the first at bat and late-game at bats when it means more. He’s been challenging them to have better at bats in the middle innings.
“I’m a big believer that the middle innings are game changers,” he said. “The middle ones is when you see at bats given away. But that’s also when the pitchers are making their adjustments for a second time through, and the hitter’s got to be able to do that.”
The Dragons opened the second inning with singles by Anthony Stephan and Carter Graham. Then with one out, a throwing error allowed Stephan to score. That’s when the bottom of the order twosome of Ariel Almonte and Faile came through for the first time.
Almonte’s broken-bat grounder scored Graham, and Faile singled home new Dragon Ryan McCrystal who had reached on the error. Two more errors put the Dragons up 4-1 in the third.
In the sixth, Harrison Jr. saw individual battles by Jack Moss, Almonte and Faile that he liked.
Moss had struck out twice. Harrison Jr. said in both at bats Moss was hurt by questionable called strikes. In the sixth, after a questionable strike was called on a checked swing, Moss hit a two-strike single to start the inning.
“Jack Moss had some tough luck with things not going his way, but with two strikes he didn’t give in,” Harrison Jr. said.
With one out, the left-handed hitting Almonte didn’t give in either. He doubled down the left-field line to send Moss to third. It was his third two-strike, opposite-field hit this week and his third straight two-hit game to raise his average to .202.
Then Failed launched an 80 mph cutter over the fence.
“Sometimes when things start going bad, you kind of fall into a funk and forget who you are,” Harrison Jr. said of Faile. “He got long with his swing, but going back to like last week, he’s made better adjustments to shorten up and realize that he’s strong enough.”
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