So in the bottom of the eighth inning, with the Dragons down a run with two outs, Quintana, who was batting in the nine hole, got even with all those times he didn’t get the hit he wanted. Quintana ripped a three-run double into the left-field corner to put the first-place Dragons ahead and propel them a 7-2 victory over South Bend.
“It’s just really exciting that I could do that,” Quintana said. “I know in the past couple weeks, I’ve been in big situations like that where I haven’t come through. You don’t really put it on yourself too harshly, but it kind of creeps in your mind a little bit like, ‘I need to come up big.’”
Quintana, a second-round draft choice in 2019 who was acquired from Detroit in the Tucker Barnhart trade, had some big hits earlier in the season. He plays third and second base and is hitting .236 with four homers and 21 RBIs.
“Nick’s a grinder,” Dragons manager Bryan LaHair said. “He has a lot of quality at-bats, one after another, and when you do that, you get rewarded and sometimes it’s very unexpected.”
The Dragons’ seven-run rally was unexpected. Rece Hinds singled with one out and was on second with two outs. Then Allan Cerda doubled into the right-center gap to cut South Bend’s lead to 2-1. Back-to-back walks to Mat Nelson and Justice Thompson set up Quintana’s double for a 4-2 lead.
“I’m very happy and proud of my teammates that they’re getting on base,” Elly De La Cruz said through translator and coach Juan Samuel, “and they’re all working hard, and especially Quintana who’s been coming up in some tough situations and coming through on that particular time.”
De La Cruz said he was also begging his teammates to get on base so he could make up for what had been 0-for-4 game. After Quintana’s double, Jose Torres was hit by a pitch. De La Cruz made good on his plea with a three-run homer, his ninth of the season.
“It’s a two-run lead; it’s comfortable, right,” said Quintana about his big hit. “But Elly’s hit, that three-run bomb, that’s what you want right there. That’s exactly what you want.”
Despite leaving eight runners on base, the Dragons were still in the game because of the pitching of starter Thomas Farr, who had his best performance this season: one run and four hits in six innings. Vin Timpanelli allowed a run in the seventh, and Jake Gilbert (3-1) allowed one hit over the final two innings.
“It’s becoming like a habit because this year a lot of games we have been coming from behind, especially here at home,” De La Cruz said. “Guys are bearing down and they’re not getting down on themselves when we fall behind late in games.”
The Dragons (32-14) own a 5.5-game lead over Great Lakes in the Midwest League East Division.
Suspended game: The Dragons began Thursday evening with an 8-4 loss in the completion of Wednesday’s game that was suspended by rain.
The Dragons trailed 3-0 when the game was stopped in the sixth inning. On Thursday, catcher Garrett Wolforth hit a two-run homer in the ninth to tie the score 3-3 and force extra innings.
The Cubs scored five runs in the 10th. The Dragons scored once on a De La Cruz triple.
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