In baseball, it’s never just one thing.
Sunday’s 3-2 victory over Peoria in 11 innings — the club’s seventh straight and first series sweep since September of 2021 — produced some of all the things that explain this week’s magic at Day Air Ballpark.
Great pitching, timely defensive plays, productive outs, timely hits and a winning attitude. And ...
“It’s a collection of guys who are playing with some freedom, not necessarily worrying about making mistakes, playing to win versus playing not to lose,” manager Vince Harrison Jr. said.
For the second straight game and third time this week, the Dragons (20-31, 41-75) stormed the field to celebrate an extra-inning win when Anthony Stephan hit a sacrifice fly. A rare back-to-back feat, but not just because it’s been a losing season. The last time the Dragons walked off consecutive wins in extra innings was June 20 and 21 of 2015.
Nothing, however, has been more long-time-coming than the season’s first series win for a team playing to get out of last place. Lansing is a half-game ahead of the Dragons and was just swept by first-place West Michigan.
“We play as a family,” center fielder Carlos Jorge said. “We just executed this week.”
The Dragons tied the score 1-1 in the fourth inning on Ryan McCrystal’s single. But starting with the final two outs of that inning, 14 straight Dragons made outs. Carlos Sanchez’s single in the ninth was the only hit until the 11th.
The Dragons shook those failures off and were a model of execution in the 11th inning. Down 2-1 with the free runner at second, Harrison asked hot-hitting Peyton Stovall — twice the walk-off hero this week — to bunt Myles Smith to third. Stovall couldn’t get the bunt down, so he laced a double to left-center to send Smith home with the tying run.
“He’s on fire, he’s helping the team, and that’s what we want,” Jorge said. “We told him keep swinging and eventually you’re going to get some hits.”
The rest of the inning resembled Saturday night’s one-run, walk-off 10th.
The situation called for a bunt again and the same thing happened. Jorge put his four-strikeout day behind him with a bunt that moved Stovall to third. The bunt was just out of the dirt and the catcher pounced quickly. But Stovall took a good secondary lead, beat the throw and Jorge reached first.
“Wasn’t perfect, but that’s the thing, it doesn’t have to be perfect,” Harrison Jr. said. “We put pressure on the defense to make a play.”
Sanchez, a seventh-inning defensive replacement, was next. On Saturday, an error on a popup loaded the bases. This time Sanchez bounced a ball up the middle against a drawn-in infield that should have gotten an out. But second baseman Jon Jon Gazdar took too long to look Stovall back to third. Jorge was too fast to get going to second, and Sanchez beat Gazdar’s throw to first for a single.
Stephan got to play hero next. Just like Stovall the night before with the bases loaded, Stephan lifted a fly ball deep enough to left for Stovall to tag up and easily score the winner.
The man who puts the ball in play for the walk-off win is always mobbed on the field. Stephan was happy to be the guy.
“I’m going to do it for the guys,” Stephan said of his approach to his winning swing. “I really thought about all the guys that came in and held their own, like Will Cannon shutting the door. It feels cool to be the guy, though, for sure.”
Pitching continued to shine Sunday for the Dragons, whose staff posted a season-best 2.33 ERA in the series. Graham Osman allowed only a solo homer in four innings. Former Dragon Tejay Antone, rehabbing on his way back to the Reds, pitched 1 2/3 innings.
Cody Adcock relieved Antone in the sixth and stopped a rally. He got out of the seventh with the help of an out at the plate when Smith fielded a single in left, threw to shortstop Alexander Vargas, who relayed the ball home to McCrystal for a crucial out.
Cannon handled the ninth and 10th, getting a strikeout to end the 10th with the bases loaded. The Chiefs got a run in the 11th on a grounded single through a drawn-in infield, but Brody Jessee induced two fly balls to end the inning with minimum damage.
“We’re going to tip our hat to our pitching for keeping us in the game,” Harrison Jr. said. “Our pitching was amazing this week. I jokingly called them selfish earlier in the week, said all you guys had to do was keep people to two all year, and we got a chance. And they did it again.”
The Dragons head to Fort Wayne this week. The TinCaps are only 2 1/2 games ahead of the Dragons. Then they finish the season at home against Lansing, which has lost seven straight.
Despite the struggles of most of this season, the Dragons relish the chance to play another 12 games.
“To win our first series and then the sweep, we’re establishing a name for ourselves,” Stephan said. “We’re just going to keep this momentum, and, hell, we might win these next 12 games.”
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