Bullpen is Stellar in 6-5 Loss

The Burlington Bees (8-12) got six scoreless innings out of their bullpen, but the Dayton Dragons (8-16) scored six early runs, which lifted them to a 6-5 win on Monday night at Fifth Third Field. 

Cameron Bedrosian, Kurt Spomer and Joey Krehbiel were phenomenal on Monday, giving the Bees their best bullpen performance of the season, but the Bees offense could not muster enough runs, falling just short in a loss. 

Burlington trailed 6-4 entering the ninth and threatened to tie the game after Chevy Clarke singled to start the inning and came home on a one-out single by Brennan Gowens. Dragons manager Jose Nieves went to Ben Klimesh to get the final two outs and Klimesh delivered for his manager, striking out both Anthony Bemboom and Kevin Moesquit. 

The Dragons got the scoring started in the second, scoring three runs off of Brandon Love (1-2). Love got the first two outs of the frame, but allowed five straight hits with two outs, the big blow coming on a two-run home run by Tanner Rahier. Zach Vincej also had a RBI single in the inning. 

The lead did not last as the Bees answered right back with three in the third against Drew Cisco. Cisco allowed back-to-back singles to Gowens and Sandy Martinez to start the inning. Moesquit followed with a sacrifice fly to bring home Gowens. Kyle Johnson's double put two men on for Sherman Johnson, who delivered a two-run double to tie the game. 

Love allowed the first five men to reach in the third, including a two-run home run from Jesse Winker. Love allowed six runs in two-plus innings, giving up eight hits and two walks in the loss. 

Andrew Ray belted his third home run of the year in the fourth to bring the Bees to within two, but after both teams exchanged zeroes in the fifth through eighth innings, the Bees rally fell short in the ninth.

The Dragons and Bees will meet in the rubber match of the series on Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. Jake Boyd will make his first professional start when he takes on Sal Romano.