Hot Rods Defeat Dragons 5-2, Win Series

Bowling Green, Ky.-Three Bowling Green pitchers combined to allow just five hits as the Hot Rods defeated the Dayton Dragons 5-2 on Monday afternoon. The Hot Rods won three-of-four games in the series.

 

Bowling Green scored four runs in the third inning to take an early 4-0 lead, taking advantage of three walks and two hit batsmen in the inning. The Dragons battled back and cut the deficit to 4-2 in the fifth but could not get any closer.

 

Dragons starting pitcher Jesus Reyes (5-5) had one bad inning and was saddled with the loss. He worked five and one-third innings and allowed five runs on five hits with three walks and two strikeouts. Four of the five runs against Reyes came in the third inning when the first five batters of the frame reached on either a walk or a hit batsman.

 

Trailing 4-0 in the fourth, Dayton's Luis Gonzalez doubled over the head of the center fielder and scored on James Vasquez's single to make it 4-1. In the fifth, Josiel Veras singled, went to second when Zack Shields walked, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored on Mitch Piatnik's ground out to make it 4-2. But the Dragons were shutout on just one hit over the rest of the day and Bowling Green added one run in the sixth to close out the scoring.

 

Vasquez had two hits and a run batted in for Dayton. Shields extended his hitting streak to nine straight games with one hit, while Gonzalez's hitting streak reached eight games. Brantley Bell was 0 for 4 to snap his nine-game hitting streak.

 

The Dragons (24-40, 45-89) do not play on Tuesday. They return home on Wednesday to host the Lake County Captains (29-34, 80-53) at Fifth Third Field at 7:00 p.m. The three-game series with Lake County Wednesday through Friday will mark the final home series of the season for the Dragons. Austin Orewiler (3-13, 4.10) will start for the Dragons on Wednesday against Lake County's Trevor Foss (2-3, 5.10).

 

All Dragons games are broadcast on radio on Fox Sports 980 WONE and on the internet at wone.com. Games are also available on the Dayton Dragons mobile app.