Command Issues Plague Loons

DAYTON, Ohio - A handful of Loons' pitchers struggled to find the strike zone in a 5-3 loss to the Dayton Dragons on an otherwise beautiful night at Fifth Third Field.
 
The Loons issued 11 walks, one shy of their season high, and have now allowed 204 walks this season to pace the Midwest League. The second-place team most susceptible to walks, the Quad Cities River Bandits, has walked 181 batters.
Dayton stranded 13 runners on base and batted 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position. The teams played a scoreless four innings before the Loons took a 1-0 lead on a Ramon Rodriguez RBI single in the fifth. It snapped an 0-for-11 slump for Rodriguez who would go on to tally his fifth multi-hit game of the season.
The Loons built leads of 1-0 and 3-2, but in both instances, Dayton rallied to tie or take the lead in the same inning. With the score tied 3-3 after the sixth inning, Dayton loaded the bases with no outs against a fatigued Devin Hemmerich out of the Loons' bullpen. The lefty, pitching on one day of rest, threw eight of 19 pitches for strikes and picked up an out in the seventh before Connor Strain was hailed from the pen.
After a pop-out, Cuban infielder Jose Garcia delivered the decisive hit from the nine hole for Dayton with a two-RBI single to right field that untied the game and put Dayton in the lead for good. 
It marked the 12th time this season the Loons have outhit their opponent (eight hits to Dayton's seven on Saturday) and lost the game. The Loons are also 0-5 when the game is tied through six innings.
The series concludes on Sunday at 2:07 p.m. EDT.
The Great Lakes Loons have been the Single-A partner of the Los Angeles Dodgers since the team's inception in 2007. Dow Diamond serves as the team's home and also houses the Michigan Baseball Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity, and ESPN 100.9-FM. For tickets or information about the Loons, call 989-837-BALL or visit Loons.com.