Dragons' Renken fans 10 in a row
Renken matched the Dragons team mark with 14 strikeouts and matched the Midwest League record by fanning 10 in a row as Dayton cruised past the visiting Lansing Lugnuts, 7-1.
The 21-year-old right-hander pitched six shutout innings, allowing two hits and a walk.
"It was kind of a freak thing, getting all those strikeouts," Renken said. "I got away with a few bad pitches and got a little lucky. Sometimes it happens like that."
The Dayton club mark was set by Josh Hall against Cedar Rapids on Aug. 7, 2001. Only one other Midwest League hurler has ever struck out 10 straight hitters: Burlington's Art Groza did it against Dubuque on May 22, 1966.
Decatur's Robert Sprout holds the league record for strikeouts in a game, fanning 22 Waterloo hitters on Aug. 18, 1960.
"I had no idea about any of the records, but at some point in the third or fourth inning it occurred to me that I was striking out more batters than usual," Renken said.
The 14 strikeouts gave him 106 over 84 1/3 innings. He leads Smith, who has made one fewer start, by 11 for the league lead.
"Josh and I kind of joke about it because neither of us really want the notoriety of being the league leader," Renken said. "If one of us goes ahead, the other will say thanks for taking over as 'King of the Ks.'"
Renken, the Reds' 25th-round pick in 2010, entered with a 2-8 record, 4.25 ERA and 92 strikeouts in 78 1/3 frames. He'd lost four of his previous five starts, including a June 7 outing at Clinton, where he gave up one run over seven innings.
Renken's toughest inning Wednesday was the first, despite the fact that he fanned three in the frame. After leadoff man Markus Brisker went down swinging, Carlos Perez singled to right. Jake Marisnick reached on an error by shortstop Billy Hamilton and Renken fanned Marcus Knecht, but K.C. Hobson reached on Hamilton's throwing error to load the bases.
The Cal State-Fullerton product took matters into his own hands and set down Michael Crouse to end the threat.
That was the start of Renken's record-tying string as he went on to fan the next nine batters, culminating with Crouse, who went down looking to end the fourth. After four innings, Renken had 12 strikeouts.
Matt Nuzzo led off the fifth with the Lugnuts' second hit, an infield single, to end Renken's run of Ks. Bryson Namba became strikeout victim No. 13 before Garis Pena grounded into an inning-ending double play -- Lansing's' first non-strikeout outs.
Renken walked Markus Brisker to open the sixth, then got a flyout and forceout. With action in the bullpen and his pitch count approaching, Renken fanned Knecht on three straight pitches for his record-tying 14th strikeout.
Renken (3-8) was the beneficiary of solid run support from the Dragons, who scored five runs in the second and added one in the third.
Donald Lutz led off the second with his 11th homer and David Vidal single to knock out Lansing starter Sean Nolin. Reliever Sean Strickland yielded a triple, double, two singles and two walks to go along with two wild pitches in the frame.
Vidal doubled and scored on Tucker Barnhart's single in the third to give the Dragons a 6-0 lead.
Yorman Rodriguez went 3-for-5 with a pair of RBIs, while Juan Duran doubled, singled twice and drove in a run for Dayton.
Nolin (1-2) took the loss after allowing two runs on three hits in one inning.
John Parker is a contributor to MLB.com.