TinCaps Win on Road

DAYTON, Ohio -- The TinCaps beat the Dayton Dragons, 4-1, Tuesday night at Fifth Third Field thanks to a home run from Franmil Reyes, outstanding pitching, and poor defense by their opponent. 

Reyes gave Fort Wayne a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning when he led off against left-hander Seth Varner and crushed a 3-1 pitch off the batter's eye in center field. The longball was the right fielder's first of the season after he hit 11 for the TinCaps in 2014. 

Fort Wayne's 1-0 lead stood until the bottom of the sixth inning behind Thomas Dorminy. Though he didn't receive credit for a win, Dorminy certainly pitched well enough to earn one. The lefty struck out a career-high eight batters. The only run he allowed came in the sixth when, with a runner at second base, Dayton's Gavin LaValley hit a grounder to short that was thrown into the first-base dugout, resulting in a two-base error. 

The TinCaps quickly retook the lead in the top of the seventh as a result of defensive miscues by the Dragons. With left fielder Nick Torres at second base with two outs, third baseman Nick Vilter hit a groundball to shortstop Luis Gonzalez that he booted and then bobbled allowing Torres to score to put Fort Wayne in front again. The next batter, first baseman Trae Santos, smoked a ball to first base that LaValley couldn't handle. Vilter made it to third while Santos reached second. That set the stage for catcher Jose Ruiz to single both home and give Fort Wayne a 4-1 advantage. 

Seth Lucio (W, 1-1) relieved Dorminy to record the final out of the sixth. Bryan Verbitsky then tossed two scoreless innings of relief. Colby Blueberg (S, 1) earned the save. On the other side, Scott Brattvet (L, 0-1) took the loss. 

The TinCaps and Dragons play the rubber match Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. Fort Wayne will start righty Ernesto Montas (2-1, 3.26) against Mark Armstrong (1-1, 2.31). The game can be heard on ESPN Radio 1380, TinCaps.com, and the TuneIn Radio app.