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Dragons smash two home runs to beat Cubs 4-1

Zach Mort and Eugenio Palma combined for five scoreless innings out of the bullpen
May 18, 2019

South Bend, IN: After winning the first two games of their four-game series against the Dayton Dragons, the South Bend Cubs surrendered two long balls in game three on Saturday. Both off of starter Riley Thompson, Dayton's bats came alive on their way to their 14th win of the season

South Bend, IN: After winning the first two games of their four-game series against the Dayton Dragons, the South Bend Cubs surrendered two long balls in game three on Saturday. Both off of starter Riley Thompson, Dayton's bats came alive on their way to their 14th win of the season in a 4-1 final. 

Thompson came into Saturday night's start with 30 strikeouts in 29.0 innings and just one home run allowed. After a clean first inning and some immediate run support courtesy of an RBI single from Nelson Velazquez, Brian Rey went deep off of Thompson over the left-center field wall to make it 1-1. 
In the 4th inning, Dayton immediately put two runners on base with the left-handed power hitting Shard Munroe coming up. Munroe crushed the second Dayton home run onto the concourse past right-center field, making it a 4-1 game. Thompson was pulled after four innings, but he struck out six batters to bring his season total to 36.
South Bend was unable to capitalize on the Dayton bullpen on Saturday. Between innings four and six, the Cubs left five men on base and went 1/8 with runners in scoring position. 
Out of the bullpen, Zach Mort and Eugenio Palma combined for five shutout innings and five combined strikeouts. Palma put his best appearance of the season together with the three scoreless frames. His ERA is now lowered to 4.11.
The Cubs will try it again tomorrow in the series finale at 2:05 p.m. If the Cubs go on to beat Dayton in the finale, it will mark their fourth consecutive series win. Left-hander Brailyn Marquez is the expected starter for South Bend.