Quick Hits: The Dayton Series
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The Stat Shift: The Loons began their series against Dayton hitting .263, second in the MWL, and dropped only to .264 at series’ end. Jerry Sands hit one homer to bring his league-leading total to 13; a hit in all four games extended his hit streak to a season-high 11 games. Also maintaining his hit streak throughout the series was third baseman Brian Ruggiano, now at 8 games.
Also going up was the team ERA, not as good a thing. It rose from 2.81 to 2.87, allowing Clinton to tie for first place in the category.
Prospecting the Competition:
Loons vs. the Reds №15 Prospect SS Didi Gregorius — The Curacao-native started at shortstop in all four of the games against Great Lakes and went .222 (4-for-18), scoring one run and three RBI.
Loons vs. the Reds №25 Prospect RHP J.C. Sulbaran — The Loons faced four starting pitchers from Dayton, but never Sulbaran, who started for the Dragons the day prior to the series on 5/12, pitching for his third win of the year through five innings against Fort Wayne.
Feel-Good Moment: Down one run in the bottom of the 14th inning with two outs, Rafael Ynoa and Christian Lara strung together two pre-scripted doubles to win the Loons longest game of the season. Full story here.
Career Game: The Dodgers №10 prospect RHP Allen Webster tossed a career-high 11 strikeouts against the Dragons on to notch his fifth win (second most in the Midwest League) of 2010. In the outing, Webster issued only one walk and one run on five hits over six innings.
Scoreless Innings: Reliever J.B. Paxson (1–1, 1.84) offered up two hitless innings in two appearances for the Loons this series. In only two of Paxson’s 10 appearances for the Loons in 2010 has the right-hander surrendered an earned run; that’s 12.2 scoreless innings out of 14.2.
Justin Miller pitched for five scoreless innings of relief in the 14-inning game three. Closers Luis Vasquez and Steve Smith also combined for five scoreless innings in the series.
Series Summary: What did we learn about the team? The Loons are capable of winning back-to-back games at home. The team did so in games two and three, the first time since sweeping the South Bend Silver Hawks from April 14–16. Despite this feat, the Loons reoccurring big-inning giveaway at Dow Diamond is still present, as witnessed in the series’ final game that saw Dayton put up a pair of three-run innings to rally for the win.
Series Highlight Reel: Game One Highlights — L 5–4; Game Two Highlights — W 5–1; Game Three Highlights — W 4–3 (14); Game Four Highlights — L 6–2.
Glancing Ahead: The Loons are back today to face the Midwest League’s last place team, the 11–25 Bowling Green Hot Rods. The Rods rank 7th in hitting (.247) and 14th in ERA (4.07). The Loons went 2–1 against Bowling Green earlier this season, outscoring them 11–9. Great Lakes looks for its second home-series win in its seventh try this season.
37 down, 103 to go.
