Dragons rally to walk off Lugs, 5-4

DAYTON, OH – Trailing 4-0 entering the bottom of the eighth, the Dayton Dragons (26-23, 59-56) rallied to walk off the Lansing Lugnuts 21-28, 52-62), 5-4, on a two-out dropped fly by center fielder Junior Pérez on Tuesday night at Day Air Ballpark.

Turnabout was fair play for the Dragons, who had been walked off twice in a six-game series in May in Lansing – but it was a sour ending for the Lugnuts, who led for much of the way before being let down by their defense: all five Dragons runs were unearned.

An Euribiel Ángeles second-inning RBI single, Colby Thomas fourth-inning solo home run, Kevin Abel fifth-inning run-scoring wild pitch, and Brennan Milone eighth-inning sacrifice fly had built the Lugnuts’ 4-0 lead behind five scoreless one-hit innings from Jose Dicochea, a perfect sixth from Hunter Breault and a scoreless seventh from Christian Fernandez.

But an Ángeles two-base throwing error opened the eighth. Edwin Arroyo followed with an RBI single off Fernandez to center field to ruin the Lugnuts’ shutout bid, taking second base on a throwing error by Pérez. After a groundout and a strikeout, Jack Rogers launched a 426-foot two-run homer to right-center, drawing the Dragons within 4-3.

In the bottom of the ninth, Pedro Santos retired Ruben Ibarra on a broken-bat popout, gave up a single to Austin Hendrick, and struck out Mat Nelson looking to push the Dragons to their final out. But Justice Thompson beat out a grounder to Ángeles, and Santos walked Arroyo on four pitches to load the bases. Carlos Jorge stroked fly ball into left-center where Pérez and left fielder Danny Bautista, Jr. converged. Bautista, Jr. slid in an attempt to escape a collision, but Pérez muffed the fly and then fell over his prone teammate as both Hendrick and Thompson scored.

In the loss, Ángeles finished with his second straight three-hit game and shortstop Jacob Wilson went 2-for-4 with a single, double and stolen base.

The Nuts and Dragons play the second game of their six-game series on Wednesday night at 7:05 p.m., with Lansing right-hander Jacob Watters (6.07 ERA) facing Dayton right-hander Chris McElvain (4.99 ERA).

The Lugnuts return to Michigan’s state capital for their final homestand of the year from August 29 through September 3 against the West Michigan Whitecaps. Tickets are available at the box office, via lansinglugnuts.com or by calling (517) 485-4500.

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