Sampen Spins Gem Against Dragons in 3-0 Win

Dayton, OH- Caleb Sampen tossed seven scoreless frames in the Bowling Green Hot Rods 3-0 shutout of the Dayton Dragons to open a four-game, home-at-home series that started at Fifth Third Field in Dayton, OH on Tuesday. The Hot Rods improve to 10-2 in the second half and 49-33 overall with the second game of the series scheduled for a 6:00 PM CDT first pitch on Wednesday.

The Hot Rods chased Dayton starter James Marinan in the third by scoring a pair of runs to take the lead. With one out, Ford Proctor doubled to right-center and Jonathan Aranda walked. Chris Betts walked to load the bases and Grant Witherspoon lifted a sacrifice fly to right against reliever Moises Nova, plating Proctor to give the Hot Rods a 1-0 lead while Aranda went to third on the play. Roberto Alvarez hit a ground ball through the right side of the infield to drive in Aranda and give Bowling Green a 2-0 advantage.  
Sampen continued to shut down the Dragons lineup, holding the home team to three hits. The righty used just 83 pitches to get through his seven innings of work, striking out seven (two-short of his career-high) while issuing one walk in the shutout.
Aranda gave the Hot Rods an insurance run in the eighth against Dragons reliever Adrian Rodriguez with two outs. The lefty drove the second pitch of his at-bat over the right-center field wall to give the Hot Rods a 3-0 lead. The homer was Aranda's first of the season and helped propel Bowling Green to their eighth-straight win.  
Sampen (5-3) tossed seven shutout innings in a win, holding Dayton to three hits and a walk with seven strikeouts in a quality start. Nick Padilla earned his second save of the year after throwing two spotless innings with a strikeout.
Notes: Sampen threw seven innings for the fourth time this year… It's also his career-high and all four times have been during the 2019 season… It's the third time this year that Sampen has thrown seven innings without allowing a run… Sampen also logged his eighth quality start, which leads the team… Proctor had three hits for the sixth time this season… It was his 19^th multi-hit game of the year… Pena had his second-straight multi-hit effort… It was his 12^th of the year… He's also got a three-game hit streak… Alvarez had his 18^th multi-hit game of 2019… Whalen's eight-game hit streak ended… He walked twice, so he has a nine-game on-base streak… Aranda extended his hit-streak to four games with his homer on Tuesday… Gregorio also has a four-game hit streak… BG's eight-game win streak is a new season-high… They're 12-5 in three-run games… The shutout was the Hot Rods seventh of the year… It was also their 40^th win of the season against a right-handed starter… The team is 36-7 when they outhit their opponents… The Hot Rods continue the four-game series with the Dayton Dragons on Wednesday with a 6:05 PM CDT… Bowling Green will send RHP Miller Hogan (1-1, 1.76) to the mound against Dayton RHP Ricky Salinas (3-3, 3.65)… Fans can catch all the action with Shawn Murnin on Willie 107.9 FM, as well as, with their smart phones via the MiLB First Pitch app and TuneIn Radio app.
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Hot Rods Baseball