DAYTON, OH - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers scored the only run of Thursday's game against the Dayton Dragons at Fifth Third Field for a 1-0 win. A trio of Rattlers hurlers combined on an eight-hit shutout.
DAYTON, OH - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers scored the only run of Thursday's game against the Dayton Dragons at Fifth Third Field for a 1-0 win. A trio of Rattlers hurlers combined on an eight-hit shutout.
Wisconsin starting pitcher Max Lazar pitched five scoreless innings, He struck out seven and walked none. Lazar had to pitch out of a two-out jam in the fifth to keep the game scoreless. He gave up back-to-back two-out singles to Jay Schuyler and Miguel Hernandez before getting a weak grounder to short to end the inning.
The Timber Rattlers (43-46 overall, 12-8 second half) got their run in the sixth inning. Dragons starting pitcher Jhon De Jesus had shut the Rattlers out on two hits and had retired ten in a row before Connor McVey, Korry Howell, and Jesús Lujano all singled to start the frame. Yeison Coca drove in McVey with a sacrifice fly to left for the 1-0 lead.
Reliever Justin Jarvis kept the Dragons (36-54, 8-12) in check in the sixth and seventh innings, but a single and an error on a sacrifice bunt in the eighth inning put runners on first and second with no outs and that was the end of the night for Jarvis.
Victor Castaneda was summoned from the bullpen to preserve the lead.
The first out of the inning was an attempted sacrifice bunt by Claudio Finol. McVey charged from first base, fielded the ball cleanly, and fired a strike to third base for the force out on the lead runner. Castaneda got the second out on a grounder back to the mound that he knocked down to get the out at first. That out moved runners to second and third.
Castaneda escaped the jam in the eighth inning with a foul pop up to McVey at first and the Rattlers maintained their 1-0 lead.
In the bottom of the ninth, Castaneda retired the first two batters he faced, but gave up back-to-back singles to Schuyler and Hernandez to keep hope alive for the Dragons. A wild pitch with Finol at the plate allowed the tying and winning runners to move into scoring position. Castaneda closed out the game by getting Finol on a weak grounder back to the mound.
The shutout was the tenth of the season for the Rattlers.
Wisconsin and Dayton have split the first two games of the series and have set up the rubber game at Fifth Third Field for Friday night. Logan Gillaspie (2-5, 3.93) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Dayton has named Lyon Richardson (2-6, 4.46) as their starter. Game time is 6:08pm CDT. The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM and the TuneIn Radio app starting with the Papa John's Pizza Pregame Show at 5:45pm. MiLB.tv subscribers can watch the game over the internet.
