DRAGONS DROP DELAYED OPENER
Stalled by rain, opener resumes with dismal outcome.
The Dragons needed 24 hours to complete their opening-day game. And just like that delayed outcome, the Lake County Captains were threatening to sweep the brief season-opening series.
The Captains (Indians) defeated Dayton 9-1 in the first game of Friday’s doubleheader. Thursday’s opener was postponed by rain and picked up in the fourth inning on Friday. The Dragons trailed the shortened seven-inning second game 7-3 entering the bottom of the fifth inning.
Game changer: The Captains bunched five runs in the second inning of the second game with nine consecutive batters not getting a ball out of the infield. Lake County bunched three infield singles, three walks and a Dragons error for another runner. They also struck out twice.
By then the Dragons trailed 5-0. Brantley Bell and T.J. Friedl each tripled in the Dragons’ second inning and Hector Vargas unloaded a two-run double as Dayton closed to 5-3. Captains 9, Dragons 1: Dragons reliever Jesse Adams lasted just five outs as the starter in the resumption of Thursday’s suspended opening-day game. Trailing 2-1 with two outs in the top of the fourth inning when play resumed, Adams was roughed up for five hits and five earned runs.
Thursday’s starter Tony Santillan (0-1) was charged with the loss. He allowed three runs and walked four in 3.2 innings of work, but just one earned run.
Four Captains pitchers limited the Dragons to four hits. Captains outfielder Todd Isaacs homered off both Santillan and Adams, good for four RBI’s.
Dragons’ tales: Dragons first baseman James Vasquez has an
early incentive to go the opposite way. The Captains pulled a major shift on the left-handed power hitter, putting their second base- man in shallow right, the shortstop behind second base and their third baseman between second and third bases.
Vasquez led the Drag- ons in home runs (14) and RBIs (66) last season. Ironically, the Dragons pulled the same infield rotation on lefthanded batting clean-up hit- ter Emmanuel Tapia.
T.J. Friedl’s streak of opening-season home runs ended in the Dragons’ first inning of the second game. Batting leadoff, he popped to the mound, which befud- dled at least four Captains infielders, including starting pitcher Aaron Civale. Friedl rounded first base and was thrown out. He was still cred- ited with a hit.
Friedl homered in his first two Billings at-bats last season and homered in his first preseason game with the Reds this year.
Amir Garrett, a pitcher who spent some of 2013 and all of the ’14 season with the Dragons, made his first Major League start with the Reds on Friday at St. Louis. He allowed just two hits in six scoreless innings and earned the 2-0 win.
The 6-foot-5 left-hander left some remaining basketball eligibility at St John’s University on the table to pursue an equally promising baseball career after being drafted by the Reds. Among his several high schools where he played hoop was national prep school power Findlay Prep (Nev.), a frequent Flyin’ to the Hoop participant.
On deck: Lefty Wennington Romero (3-3, 1.99 ERA last season) of the Dragons will oppose lefty Brady Aiken (2-5, 5.83 ERA) in a return two-game series against Lake County at Cleveland suburb Eastlake today and Sunday. Romero (Santo Domingo) signed as an international free agent in 2014 and spent most of last season with the AZL Reds.