Dragons win, magic number down to 5

Lansing, Mich. - Billy Hamilton notched his second straight four-hit game while Theo Bowe and Frank Pfister belted home runs as the Dayton Dragons defeated the Lansing Lugnuts 6-1 on Tuesday night. The Dragons cut their magic number to clinch a playoff berth to five with the victory as they improved their second half record to 39-18.

Hamilton collected four singles and also stole two bases, giving him nine steals in his last four games. He has 91 stolen bases on the season, most in professional baseball since 2001 and tied for the 16th highest total in Minor League Baseball history. Hamilton is seven stolen bases short of the all-time Cincinnati Reds organizational record set at 98 by Ramon Sambo of Cedar Rapids in 1988.

With 13 games to play in the season, the Dragons lead second place Fort Wayne by six games. In the race for the playoffs, the top two teams qualify, and Dayton leads West Michigan, the third place club in the race, by nine games.

Dragons starting pitcher Josh Smith allowed just one run in six innings and struck out eight to break the franchise record for a single-season with 153. Daylon Childress struck out 152 for the Dragons in 2002. Smith (12-7) gave up just four hits and no walks as he became just the sixth pitcher in Dragons history to win at least 12 games in a season.

Pfister hit a solo home run in the third inning to start the scoring. Later in that same inning, Hamilton singled to drive in Bowe from second to make it 2-0. In the fourth, Tucker Barnhart walked, went to third on David Vidal’s double, and scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-0. Pfister’s infield single brought in Vidal, and Bowe followed with a two-run home run to right, his first homer of the year, to make it 6-0.

Lansing’s only run came on a solo home run by Marcus Knecht in the fifth. Luca Panerati tossed two scoreless innings in relief of Smith and Drew Hayes pitched a scoreless ninth inning.

The Dragons took three-out-of-four in the series at Lansing. Dayton is 14-3 over their last 17 games.

The Dragons travel to Midland, Michigan to begin a new three-game series with the Great Lakes Loons on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. (WONE 980 AM). Mitch Clarke (3-1, 1.78) will start for Dayton against Great Lakes’ Angel Sanchez (6-3, 2.57). The next home game is Saturday, August 27 vs. West Michigan at Fifth Third Field.