Dragons rally falls short in Lansing

Lansing, Mich.—A.J. Jimenez drilled a tie-breaking double with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning as the Lansing Lugnuts defeated the Dayton Dragons 5-3 on Sunday afternoon. The two clubs split the four-game series to open the second half of the Midwest League season.

The Dragons trailed 3-1 after seven innings before Mike Konstanty delivered a game-tying two-out, two-run single in the eighth, setting the stage for Jimenez’s big hit against Dragons reliever Scott Gaffney in the bottom of the inning.

The Dragons got on the board in the second inning when Konstanty tripled over the head of the center fielder and scored on Kyle Day’s sacrifice fly to make it 1-0.

Lansing tied the game against Dragons starter Curtis Partch in the fourth and then added two more in the fifth to take a 3-1 lead.

Meanwhile, Lansing starting pitcher Henderson Alvarez retired the last 12 Dragons batters he faced and left the game after six innings with a 3-1 lead.

In the eighth, Dayton’s Kevyn Feiner led off with a bunt single and Dave Sappelt followed with a single to center. Miguel Rojas’s sacrifice advanced the runners to second and third, and Byron Wiley walked to load the bases. Carlos Mendez struck out, but Konstanty followed with a bouncer through the middle to drive in Feiner and Sappelt to tie the game. Kyle Day grounded out to end the Dragons eighth.

In the bottom of the eighth, Balbino Fuenmayor reached on an infield hit with one out and Jimenez followed with a shot to the fence in left-center field that brought in Fuenmayor to break the tie. Jimenez later scored on a suicide squeeze bunt from Luis Fernandez to make it 5-3.

Lansing closer Matt Daly pitched a perfect ninth inning for his 14th save.

Dayton finished with nine hits. Konstanty, Feiner, and Jordan Wideman each had two hits. In 10 games with the Dragons, Konstanty is batting .385 with three home runs, three triples, and 13 runs batted in.

The Dragons (2-2, 30-44) will open a four game series on Tuesday vs. the Fort Wayne TinCaps (3-0, 48-25) at Fifth Third Field at 7:00 p.m. J.C. Sulbaran (2-1, 4.60) will start for the Dragons against Mike Watt (2-1, 4.84). Dayton is 0-11 vs. Fort Wayne this season. Six of the 11 losses have been decided by one run. All 11 games have been played in Fort Wayne. The TinCaps won the first half Eastern Division title and have qualified for post-season play.