Dragons GameDay Saturday, Sept. 4, 2021 ⚫ Game # 107 Day Air Ballpark ⚫ Dayton, Ohio ⚫ 7:09 p.m. TV: Dayton’s CW (26) ⚫ Radio: 980 WONE Fox Sports Lansing Lugnuts (49-57) at Dayton Dragons (56-50) RH Jeff Criswell (0-0, 0.00) vs. RH Carson Spiers (5-3, 4.14) Today’s Game: The Dayton Dragons (affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds) meet the Lansing Lugnuts (affiliate of the Oakland Athletics) in the fifth game of a six- game series. 2021 Season Series: Dayton 13, Lansing 9. (At Dayton: Dragons 6, Lugnuts 4). Current Series: Dragons 3, Lugnuts 1. Last Game: Friday: Dayton 3, Lansing 2. Four Dragons pitchers combined on a one-hitter as the Dragons earned their third straight win. Closer Vin Timpanelli entered the game with the tying and go-ahead runs on base with one out in the eighth and worked out of the jam before firing a perfect ninth inning for the save. Jake Gilbert retired eight of nine batters faced for the win. Starter Bryce Bonnin struck out nine in 4.1 innings. Jacob Hurtubise and Jonathan Willems each had two hits for Dayton. The Dragons established a season high for most errors in an inning when they committed three in the first, all before an out had been recorded. They finished the night with five errors, also a season high. Current Series with Lansing: The Dragons are 3-1. They are batting .302 as a team with 14 runs scored (3.5 per game) while posting an ERA of 2.25 and committing nine errors. They have stolen nine bases. Last Series vs. Fort Wayne: The Dragons went 3-3. They batted .245 and scored 26 runs (4.3 per game) while posting an ERA of 5.71 and committing six errors. They had 15 stolen bases in the series, matching their highest total in a series this year. Their 20 extra base hits tied for third most in a series. August Recap: The Dragons went 12-14 in August. They batted .244 as a team. Juan Martinez and Eric Yang each batted .286 to lead the Dragons (among players who played in at least 10 games). Victor Ruiz led the team in home runs with four, while Jack Rogers had three. Martinez led in OPS at .829 with Yang at .820. On the mound, the team ERA was 4.18. Among pitchers with at least 10 innings, Jacque Pucheu led in ERA at 0.00 (10 IP) with Andy Fisher at 0.90 and Eduardo Salazar at 1.57. The Dragons roster includes eight players ranked among the top-20 prospects in the Reds organization. In the recently-updated MLB.com rankings, Matt McLain is the #4 prospect in the Reds system; Mat Nelson is #10, Michael Siani is #12, Lyon Richardson is #14, Christian Roa is #15, Bryce Bonnin is #16, Ivan Johnson is #17, and Allan Cerda is #18. In the mid-season update of Reds top-10 prospects by Baseball America, McLain is #4, Nelson is #11, Bonnin is #13, Roa is #14, and Johnson is #15. Siani was listed by Baseball America as the “Best Athlete” and “Best Defensive Outfielder” in the Reds organization entering the season. High-A Central League Playoffs: Major League Baseball has announced that leagues at three classifications, including the High-A Central League, will conduct playoffs in September. The top two teams in each league, regardless of division, will meet in a best-of-five series. Playoff Race: The Dragons are two games behind Cedar Rapids in the race for the #2 seed in the 2021 post-season with 14 games to play. Division Race: The Dragons are one game behind Great Lakes and Lake County in the East Division. The Mythical First Half Division Title: The Dragons were the winners of the “Mythical First Half” East Division title. Note that the league is not utilizing a split-season format in 2021. There is no First Half or Second Half, and no First Half championship race in 2021 in the High-A Central League. The Midwest League was split into two equal halves for every season from 1988-2019, and from 1956-1981. The league did not play a split season from 1982-87. First Round Fever: Matt McLain is the latest first round draft pick to play for the Dragons. Recent first round picks to play for the Dragons, with their draft year, have included Nick Lodolo (2019), Jonathan India (2018), Hunter Greene (2017), Nick Senzel (2016), Tyler Stephenson (2015), Nick Howard and Alex Blandino (2014), Phillip Ervin (2013), Nick Travieso (2012), and Robert Stephenson (2011). Every Reds “true” first round pick (selected within the first 30 picks of the draft) over the last 11 drafts has played for the Dragons except 2020 first rounder Austin Hendrick, who is currently at Low-A Daytona. Player Notes • Alex McGarry is batting .360 (9 for 25) with a home run and two doubles over his last seven games. He has hit safely in four straight games. • Matt McLain and Quin Cotton are both 6 for 10 (.600) in the current series with Lansing while Jacob Hurtubise is 5 for 10 (.500) and has a four- game hitting streak. • Andy Fisher over his last eight relief appearances: 13 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 6 BB, 17 SO, 0.69 ERA, 1-0, 1 Sv. • Stevie Branche since joining the Dragons: 8 G, 13.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 8 BB, 20 SO, 1.35 ERA, 1-0. • Vin Timpanelli over his last six relief appearances: 8 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 17 SO, 1 Sv. Opponents are 2 for 27 with 17 Ks. Team Notes • The Dragons have won three straight games for the first time since winning four straight August 8-12. • In home games: The Dragons are 13-2 in one-run games; 18-3 when scoring first; 22-2 when leading entering the last two innings. • After stealing just 12 bases in four sets (25 games), the Dragons have stolen 24 bases in their last 10 games. • Dragons pitchers are on pace to break the club record for most strikeouts per game. They have averaged 10.2 strikeouts per game this season (1085 SO in 106 G). The club record is 9.2 per game in 2011 (1,292 SO in 140 G). • Dragons pitchers are also on pace to break the club record for most walks per game. They have averaged 4.8 walks per game (504 BB in 106 G). The club record is 4.3 per game in 2005 (600 walks in 139 games). • Dayton has held at least a share of first place after 62 of the 106 games they have played this season. Upcoming Probable Pitchers (Game times are Dayton time) (All games on WONE 980 AM and www.daytondragons.com) Sun., Sept. 5 (2:09 p.m.): Lansing TBA at Dayton LH Evan Kravetz (0-0, 7.24) TV: Dayton’s CW (26) TODAY’S STARTING PITCHER CARSON SPIERS (#2) Height: 6-3 Bats: R Birthdate: November 11, 1997 Acquired: Reds NDFA, 2020 Weight: 205 Throws: R College: Clemson University Resides: Greenville, SC Last name pronounced SPY-ers High-A Central League Pitcher of the Week, week of June 7-13 and again week of July 19-25. Joined Club: May 26 from Daytona Notes: Opened pro career with Daytona in 2021, going 2-0 with a 3.18 ERA…Tossed the ninth inning of a combination no-hitter on May 22 vs. Jupiter to earn the save…Promoted to Dayton on May 26…Made four appearances out of Dayton bullpen before being moved into starting rotation for start on June 18…Spent four seasons at Clemson from 2017-20…Served as Tigers closer in 2019-20, notching 11 saves in 2019, tied for third most in school history…Career ERA of 2.47 and .180 opponent’s batting average at Clemson…Began career at Clemson as two-way player (pitcher/third baseman)…All-ACC Academic selection in both 2018 and 2019…All-State baseball selection at Greenville High School, where he also lettered four times in football as a quarterback, setting the school’s all-time record in career touchdown passes and passing yards…Father, Michael, played four years at Clemson and was the MVP of the 1991 ACC Tournament…Grandfather, Bud, played three seasons at Clemson…Nephew of 13-year Major League infielder Bill Spiers. Spiers in 2021: Began season in Daytona (Low-A Southeast League) starting rotation…Posted ERA of 1.08 over first three starts, allowing two runs in 16.2 innings…Pitched ninth inning of no-hitter in fourth appearance before returning to starting role for one rough outing that drove up final ERA with Daytona to 3.18…Promoted to Dayton on May 26…Struggled through first two outings with Dragons (combined seven runs allowed in five innings) before posting one of the best relief appearances in team history on June 8 when he entered game to start third inning with Dragons trailing 7-0…Tossed six near-perfect innings to earn win as Dragons battled back for 8-7 victory…Earned High-A Central League Pitcher of the Week honor for week of June 7-13 (7.1 IP, 0 R, 1-0, 0.00)…Moved from bullpen to starting rotation on June 19…Earned second Pitcher of the Week honor for week of July 19-25 (10 IP, 1 R, 2-0, 0.90). Longest Start in 2021: 6.2 innings (July 1) Most pitches in a game in 2021: 102 (July 1) Spiers Career Stats (Prior to Joining Dragons) Season League Team W L ERA G GS SV IP H R ER BB SO AVG 2021 Low-A SE Daytona 2 0 3.18 5 4 1 22.2 19 8 8 5 27 .241 Career 2 0 3.18 5 4 1 22.2 19 8 8 5 27 .241 2021: Dayton (High-A Central League) Date Opp W L ERA G GS IP H R ER HR BB SO AVG NP-S 5/30/2021 QC 0 0 9.00 1 0 3 3 3 3 1 1 2 .273 63 - 38 May 0 0 9.00 1 0 3 3 3 3 1 1 2 .273 6/4/2021 @LC 0 0 12.60 1 0 2 4 4 4 1 0 3 .350 40 - 25 6/8/2021 GL 1 0 5.73 1 0 6 1 0 0 0 1 9 .211 71 - 48 6/13/2021 GL 0 0 5.11 1 0 1.1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .190 20 - 11 6/19/2021 FW 0 0 4.76 1 1 4.2 7 4 2 1 0 7 .234 92 - 64 6/25/2021 @WM 0 1 4.71 1 1 4 2 2 2 0 3 4 .224 59 - 35 June 1 1 4.00 5 2 18 14 10 8 2 4 24 .215 7/1/2021 @LAN 0 0 4.23 1 1 6.2 8 2 2 0 1 5 .243 102 - 71 7/7/2021 WM 0 0 4.55 1 1 4 4 3 3 2 2 6 .246 77 - 51 7/14/2021 GL 0 0 4.79 1 1 4 6 3 3 2 2 5 .257 75 - 51 7/20/2021 @FW 1 0 4.20 1 1 5 2 0 0 0 0 7 .243 67 - 43 7/25/2021 @FW 1 0 3.94 1 1 5 3 1 1 0 1 8 .237 72 - 49 7/31/2021 LC 0 1 3.91 1 1 5 4 2 2 1 2 8 .237 83 - 55 July