Great Lakes trails Lansing by 1.5 games
MIDLAND -- In the game Tuesday night between the Great Lakes Loons and the Dayton Dragons, the starting pitchers controlled the game.
Unfortunately for the Loons the big inning in the seventh was not in their favor, as they gave up six runs to lose 6-0.
Loons starter Ryan Christenson had an impressive night on the hill and entered the game on a four-game winning streak, in which he had allowed only three earned runs through 25 innings for a 1.08 ERA. On Tuesday, the southpaw collected nine strikeouts to tie for a career-high while limiting Dayton to two hits through six plus innings.
The outing drops Christenson’s ERA to 2.83 on the season; and 0.92 in his last five starts. Having played for the Loons at the tail-end of last season, Christenson attributes a lot of his success to the experience he gathered at Dow Diamond last year and the events leading up to the 2011 season.
“Last year I came in here and it was kind of a whirlwind for me,” Christenson said, who was drafted in the summer of 2010. “I was excited to be there and trying to get guys out was a lot of fun, but coming into this year I [realize that I] had learned a lot…like how to get guys out, what pitches to use, and it’s been a good year so far.”
Through 6.1 innings, Christenson offered up his first walk of the night to put a runner on base. With his pitch count at 90, and 58 strikes, the southpaw took a seat on the bench to leave the balance of the game in the hands of the bullpen.
Pete Budkevics entered in relief to record the second out with a strikeout before becoming the victim of three Loons errors, four Dayton hits for six Dayton runs. All the runs in the inning were unearned, but because Christenson’s runner was the lead-runner, the lefty was charged with his second loss of the season, and second against Dayton.
“It’s baseball,” Christenson said of the seventh inning. “That’s the way it happens sometimes, you know. It’s unfortunate, but we’re going to get them next time.”
Budkevics finally escaped the frame with a groundout from Devin Lohman, who led off the inning for Dayton. Loons reliever Michael Drowne entered in the eighth to pitch a pair of hitless frames. Dayton’s starter Daniel Tuttle was awarded the win, his fourth.
Loons batters scattered eight hits across nine innings, with Casio Grider and Jon Garcia each finding two hits. Loons players committing errors in the seventh were Jesse Bosnik, Casio Grider and Michael Pericht.
The Loons will play game two of their three-game series against the Dayton Dragons Wednesday. The Loons will send RHP Garrett Gould (4-1, 1.76) to the mound opposite the Dragons LHP Tanner Robles (2-4, 5.68).
