The defeat marks the seventh straight loss for the Whitecaps – their longest losing streak since dropping nine straight from June 4-12 of the 2019 season. West Michigan is now six games under .500 at 25-31.
The Dragons opened the scoring for the fourth straight game of this series when Victor Ruiz narrowly missed a two-run homer in settling for an RBI-double. In the second, Eric De La Rosa tied the game with a run-scoring triple to knot the contest at one. The middle innings saw Dayton plate five runs highlighted by an Alex McGarry two-run double in the fifth to take a 6-2 advantage. In the seventh, Detroit Tigers No. 7 prospect Parker Meadows launched his second home run of the series and second in his past three games to give the Whitecaps their only home run of the night and trim the deficit to 6-3. A wild pitch by Xavier Javier concluded the scoring in the eighth to give the Dragons their fourth straight win of the series by a score of 7-3.
Dragons pitcher Eduardo Salazar (5-2) tossed six innings and allowed only two runs on five hits while striking out seven. Whitecaps starter Beau Brieske (4-3) gave up five runs despite posting the longest start by any Whitecaps pitcher in the series by lasting five innings in suffering his third loss. The Whitecaps fall to 25-31 on the season as Dayton improves to 34-23. Infielder Wenceel Perez recorded his first three-hit game of the season with three singles in a losing cause.
UP NEXT
The Whitecaps continue their six-game series against the first-place Dayton Dragons on Saturday at 7:05pm. West Michigan sends pitcher Keider Montero to the mound against the Dragons Noah Davis. Broadcast coverage with Dan Hasty starts on the Whitecaps Baseball Network at 6:50pm. Get your tickets for all 2021 home games now at www.whitecapsbaseball.com.