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SNS sports mobileStewart's scoreless string ends as Dragons fall to Whitecaps
The first run scored off of Zach Stewart in his pro career lifts Whitecaps to the win.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
DAYTON — Zach Stewart was offered a couple of positives about the winning hit he gave up Saturday, July 5, for the first earned run scored against him this year .
One, it took the pressure off of being perfect. Two, with only one out and one run already in, it could have been worse.
Stewart didn't see any positives at all.
"I don't want to give up any runs," he said after the Dragons 3-2 loss to West Michigan to open a nine-game homestand at Fifth Third Field in front of 9,243 fans. "I guess it's a positive I cut it off at one run, but I didn't want to give up that run."
The Dragons also lost third baseman Brandon Waring, their top power hitter, whose X-rays from last week were re-read to reveal a hairline fracture in his left thumb. Waring suffered the injury in Fort Wayne a week ago while trying to make a tag while playing first base.
Waring did play in one game after the injury, but the thumb continued to bother him.
Waring will be put on the disabled list today. He'll be replaced on the roster by 19-year-old Neftali Soto, who is hitting .388 for the rookie-league team in Billings, Mont.
Meanwhile, what Stewart did was not particularly bad news. After Jason Bour's two-run single in the seventh tied the game 2-2, Stewart entered the game in the ninth with a perfect 0.00 ERA established over 9 1/3 innings, covering five games since being drafted in the third round just a month ago.
"He's got good stuff," Dragons manager Donnie Scott said, "and good makeup. He's a competitor and doesn't want to give up any runs. He's going to be right back in that situation. He has good sink on his ball and gets a lot of ground balls."
Two ground balls Stewart allowed in the ninth were well placed. With one out, Joe Tucker doubled down the line in right, followed by Alex Avila's single to center. Stewart ended the bleeding with a double-play ball hit by Ronnie Bourquin.
Stewart did give up another run — and lost the game — in his previous outing, at Great Lakes, on an error. With this run, his ERA jumped to 0.87.
Dragons tales
• Soto, from Puerto Rico, was drafted as a supplemental third-round pick by the Reds last summer and hit .303 with two homers and 28 RBIs as a shortstop for the Gulf Coast League Reds. In 15 games so far at Billings, he has hit four homers with 11 RBIs, postinga .423 on-base percentage and .746 slugging percentage.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.
