Dragons’ offense clicking again

Team scores 8 runs off one of Diamondbacks’ top prospects.

DAYTON — The bats have come back to life for the Dayton Dragons — slowly but surely.

A team that averaged 3.1 runs in its first 40 games and scored one or no runs 15 times in that span has averaged 4.5 runs in the last 12 games. That’s even counting games Monday and Tuesday at West Michigan in which the Dragons totaled one run. Dayton still ranks last in the Midwest League in hitting and runs scored, but there are signs of life in an offense that lacked a pulse earlier this month.

“It’s the first time these guys have had to make adjustments,” hitting coach Alex Pelaez said. “They’ve been successful everywhere they’ve been until now. It’s a natural process. It’s not the first time I’ve gone through this. They’re opening up to instruction, and they’re starting to talk more and learn. They never stopped working.”

A 9-6 victory over South Bend on Wednesday is further proof of that. In the first game of a three-game series at Fifth Third Field, the Dragons chased Archie Bradley, one of the Arizona Diamondbacks’ top prospects and the seventh overall pick in last year’s draft, in the fifth inning.

Bradley (6-2) was charged with eight runs, and his ERA jumped from 3.06 to 3.83.

Kurtis Muller went 2-for3 and homered for the third time in nine games since joining the Dragons.

“He’s played well since he came here,” manager Delino DeShields said. “He’s been a shot in the arm for us. Outside of the power, he’s done pretty much what I anticipated.”

Several other Dragons have emerged as consistent threats at the plate:

• Kyle Waldrop hit .370 last week and was named Midwest League Batter of the Week. He has raised his average from .237 to .266.

“I don’t think I’ve done anything different,” Waldrop said. “I’m sticking with my same approach. I’m just starting to get some better swings on some balls and be more consistent.”

• Ryan Wright, who missed Wednesday’s game after spraining his wrist Tuesday, improved his average from .273 to .315 with a recent 11game hitting streak.

• Sean Buckley is still hitting .198, but in the last eight games, he’s hitting .357.

Pelaez has stayed positive throughout the ups and downs.

“You’ve got to keep working on stuff,” Pelaez said. “You’ve got to keep repeating it over and over. It’s easy to get impatient with them, but we can’t. We’re in ‘A’ ball. Everybody in the big leagues was at this point somewhere.”