Juan Silva drove in the winning run with a two-out double in the bottom of the ninth inning and Reds all-star Joey Votto made his third injury rehabilitation appearance with the Dayton Dragons on Friday night as the Dragons edged the Great Lakes Loons 7-6.  The night’s attendance of 8,407 saw the Dragons close out the home portion of the season at FifthThird Field with an exciting walk-off win.

Votto played seven innings and had four plate appearances.  He went 0 for 2 with a sacrifice fly and a walk.  He flied out to the warning track in left field in the second and grounded out to second base in the fifth.

With the score tied at 6-6 and the bases empty and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Yorman Rodriguez a single to left field.  Silva ran the count to 3-2 and with Rodriguez running, Silva lined a ball to the right field corner.  Rodriguez scored easily to end the game.

The Dragons scored four runs in the first inning to jump out to an early lead.  Juan Perez was hit by a pitch to start the inning and went around to third on an error.  Sammy Diaz doubled to right to drive in Perez and start the scoring.  Diaz went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Votto’s sacrifice fly to left to make it 2-0.  Rodriguez reached on an error and with two outs, Junior Arias hit a long home run over the left field fence to give the Dragons a 4-0 lead.

Great Lakes’ Pedro Guerrero hit two home runs in the game including a solo shot in the fourth that made it 4-1.  Silva answered with a homer for Dayton in the fifth, his eighth of the year, to make it 5-1.  But Guerrero belted a three-run homer for the Loons in the sixth and Great Lakes added two more in the seventh on Darnell Sweeney’s bases loaded single to take a 6-5 lead.

The Dragons tied the game in the bottom of the seventh when Silva delivered a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to left to make it 6-6 and set the stage for the walk-off win.

Dragons starting pitcher Wes Mugarian worked the first five and one-third innings.  He allowed six hits and four runs (three earned) with no walks and three strikeouts.  Lucas O’Rear allowed two runs in two-thirds of an inning, allowing one hit and two walks.  Dan Jensen (7-10) worked the final three innings and earned the win.  He allowed two hits and no runs with no walks and one strikeout. 

The Dragons finished with seven hits.  Silva led the way, going 2 for 4 with a home run, double, and three runs batted in.  Arias added his own homer and drove in two.