{"id":674170,"date":"2026-04-12T15:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T15:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/674170\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T15:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T15:06:16","slug":"cincinnati-reds-top-prospects-strong-performance-carries-dayton-dragons-to-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/674170\/","title":{"rendered":"Cincinnati Reds Top Prospect’s Strong Performance Carries Dayton Dragons to Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dayton Dragons won their third game in a row on Saturday versus the Lake County Captains. Alfredo Duno had a breakout performance to help lead the Dragons to the win.<\/p>\n

First High-A Home Run<\/p>\n

Duno went 2-4 on Saturday afternoon with a walk and a solo home run in the fifth inning to put the Dragons\u2019 lead to 3-0. This was Duno’s first home run at the High-A level. There are no Statcast numbers available, but the video shows<\/a> the ball leaving the stadium on a line drive down the left-field line.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Through the first seven games of the young season, the 20-year-old is slashing .348\/.500\/.609 with four extra-base hits and six RBIs. He is also demonstrating his excellent plate discipline. He has eight walks and has struck out just four times. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The Reds’ number-one prospect won the Florida State League’s Most Valuable Player Award last season, leading the league in eight main offensive categories.<\/p>\n

Box Score Recap<\/p>\n

The Dragons scored five runs in their victory over Lake County on Saturday on eight hits. Beau Blanchard is credited with his first victory at the High-A level. He went six innings with just four hits allowed, with a walk and five strikeouts. The 24-year-old was signed to a minor-league contract in 2025 and pitched in both the Arizona Complex League and Low-A Daytona in 2024. 2024 16th-round pick Jimmy Romano gets credited with the save. He pitched three perfect innings in relief of Blanchard, with three strikeouts. The 22-year-old Romano has a 2.08 ERA in two appearances this season.<\/p>\n

Kien Vu went 1-3 with a run scored and two strikeouts. He is hitting .261 with a .697 OPS this season. Carlos Sanchez was 1-4 with two RBIs. He grounded into a force out in the bottom of the second inning to give the Dragons a 2-0 lead. In the eighth, he ripped an RBI double to put the Dragons up 5-0. Alfredo Alcantara went 1-4, Anthony Stephan went 1-3 with a walk, Carter Graham went 1-3 with an RBI, and Johnny Ascanio went 1-3 with a walk.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sign Up For Our DAILY Newsletter for More Free Coverage of the Cincinnati Reds Delivered to YOU Directly<\/a><\/p>\n

On Deck<\/p>\n

The Dragons wrap-up their series against the Lake County Captains on Sunday afternoon. Nestor Lorant is scheduled to make his second start of the season. The 23-year-old has a 2.08 ERA with seven strikeouts in 4 1\/3 innings. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 P.M at DayAir Park in Dayton. <\/p>\n

Make sure you bookmark Cincinnati Reds Talk for the latest news, exclusive interviews, and daily coverage of the Cincinnati Reds! Follow Cincinnati Reds OnSI on Twitter\/X: @RedsTalkSI. Like Our Cincinnati Reds On SI Facebook Page. Follow Cincinnati Reds On SI on Instagram.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dayton Dragons won their third game in a row on Saturday versus the Lake County Captains. Alfredo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[5,535,50,4259,4,536],"class_list":{"0":"post-674170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-reds","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cincinnati","10":"tag-cincinnati-reds","11":"tag-cincinnatireds","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-reds"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116392360858335554","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}