Carter Graham stepped into the batter’s box in the sixth inning with a simple goal: just get on base. Two runners were on, his team was down by a run, and his recent hot streak had cooled off. "I was just thinking small," Graham said. "Figure out what I could do to get a base hit and get the next guy up."

Sometimes, the simplest approach delivers the biggest results. Graham launched a three-run homer that gave the Dayton Dragons the lead and sparked an 8-4 victory over Lake County on Thursday, May 14. The win snapped a two-game losing streak and got the Dragons back on track.

Manager Julio Morillo summed it up perfectly: "Simple is better."

The home run binge has been a game-changer for Dayton. After hovering around .500, the Dragons have surged to 20-16 and sit in second place in the Midwest League’s East Division, just 2.5 games behind Great Lakes. The power surge started last week with 12 homers during a six-game sweep at West Michigan. This week, the Dragons have added seven more, including four in Thursday's win alone. They've now homered in 10 straight games for the first time since 2017, with 19 of their 33 total homers coming in the last nine contests.

Graham credits the warmer weather for unlocking the team's power potential. "We've been squaring the ball up all year, but when you're playing in Michigan and it's snowing and the wind's blowing in, it's hard to get the ball over the fence," he said. "Now that it heats up, we've got a good team that can hit."

Morillo agrees, pointing to advanced metrics that measure expected batted-ball outcomes versus actual results. The early-season cold and wind suppressed extra-base hits, but now the hitters are being more selective and looking for pitches they can drive. "You could see the guys were hitting the ball really hard, but the results weren't there because of the weather," Morillo said. "Now it's warming up, and things are different. We just need to keep barreling the ball up."

Kien Vu got the party started with a leadoff homer in the fourth inning—his second of the week and sixth of the season. After an error kept the inning alive, Alfredo Alcantara crushed a two-run shot to left field, putting the Dragons up 3-0. But the fireworks were far from over. The Dragons kept swinging, and the scoreboard kept lighting up, proving that when the weather heats up, so does this lineup.