Hot Rods' Tyler Young (5) connects with the ball for single against Dayton Sunday, July 6, 2014, at Bowling Green Ballpark. (Bac To Trong/Daily News)

The Bowling Green Hot Rods’ struggles with the Dayton Dragons continued Sunday with an 8-3 loss at Bowling Green Ballpark.

Dayton (45-40 overall, 9-8 second half) built an early lead before putting the game away with an eighth-inning surge to sweep the three-game series. It was the eighth straight win for the Dragons over Bowling Green.

“They are a good team, and we have struggled with them,” BG manager Michael Johns said. “Every time we make a mistake, they capitalize on it. When they make mistakes, we fail to. It was a tough series for us. I thought we had a chance in all three games.”

Sunday’s script was similar to Saturday’s 10-3 loss, when the Hot Rods hung around until Dayton pulled away in the later innings.

Dayton took a 2-0 lead on a two-run homer by Jose Ortiz in the second inning.

Bowling Green (37-49, 5-12) got a run back in the bottom of the inning on a bases-loaded walk to Juniel Querecuto but couldn’t add any more.

The Dragons added single runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings, while Bowling Green scored one in the third on an RBI single by Ty Young. The Hot Rods added a run in the fifth when Johnny Field tripled and scored on a groundout by Oscar Hernandez.

It remained a 5-3 game until the eighth, when the Dragons scored three times off reliever Josh Kimborowicz – capped by a two-run triple from Jamodrick McGruder.

“A two-run game going into the eighth and ninth is a lot different than a five-run game,” Johns said. “It would have helped if we could have kept it there. (Kimborowicz) has been good for us since he has been here. He just had a tough outing today.”

German Marquez, coming off the disabled list Sunday and making his first appearance since June 19, took the loss and dropped to 2-5 on the season.

Marquez threw 45 pitches, allowing two runs and two hits in 2 2/3 innings of work.

Bowling Green finished with eight hits – three from Field – but was 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position. The Hot Rods never led in the series.

“Baseball is a weird game,” Field said. “Both teams can be hitting the ball hard the whole series, and they are the ones finding holes and pushing runs across. We played decent throughout the series. We just had some tough breaks that didn’t go our way. We were getting guys on base the whole series. We just couldn’t come up with that big hit when we needed it.”

Bowling Green has seen some of its offensive weapons, including Granden Goetzman and Ariel Soriano, promoted in the past two weeks and outfielder Yoel Arraujo was placed on the disabled list July 1. The offense has suffered, scoring three runs or less in eight of the last 12 games.

“We are struggling with runners in scoring position,” Johns said. “We’ve lost some guys moving up, and that is the name of the game. Other guys have to step up. That’s what we have to figure out now.

“You are not going to win many games going 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position. We got some breaks. We couldn’t capitalize on them. Until we do that, it is going to be hard to win.”

Bowling Green gets the day off before continuing its homestand, opening a three-game series with West Michigan at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday.

Right-hander Jake Faria (4-4, 3.69 ERA) will face West Michigan left-hander Kevin Ziomek (7-5, 2,48).

“It’s much-needed right now,” Johns said. “I think everybody is tired, and it showed today. It will be nice for them to get away and not think about baseball. We are going to enjoy it and get ready to play when we come back on Tuesday.”

NOTES — To make room for Marquez, starting pitcher Ryne Stanek was promoted to High A Port Charlotte (Fla.). The 2013 first-round pick made nine starts with the Hot Rods, going 3-4 with a 3.63 ERA. He equaled a franchise record with 12 strikeouts in his final start at Lake County (Ohio) on July 2. … Sunday’s attendance was 2,797 to bring the series total to 14,002. That is among the top-five drawing series in franchise history.

— Follow Bowling Green Hot Rods reporter Micheal Compton on Twitter at twitter.com/mcompton428 or visit bgdailynews.com.