The Bowling Green Hot Rods continued their winning ways with a 2-1 victory Thursday over Dayton (Ohio) at Bowling Green Ballpark.

On a night when the bullpen picked up the slack on the mound, first-round picks Josh Lowe and Garrett Whitley provided the offense with solo homers to secure a three-game sweep over the Dragons.

It was a season-high fifth straight win for Bowling Green (39-43 overall, 8-7 second half), which has won seven out of 10 since a 1-5 start to the second half. Three of the last four wins have been by one run, helping the Hot Rods improve to 7-15 in one-run games.

“This is a team that has had a lot of potential all season,” Whitley said. “The difference in these past couple of games is when we’ve had close ones, we have been pulling them out. Earlier in the season we weren’t able to get the job done, but hopefully we can keep playing like this and keep getting those wins.”

Spencer Moran made his first start of the season for the Hot Rods, who has seen the rotation take a hit with recent promotions and the trade of Ethan Clark to the Miami Marlins. The right-hander pitched into the fourth, allowing an unearned run before turning it over to Jason McKinley.

Bowling Green got the run back with Lowe’s homer, his seventh of the season, in the bottom of the fourth.

Whitley hit his homer in the sixth, a no-doubt blast that easily cleared the picnic area in left. The homer was measured at 460 feet – the longest measured home run in Bowling Green Ballpark history.

“I don’t know how fast the pitch was, but the dude was throwing firm and left it belt down the middle,” Whitley said. “That’s the pitch you have to tee off on. I just tried to stay quiet, stay relaxed and attack the baseball like I know I can. Clearly we saw what happened.”

McKinley held the Dragons in check for 3 1/3 innings to earn the win, allowing three hits with three strikeouts.

Orlando Romero tossed two scoreless innings to finish it off and earn his fourth save of the season.

“It was definitely a great game,” BG manager Reinaldo Ruiz said. “The bullpen stepped up tonight. It worked out really good tonight. It started with Moran … and McKinley did a good job too. Then (with) Romero closing the game, it was a good formula tonight.”

Tape measure

Whitley’s no-doubt homer left the park so fast that he didn’t even realize how far he hit it until after the fact. Whitley said the only home run he can think of that he ever hit as far was with a metal bat in high school.

“Honestly, I lost it when I was jogging,” Whitley said. “I didn’t see where it landed. When I got back (to the dugout) the guys told me it went over the batting cage. I couldn’t believe it at first. They told me they found the ball out by the stop light out there.”

The home run ball was recovered on Kentucky Street by a fan and returned to Whitley in exchange for a pair of batting gloves.

Highs for Lowe

Since older brother Nate Lowe was promoted to High A Port Charlotte (Fla.) on June 27, Josh Lowe has been on a tear for the Hot Rods.

With his home run Thursday, Lowe is 14 for 38 with three home runs and 11 RBIs. He has five multi-hit games in that span and two games with at least four RBIs.

Up next

The Hot Rods begin a four-game series with Great Lakes (Mich.) at 6:35 p.m. Friday.

Right-hander Imani Abdullah (0-0, 2.84) is scheduled to start for the Loons. Abdullah has made three starts since joining Great Lakes after a stint on the disabled list and has not worked more than three innings in any appearance.

The Hot Rods’ starter is still to be determined.

– Follow Hot Rods reporter Micheal Compton on Twitter @mcompton428 or visit bgdailynews.com.