Cincinnati Reds prospect T.J. Friedl homered 3 times over the course of 5 innings Thursday. (Dayton Dragons photo)

Cincinnati Reds prospect T.J. Friedl homered three times for the Dayton Dragons on Thursday — once during the game resumed from Wednesday night, and twice in the first four innings of Thursday’s regularly scheduled nine-inning contest.

Wednesday’s game between the Dragons and the Great Lakes Loons was suspended after 13 innings, still scoreless when rain halted play. (I wrote about Dragons pitcher Tony Santillan’s impressive start in that game in my last post, which you can find here.) That game resumed Thursday morning, and remained scoreless until Friedl hit a solo homer in the top of the 16th inning. Dayton ended up losing the game, however, after Great Lakes slugger Carlos Rincon belted a two-run, walk-off homer in the bottom half of the inning for a 2-1 Loons win.

It took only two innings of the second game to replicate that score. The Loons took a 2-1 lead into the top of the 3rd inning, when Friedl hit a solo homer to tie the game. Dayton had a 4-2 lead an inning later when Friedl went deep again, slugging a grand slam to give the Dragons an 8-4 lead.

The Dragons went on to score six more times, including twice on a Jose Siri triple and thrice on a homer by Brantley Bell. They won the second game 14-6.

Friedl is batting .295 with 4 HR, 22 RBI and 9 SB in 44 games this season.