FORT WAYNE – and losses – keep piling up for the TinCaps.

Fort Wayne committed a season-high four errors Wednesday in a 9-4 loss to Dayton in front of 5,853 fans at Parkview Field.

“When you’re not scoring any runs, when you’re not hitting, you can not afford to give runs away,” TinCaps manager Jose Valentin said. “That’s something that’s making it a tougher job for the pitchers when you’re not getting any help from your defense. It’s tough to play that way. It feels like you have to do everything by yourself when you’re not getting any help behind you.

“We’re working. Guys are taking ground balls every day. I guess it’s not concentrating on what they have to do.”

The Dragons (6-7) took advantage of three Fort Wayne errors in the seventh to score four runs and put the game out of reach.

“It’s frustrating because guys had better at-bats,” Valentin said. “We scored some runs. But when you’re not playing good defense, it does not matter how good you swing it.”

Fort Wayne starting pitcher Joe Ross gave up five runs on six hits in five innings to fall to 0-2. Junior Arias hit a three-run home run off Ross in the fourth inning to give the Dragons a 4-1 lead.

“(My outing) was all right except that one home run. It was a fastball I left over the middle, and he took a good swing,” Ross said.

The TinCaps (4-9) got within 5-4 going to the seventh.

Yovan Gonzalez homered off John Barbato leading off the inning for the Dragons. And then came the fielding miscues. First baseman Travis Whitmore had two errors and Barbato had one later in the inning.

Fort Wayne has 20 errors in its 13 games.

“They took advantage of some situations where we booted the ball around,” said second baseman Justin Miller, who had two hits but also committed one error. “We just have to keep plugging away on defense and making plays. It will come.”

Note: Ryan Wright, a Homestead graduate, went 1 for 4 with an RBI for Dayton. Wright went 4 for 14 with two RBI in the series.

lpope@jg.net