Chiefs Rally past Captains Tuesday
Peoria, IL-Trailing 5-0 after the top of the first, the Peoria Chiefs rallied twice Tuesday night to stun the Lake County Captains with an 8-6 victory. The win moves the Chiefs to 25-13 in the second half and 58-48 overall.
The Captains batted around in the very first frame and plated five runs against Chiefs starter Dewin Perez. Greg Allen led off with a single, Yonathan Mendoza singled and Bobby Bradley launched his Midwest League-leading 19th home run of the season for a 3-0 Captains lead. Taylor Murphy walked, Francisco Mejia singled and David Armendariz singled to load the bases. Ordomar Valdez laced a two-run single to make it 5-0.
The Chiefs came all the way back with a five-run frame of their own in the fourth against Captains starter Jordan Milbrath. Darren Seferina reached on an error, Paul DeJong singled and Oscar Mercado plated Seferina with a single to make it 5-1. After an Alex DeLeon strikeout, Harrison Bader crushed a three-run homer to cut the deficit to 5-4. Brian O'Keefe, the very next batter, also took Milbrath deep to tie the game at five.
The Captains regained the lead in the sixth inning after Allen singled and advanced to second on a throwing error, which chased Perez from the game. Jhonny Polanco came in relief and allowed the go-ahead run to score on a sacrifice fly by Anthony Santander to make it 6-5 Lake County.
The Chiefs came roaring back in the seventh to take their first lead of the game. DeJong singled, Mercado reached on an error and the Chiefs took advantage of another defensive miscue. DeLeon singled on a ground ball to second baseman Valdez who threw the ball away at first, allowing DeJong to score easily while Mercado booked it home after the ball was thrown to second trying to get DeLeon. Mercado scored the game-winning run on a close play at the plate for a 7-6 Chiefs lead. O'Keefe gave the Chiefs an insurance run with a bloop single to score DeLeon to make it 8-6.
Perez allowed six runs on 10 hits and three walks, striking out four over five innings of work. Polanco (3-3) allowed no runs on one hit and one walk, fanning three in two and two-thirds innings of relief. Steve Sabatino retired the final batter of the eighth inning and Kyle Grana hurled a perfect ninth for his 16th save of the season.
Notes: Polanco is tied for 12th with 161 strikeouts and tied for 7th with 73 appearances in Chiefs franchise history…DeJong has a six-game hit streak after notching his 12th multi-hit game with the Chiefs…Bader's homer was his first in a Chiefs uniform; he had two with State College earlier this year…O'Keefe's homer was his second for the Chiefs, his first at Dozer Park…The Chiefs improve to 10-3 on Tuesdays and 5-2 on Tuesdays at home…The Chiefs have 21 comeback wins this season…The Chiefs hit back-to-back homers for the fourth time this season, and the first at home…The Chiefs are 14-4 in the first game of a series at home…The Chiefs have won six straight games against Lake County, dating back to April 26, 2012…The three-game series continues Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. as the Chiefs send LHP Austin Gomber (11-3, 3.21) against Lake County RHP Sean Brady (7-7, 3.61)…The first 1,000 fans in attendance will receive a Pete Vonachen replica statue presented by Busey Bank…It's Dollar Dog Wins-Day with $1 hot dogs, sodas, ice cream sandwiches, and a postgame fireworks show all presented by Hebrew National…It's also a guaranteed win night so if the Chiefs lose, everyone in attendance will receive a ticket to a future Monday-Wednesday Chiefs home game…The broadcast can be heard, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 6:45 p.m., on www.peoriachiefs.com/listenlive which also has downloads for a free app on the iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and Android…The broadcast is also available on the Peoria Chiefs Network in the MiLB Inside the Park and Tune-In Radio Apps.