Shields’ Gem Guides Bandits to Win; Rain Suspends Nightcap

Davenport, Iowa – After David Shields twirled 6.0-scoreless innings to lead the Quad Cities River Bandits (56-51, 26-18) to a 4-2 in game one of their doubleheader against the Fort Wayne TinCaps (46-63, 19-24), game-two of the twin bill was suspended with the score tied 2-2 after seven innings at Modern Woodmen Park.

Shields, the Royals’ No. 4 prospect (MLB Pipeline) struck out six and faced just one over the minimum Saturday, lowering his Midwest League-leading earned run average to 3.98 while allowing just two singles and a walk.

Erick Torres gave the southpaw a 1-0 lead to work with in the second, tagging Shields’ counterpart Carlos Medina for an RBI-single that plated Jose Cerice. Cerice walked to open the inning and extended his franchise-best on-base streak to 34 games.

Quad Cities’ bats insured the advantage in the sixth and extended the lead to 4-0 against Maikel Miralles, bringing all nine hitters to the plate in the process. After Ben North launched a solo shot, his second of the series, Blake Mitchell (hit by pitch) and Derlin Figueroa (walk) both were given bases loaded free passes by Javier Chacon.

A home run from Robbie Lavey and an RBI-single off the bat of Dylan Grego shrunk the Bandits’ lead to 4-2 in the top of the seventh, but LP Langevin stranded the game-tying runs on base to lock-up his club’s series-clinching victory.

Shields (9-5) earned the win in his team-leading 22nd start of the year, while Medina (0-1) was tagged with the loss after a 2.0-inning start, his first as a TinCap this year.

Game two was also a pitchers’ duel, with Quad Cities’ Emmanuel Reyes and Fort Wayne’s Brayn Balzer combining for 17 strikeouts over 10.0 innings.

While Reyes struck out seven and allowed just two base runners over his first four innings, the River Bandits put at least one hitter aboard in every inning against Balzer, but stranded five on base.

Reyes was the first blink, as Fort Wayne broke the scoreless tie in the fifth on Grego’s RBI-single. Two batters later, Kasen Wells made it 2-0 TinCaps with a sacrifice-fly.

Balzer struck out his season-best 10th batter in the bottom of the fifth and departed his scoreless start after allowing one hit and four walks.

Will Koger kept the Bandits off the board in the sixth and picked up the first two outs of the bottom of the seventh. But with rain falling and fireworks blasting over the Mississippi River, Angel Acosta kept Quad Cities alive with a single up the middle. Three pitches later, Nolan Sailors tied the game with a two-run homer over the left-field wall, his fifth of the season.

Asbel Gonzalaez drew a walk to set up Mitchell with the winning run at first, but Koger struck out the Bandits’ catcher to end the seventh and push the game to extra innings. After the final regulation out was recorded, the game was suspended due to rain.

Quad Cities and Fort Wayne return to Modern Woodmen Park tomorrow afternoon and will resume Saturday’s contest at 1:00 p.m. before following with the originally scheduled nine-inning contest after approximately a 30-minute break.