Peoria, IL - Peoria Chiefs starter Cole Aker notched a career-high nine strikeouts in a 4-1 loss to the Quad Cities River Bandits in Wednesday's series finale. The loss drops the Chiefs to 6-13 on the season as they head to Beloit for a four-game set over the weekend.
Peoria, IL - Peoria Chiefs starter Cole Aker notched a career-high nine strikeouts in a 4-1 loss to the Quad Cities River Bandits in Wednesday's series finale. The loss drops the Chiefs to 6-13 on the season as they head to Beloit for a four-game set over the weekend.
The River Bandits got on the board in the top of the first against Aker. With two outs, Jeremy Pena hit a solo homerun, his first of the season, to put the River Bandits up 1-0.
Quad Cities added insurance in the top of the second. Costes and Valdez worked back-to-back walks and advanced on a wild pitch. Cesar Salazar hit a sac fly to score Costes to give the River Bandits a 2-0 lead.
The River Bandits put another run on the board in the top of the fifth. Trey Dawson led off with a solo homerun off Aker to give Quad Cities a 3-0 lead.
The Chiefs answered with a run in the bottom of the fifth. Edwin Figuera reached on a throwing error to lead off the inning and advanced to third when Delvin Perez singled in the next at-bat. Lars Nootbaar reached first on a fielder's choice, and Figuera scored to cut the River Bandits lead to 3-1.
Quad Cities added an insurance run in the top of the eighth against Peoria reliever Michael Brettell. Valdez singled to start the inning and advanced to third on a single by Pena. With runners at the corners, Valdez scored on a sac fly by Salazar to push the River Bandits lead to 4-1.
Aker (0-2) took the loss after throwing five innings, allowing three runs on two hits, walking five, and striking out a career-high nine. Brettell threw two shutout innings, issuing one walk, and notching one strikeout. Sebastian Tabata pitched the final 1 2/3 innings, one run on two hits, and issuing one walk.
The Chiefs hit the road for a four-game series against Beloit, Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Peoria will start LH Diego Cordero (1-1, 1.96) against Beloit RH Joe DeMers (0-0, 2.87). The broadcast can be heard, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 6:15 p.m. on the Peoria Chiefs Tune-In Page, which is free and also has a free app for smartphones and tablets.
