Cardiac Chiefs Walk it Off Again Thursday

Peoria, IL- The Chiefs came back from down one run in the bottom of the ninth to win 4-3 over the West Michigan Whitecaps in walk-off fashion Thursday at Dozer Park.

Peoria got runners to the corners with two outs in the ninth with Erick Pinales on the mound facing Jimmy Crooks. Pinales’ two-strike pitch skipped to the backstop allowing Darlin Moquete to score and tie the game at three. Crooks was then intentionally walked to set up R.J. Yeager to play hero. Yeager singled to left field to score Church and end the game.

The win is the Chiefs second straight walk-off victory and ninth of the season. Yeager finished the night 3-for-5, his second three-hit performance at High-A.

Early on, Peoria struggled to generate offense against Tigers top pitching prospect Jackson Jobe. That allowed West Michigan to score the first three runs of the night.

The Whitecaps scored two in the third against Peoria starter Ian Bedell. Carlos Mendoza led off with a single. After a flyout, Luke Gold doubled to put two runners in scoring position. Gage Workman followed with a ground out to first base, producing the game’s first run. Bedell then balked with Gold on third, allowing him to score and make it 2-0.

West Michigan added one more run off Bedell before his line could close. After allowing a leadoff single and getting a flyout, Bedell was removed for Joseph King. After a strikeout, Carlos Mendoza doubled to keep the inning alive. Esney Chacon then singled to plate one run to make it 3-0. On the play, Nathan Church threw out Mendoza at the plate, which turned out to keep Peoria within striking distance.

Bedell lasted 3 ⅓ innings, allowing three runs on four hits, walking two and fanning five.

The Chiefs finally got to Jobe in the sixth. Nathan Church reached on an error to start the inning. That set up a Jimmy Crooks two-run home run to cut the Peoria deficit to 3-2.

Crooks finished 2-for-3 and improved his batting average in the month of August to .384.

Jobe turned in his first quality start of the season as the right-hander went six innings, allowing two runs on three hits, striking out six.

Gustavo Rodriguez got the win for Peoria in 3 ⅓ innings of work out of the bullpen. Rodriguez was forced into action on short notice as King was suddenly removed from the game in the top of the sixth. Rodriguez allowed just three baserunners and struck out two to earn his team-leading eighth win of the season.

The win for Peoria was its 23rd comeback victory of the year and seventh when entering the ninth inning trailing.

The Chiefs improve to 62-55 and 29-22 in the second half. West Michigan Falls to 61-54 and 29-21 in the latter half. Game four of this six-game series is scheduled for tomorrow at 6:35 p.m.