Chiefs Fall 4-1 Monday

Davenport, IA - The Peoria Chiefs left nine runners on base and dropped the opener of a crucial series against the Quad Cities River Bandits 4-1 on Monday night. The loss drops the Chiefs to five games behind the first-place Bandits at 27-23 in the second half and their Wild Card lead could be gone, pending Beloit's late result against Wisconsin.

.   The Chiefs started the game with two singles against lefty Kit Scheetz but the newest River Bandits hurler escaped the inning with three straight outs. Ian Oxnevad walked Troy Sieber with one out in the bottom of the first and an error at second base by Danny Hudzina put two on. Daz Cameron took advantage with a RBI single to left for a 1-0 Bandits lead before Oxnevad got out of the inning.
   The Chiefs got even in the third inning against Scheetz. Dylan Carlson led off with a single and moved to second as JR Davis singled. Kramer Robertson rifled a single into left to score Carlson and tie the game 1-1. But Brian O'Keefe hit into a double play and Evan Mendoza flew out to leave a runner at third.
    The bottom of the order got the lead back for the River Bandits in the fourth inning. With one out Chas McCormick reached on a bunt single to third and Luis Payano blooped a double down the right-field line. Marcos Almonte, the #9 hitter in the lineup, doubled off the right-center field wall to score both runners for a 3-1 Quad Cities lead.
    Quad Cities extended the lead in the sixth against reliever Bryan Dobzanski. With two down in the inning, Payano hit his second home run of the season, just over the high wall in center field for a 4-1 lead.
    The Chiefs loaded the bases in the seventh against reliever Lucas Williams but came up empty. Matt Fielder and Carlson drew walks and Davis singled to left to load the bases with one out. Robertson popped up to the catcher in foul territory and O'Keefe grounded to shortstop to end the inning.
   Oxnevad (3-10) took the loss allowing three runs, two earned, over four innings. He gave up five hits, walked one, hit one and struck out one. Dobzanski allowed one run on one hit over two innings while striking out two. Dewin Perez walked a batter and allowed one hit over two shutout innings.
Notes… The Chiefs have not homered in five straight games, the second longest streak of the season (6 games June 1-8)…Stefan Trosclair was 0-for-3, ending a 10-game hit streak…Evan Mendoza was 0-for-4, ending a 13-game hit streak with 10 in State College and three in Peoria…Davis has 24 multi-hit games and Robertson has 12…Davis has four 3-hit games…He led off for the 13^th time this season…Trosclair has been hit by a pitch a team-leading 12 times, the most since CJ McElroy was hit 16 times in 2014…O'Keefe has hit into 13 double plays each of the last two seasons and has a franchise record 34 career double plays…Oxnevad is the 40^th single-season, 10-loss pitcher in Chiefs history…The four-inning start is tied for his shortest of the season…The Chiefs lead the MWL in hit batters with 89, 12 behind the team record set in 2004…In 11 games head to head this season Quad Cities has hit 12 homers, all of them in the eight game in Iowa…The teams have not played since May 25 and Monday's game is the first of seven in August head-to-head…The Chiefs are 4-7 against Quad Cities, 2-6 in Iowa…The series continues Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. as the Chiefs send LH Evan Kruczynski (2-3, 4.40) to the mound against River Bandits RH Christian Javier (1-0, 3.00)…The broadcast can be heard, starting with the pregame show at 6:20 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 Radio Network in the Tune-In Radio App.