Chiefs Smack Four Homers in Bandits' Third-Straight Loss

Davenport, Iowa – For the first time since June 11, the Quad Cities River Bandits found themselves losers of three consecutive games, as they were defeated by the Peoria Chiefs 6-4 on Saturday night at Modern Woodmen Park.

For the fifth time in the series, the Chiefs got on the board first against the Quad Cities’ starter and got an RBI double from Moises Castillo against Anthony Veneziano. While Pedro Pages scored from second to make it 1-0, the Bandits’ relay from left field was able to nab Chandler Redmond who tried to score from first on the play to end the inning.

Although Veneziano struck out the side in the scoreless second, Francisco Hernandez led off the Chiefs’ half of the third by reaching base on a Jake Means error. The next batter, Jhon Torres, made Q.C. pay and smacked his first homer of the year to move Peoria up 3-0.

Wilfredo Pereira kept the Bandits off the scoreboard for the first four innings, making it 13-straight runless innings for Quad Cities after being shutout in last night’s 3-0 loss, and punched-out the middle third of Chris Widger’s lineup to end the fourth.

Peoria then leaned on the longball in the top of the fifth and launched three solo homers off of Veneziano including a leadoff jack by Imeldo Diaz and then back-to-back bombs from Jordan Walker and Pedro Pages which forced Dante Biasi into the game to record the final out of the frame.

Now trailing 6-0, the River Bandits got out of their slump in the bottom of the fifth and responded with Maikel Garcia’s leadoff single. The next batter, John Rave, officially got his club on the board with a two-run homer off of Pereira, his fourth of the year, to cut the lead to 6-2.

The next batter, Tucker Bradley, doubled and was followed by a Nick Loftin single and a Nathan Eaton walk to load the bases and send Pereira to the showers with still nobody out. But out of the bullpen, Jacob Schlesener went one-two-three against Michael Massey, Jake Means, and Eric Cole to strand all three runners and end the inning.

After Biasi worked a perfect top of the sixth for Quad Cities, his offense again loaded the bases in their half, but could manage just one run on Bradley’s run-scoring double play ball that made it 6-3 as Schlesener struck out Loftin to end the leftover threat.

Nathan Webb came into the ballgame for the Bandits in the top of seventh to help Biasi work a near-perfect two-inning day including four strikeouts, and faced the minimum himself in the top of the eighth, before an RBI groundout from Nick Loftin against Leonardo Tavares—to whom a unearned run was charged due to Rave reaching on an error—that cut the home team’s deficit to 6-4 heading into the ninth.

However, in the bottom half, Freddy Pacheco would strand a two-out walk of Logan Porter by inducing a flyball from Garcia that put the nail in the Quad Cities loss and his seventh save of the season.

After allowing six runs, five earned, including four Peoria home runs, Veneziano (2-3) took the loss after his 4.2-inning, eight-strikeout start, while the win went to Schlesener (2-3) for the Chiefs who allowed one unearned run over 2.1 innings with a pair of punch-outs.

Quad Cities will look to work a split of the six-game set tomorrow afternoon at Modern Woodmen Park, as A.J. Block (2-1, 4.62) will make his second start of the series against Peoria’s Michael YaSenka (0-6, 6.55). First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. CDT.