Quad Cities Speeds Past Lansing for Second-Straight Win

Davenport, Iowa – The Quad Cities River Bandits needed just one hour and 52 minutes to defeat the Lansing Lugnuts on Wednesday, topping the Athletics’ affiliate 6-2 in their quickest game of the season.

River Bandits’ starter Tyson Guerrero set the ballgame’s brisk pace from the opening frame, needing just 12 pitches to strike out the side in the top of the first—three of the left-hander’s eight punch outs.

Despite the whiff-filled first, the Lugnuts scored the game’s first run in the second, with Joshwan Wright plating Daniel Susac’s leadoff double with a sacrifice-fly to make it 1-0, but the Bandits immediately responded against Jake Garland, posting a five-spot in the bottom of the third with the help of four doubles.

Kale Emshoff and Herard Gonzalez opened the inning with the first pair of two-baggers, allowing Javier Vaz to tie the game 1-1 on a groundout. Things would not get easier for Garland though, as after walking River Town, the right-hander saw Cayden Wallace and Gavin Cross smack back-to-back RBI doubles to make it 4-1, before Juan Carlos Negret singled in Cross for a four-run QC advantage.

Lansing would cut their deficit back to three on Brennan Milone’s solo homer in the fourth, but Guerrero would quickly recover to allow just four base runners over his final four innings, including his last four strikeouts to reach 100 on the season—the most of any Midwest League pitcher this year.

Juan Carlos Negret provided some late-game insurance for Quad Cities with a solo shot off Charles Hall in the eighth, his team-leading 14th of the season, while Eric Cerantola nailed down his first save of the yea—the only Bandit to appear out of the bullpen—striking out three in a scoreless eighth and ninth inning.

Tossing his second 7.0-inning performance of the season, Tyson Guerrero (2-4) earned the win for the River Bandits, while Garland (3-5) took the loss for Lansing, allowing five runs in 5.0 innings.

Quad Cities will look to guarantee a split of the six-game series on Thursday and searches for its third-straight win behind Ben Kudrna (0-0, 0.00), who will make his Modern Woodmen Park debut against the Lugnuts’ Mitch Myers (0-3). First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.