COMSTOCK PARK, MI -The West Michigan Whitecaps bats fell silent against stellar pitching and a big six-run inning by the Quad Cities River Bandits proved too much in an 8-1 defeat in front of 8,003 fans Saturday night at Fifth Third Ballpark.Tweet from @wmwhitecaps: FINAL: @QCRiverBandits 8 - #wcaps 1
COMSTOCK PARK, MI -The West Michigan Whitecaps bats fell silent against stellar pitching and a big six-run inning by the Quad Cities River Bandits proved too much in an 8-1 defeat in front of 8,003 fans Saturday night at Fifth Third Ballpark.
The game featured a pair of right-handers as Spenser Watkins made the start for West Michigan against Cesar Rosado for Quad Cities, in the first game of a three-game series. In the River Bandits second inning, Ronnie Dawson laced a double to the gap in leftfield and scored on a Daz Cameron sacrifice fly to provide an early 1-0 lead. West Michigan knotted the score at 1-1 when Danny Woodrow contributed a sacrifice fly RBI in the third inning. The tie game lasted one-half inning later as Chuckie Robinson blasted a solo home run and give Quad Cities the lead once again at 2-1. Watkins did not allow another hit the rest of the way in his seven innings, but the Whitecaps offense found no answers all night as the score remained at 2-1 until the ninth inning. Quad Cities opened the inning with four consecutive singles, which scored one run and a bases-loaded walk brought home another River Bandits run and a 4-1 margin. A grand slam from Troy Sieber off 'Caps reliever Jake Shull increased the lead to 8-1 and secured the victory for Quad Cities, who came in to the game with the best record in the West Division. West Michigan mustered only three hits on the evening compared to the nine hits accumulated by the River Bandits.
Watkins (6-2) took his first loss since April 14, allowing two earned runs, but only gave up three hits and recorded seven strikeouts- a season high. Rosado (2-1) rebounded from a tough last start to earn the victory and pitch five innings of two hit, one run baseball. Devon Carr picked up the save - his first of 2107 with two innings or work, striking out five and giving up no hits. The Whitecaps loss snapped a three-game winning streak as they lost for just the second time in nine games and moved their season record to 61-28, and 16-6 in the second half. Quad Cities won for the 12th game in the last 14 and improved their second half record to 17-6 and 54-37 in 2017. Both the Whitecaps and the River Bandits managed to hold their leads in the Eastern and Western Divisions respectively.
UP NEXT
The Whitecaps continue this series against the Quad Cities River Bandits on a Helen DeVos Children's Hospital Family Day Sunday at 1:00p.m. Pitcher Tom de Blok gets the start for West Michigan against Quad Cities pitcher Carlos Sanabria. Broadcast coverage with Dan Hasty and Mike Coleman begins on the Whitecaps Baseball Network at 12:50p.m. Tickets can be reserved for any Whitecaps 2017 home contest by calling the Whitecaps front office at 616-784-4131 or by visiting www.whitecapsbaseball.com.
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