Rattlers Fall to Bandits and a Case of the Two-Out Blues
GRAND CHUTE, WI – The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers dropped their seventh straight game with a 7-4 loss to the Quad Cities River Bandits on Sunday afternoon in front of 5,363 fans at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium. The River Bandits scored all seven of their runs after they
GRAND CHUTE, WI – The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers dropped their seventh straight game with a 7-4 loss to the Quad Cities River Bandits on Sunday afternoon in front of 5,363 fans at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium. The River Bandits scored all seven of their runs after they had two outs in an inning.
Wisconsin starting pitcher Stiven Cruz was sharp early as he set down the River Bandits (18-21) in order in the first two innings. He walked the lead-off batter in the third inning but quickly retired the next two batters. The third out was elusive.
Jack Pineda hit a 1-2 pitch from Cruz off the wall in left for an RBI double. Javier Vaz followed with a triple to right-center. Gavin Cross drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch and stole second with Juan Carlos Negret at the plate. Negret hit a blooper toward the line in left. Jose Acosta made a diving attempt but was ruled to have trapped the ball and both runs scored for a 4-0 lead.
The Rattlers (11-27) got a run back in the bottom of the fourth on a solo homer by Robert Moore. Moore has driven in at least one run in five straight games and went 9-for-26 in the series with three homers.
Quad Cities added two runs off Ryan Brady in the top of the sixth inning. Negret doubled to start the inning but was still at second with two outs. Then, Darryl Collins singled to drive in Negret. Jack Alexander was next and he hit a line drive off the wall in left. Acosta played the ball off the wall perfectly and got the ball into Eric Brown Jr as the cutoff man. Brown had time to get Alexander at second. However, the throw was wild and Collins, who had stopped at third base, trotted home with a sixth run for the River Bandits.
Brown walked, stole second, and went to third on an error to start the bottom of the sixth. Matt Wood knocked in Brown for the Rattlers.
Cross, who hit a home run in the first four games of the series before going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts on Saturday afternoon, hit a two-out, solo homer in the top of the seventh.
The Timber Rattlers made it interesting in the eighth inning as they loaded the bases against Anderson Paulino on a single by Wood and a pair of two-out walks to Eduardo García and Alex Hall. Je’Von Ward singled on a 1-2 pitch to score two runs and bring the tying run to the plate. Paulino shot down the comeback dreams by getting the final out of the inning with no more damage.
Anthony Simonelli pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for the save.
The Timber Rattlers start a road trip to Iowa on Tuesday with game one of a six-game series against the Cedar Rapids Kernels at Perfect Game Field. The Timber Rattlers have Tyler Woessner (3-1, 2.52) as their scheduled starting pitcher. Game time is 6:35pm. The broadcast on AM1280, WNAM starts with the Community Blood Center Pregame Show at 6:15pm. Fans can listen on the radio, on the First Pitch app, or at this link. The internet video feed is available to subscribers of Bally Live, too.