Chavers Homer Ends No-Hit Bid, Cubs Fall 3-2

PEORIA, IL - Inohan Paniagua entered the night having thrown 11 shutout innings across three appearances against the South Bend Cubs in his career. Tonight he delivered his best performance with six no-hit innings, allowing just two baserunners.

After the Cubs got the shutout victory, 4-0, on Thursday, Peoria returned the favor by taking a no-hitter into the seventh.

With South Bend trailing 3-0 in the eighth, Patrick Anderson called upon his first arm out of the bullpen in Tanner Jacobson. The righty who throws predominantly sliders plunked Pedro Ramirez with am 0-2 breaking ball to put the leadoff man on. Two batters later Parker Chavers belted a two-run blast to right that ended the no-hit bit and the shutout in one swing, while simultaneously bringing the Cubs within a run.

Ed Howard followed up the homer with a single and a walk to Jordan Nwogu gave the Cubs two runners aboard with still just one away. Brian Kalmer flew out to center though and Howard was caught trying to move up to third by Chiefs catcher Leonardo Bernal and Bernal dropped a pitch and it rolled away from him to his right.

The next inning gave the Cubs the best opportunity to tie the game. Brett Bateman drove a ball down the line in left that hopped high off the wall for a double and Reivaj Garcia tapped a slow roller to the right of the mound that went for an infield single. With men at the corners and one out, trailing 3-2, if the Cubs were going to complete the comeback this felt like a prime opportunity with the heart of the lineup due up. However Jacobson answered the call, striking out Ramirez and inducing a ground ball from Jonathon Long, who entered the day batting .348 with two outs, to end the threat.

Osvaldo Berrios retired the side 1-2-3 in the ninth to earn his fourth save.

Will Sanders took the ball for the Cubs tonight and worked the first three innings in shutout fashion. Bernal and Chris Rotondo began the fourth with back-to-back singles off the 6-foot-6 righty though, and a sac-bunt from Brody Moore moved them both over second and third. Miguel Villaroel then cleared the bags with a triple to center to make it 2-0. After a walk Sanders punched out the next two he faced and finished his outing going four frames with six punch outs.

Caleb Kilian made his second rehab appearance of the week with South Bend the following inning and allowed the final Peoria run. He issued a leadoff walk to Won-Bin Cho and two batters later Chris Rotondo had his bat obliterated by a fastball but somehow blooped the ball down the line in left and it landed right on the foul line for a double. Moore’s infield single out to short increased the lead to 3-0. Kilian came back out for the sixth and struck out Zach Levenson to end his outing.

With the win Peoria clinched the series, taking four of the first five games.