Chiefs Rally Past Bandits Tuesday

Davenport, IA - The Peoria Chiefs scored six times in the top of the eighth to rally past the Quad Cities River Bandits 6-2 Tuesday night in Iowa. The win, their fourth in a row, moves the Chiefs back to .500 on the season at 5-5 with two games left in the series.
     After the Chiefs left two on base in the top of the first, Quad Cities took the lead in the bottom of the inning against Winston Nicacio. Cody Bohanek blooped a single down the right-field line and moved to third on a single by Jonathan Arauz. A double steal put Quad Cities on top 1-0 as Bohanek slid home ahead of the throw before Nicacio struck out two and escaped the inning.

     Quad Cities doubled their lead with a two-out rally in the third. After getting a pair of quick outs, Nicacio walked Arauz, Corey Jelks and JJ Matejevic to load the bases. Following a mound visit, Nicacio hit Adrian Tovalin with the first pitch to force in Arauz and give the River Bandits a 2-0 lead.
    Heading into the eighth inning the Chiefs had just one hit, an infield single in the second by Edwin Figuera. In the eighth, reliever Yohan Ramirez hit Taylor Bryant in the shoulder and Yariel Gonzalez singled to left. Both runners movedup on an error in left and Juan Yepez got the Chiefs on the board with a single to right. Carlos Sanabria took over on the mound and another wild pitch moved Yepez to second as the go-ahead run. Dylan Carlson delivered a two-strike single to right to score both Gonzalez and Yepez for a 3-2 Chiefs lead. Carlson took second on a throwing error on the play and with two outs, Nick Plummer drew his second walk of the game. Figuera hit a fly ball to right that Julks got to but dropped allowing Carlson and Plummer to score for a 5-2 Chiefs lead. With Figuera at third, Irving Lopez made it 6-2 with an infield single to third base before Sanabria got out of the inning.
   Nicacio allowed two runs on three hits over six innings in a no-decision. He walked three, hit one and struck out five. Zach Prendergast (2-0) earned the win with two shutout innings of relief. He allowed two hits, walked one and struck out one. Kevin Hamann allowed one walk and struck out two in a scoreless ninth inning.
Notes… Gonzalez has a team-best eight-game hit streak while Bryant's hit streak ended at seven…The eighth inning was the first time the Chiefs batted around this season and the six runs are the most in an inning so far in 2018…Yepez leads the MWL in hits and RBI…Lopez has reached base as the Chiefs leadoff hitter in the first inning in all four games with three walks and a double…Nicacio is the first Chiefs pitcher to get through six innings this year and records the first quality start…The six innings ties a career high as he finished six innings four times last year for the GCL Cardinals…Carlson drew his team-leading ninth walk, which is good for 5^th in the Midwest League…Plummer led the Chiefs last season with 14 hit-by-pitches and is now tied for 13^th on the Chiefs career list with 15…Opponents have pulled off the double steal of second and home twice already this season…The teams will play 20 times this season, 13 in Iowa…Including the playoffs the Chiefs were 3-10 in Davenport last year…The series continues Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. as the Chiefs send RH Jake Walsh (1-0, 2.61) to the mound against LH Parker Mushinski (0-0, 0.00)…The broadcast can be heard, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 6:20 p.m. on www.peoriachiefs.com/listenlive and is also available on the Peoria Chiefs Network in the Tune-In Radio App