Quad Cities’ Seventh-Inning Rally Comes Up Short in Loss to Cubs

Davenport, Iowa – The Quad Cities River Bandits plated three-unanswered runs to close out the game on Thursday, but their effort fell short as they lost to the South Bend Cubs 6-4 at Modern Woodmen Park.

While the Cubs got out to a first-inning lead, jumping out 1-0 on a Jefferson Rojas sacrifice fly, Bandits’ starter Steven Zobac settled down to retire nine of the next 11 batters he faced from the second to the fourth.

The River Bandits snapped a 12-inning scoreless streak and broke into the run column in the bottom of the fourth, as Carter Jensen tied the game 1-1 on a solo homer, his fifth of the season.

However, in his third time through the order, Zobac saw South Bend respond by rattling off five-straight one-out hits en route to a five-run run inning and a 6-1 Cubs advantage.

After a one-run, 4.0-frame start by Sam Armstrong, Chase Watkins pitched a scoreless fifth and sixth inning out of the Cubs’ bullpen, but allowed a leadoff triple to Trevor Werner in the seventh. The next batter, Jared Dickey picked up his second hit of the night and drove in Werner with an RBI single before Dustin Dickerson officially chased Watkins from the game by driving an RBI-double to right-center field to cap off a nine-pitch at-bat.

With South Bend’s lead trimmed to three, Carlos Reyes took over for Watkins and immediately picked up two outs, but Jack Pineda brought Quad Cities to within two on the club’s second RBI-double of the frame to make it 6-4.

Wallace kept the Bandits’ deficit intact, tossing a second-straight scoreless frame with a one-two-three seventh, before Brandon Johnson tossed a perfect top-half of the eighth.

While Reyes would return to the mound for the Cubs in the bottom half and allow the game-tying runs on base, the right-hander ultimately kept QC off the board and earned his first hold of the year. Yovanny Cabrera did the same in the ninth, working around a walk of Deivis Nadal en route to his season’s third save.

Despite allowing three of Quad Cities’ four runs, Chase Watkins (3-1) earned the win for South Bend, with Zobac (2-4) taking the loss after surrendering a season-high six runs for the second-straight start.

The River Bandits will look to even the series at two wins apiece in game four of the set tomorrow and send Frank Mozzicato (2-3, 2.73) to the hill opposite the Cubs’ Drew Gray (0-1, 3.20). First pitch at Modern Woodmen Park is set for 6:30 p.m.