Rattlers Hold On for a 1-0 Win at Burlington

BURLINGTON, IA - It wasn't easy. It wasn't pretty. It was a 1-0 win for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers over the Burlington Bees Thursday night at Community Field. Four Timber Rattlers pitchers combined on the five-hit shutout on a frustrating, but ultimately rewarding evening for the Midwest League affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Leugim Castillo doubled to start the Wisconsin (56-59 overall, 25-21) half of the second inning. Chad McClanahan followed with a single to right and Castillo scored without a play to put Wisconsin up 1-0.

That was the only run the Rattlers got against Burlington starting pitcher Hector Yan. The left-hander struck out ten over five innings to take over the Midwest League lead in strikeouts with 132 on the season.

Wisconsin starting pitcher Luis Contreras didn't match Yan in the strikeout category, but he put five zeroes on the scoreboard and protected the lead before turning the game over to the bullpen.

The Rattlers offense threatened to blow the game open in the top of the sixth inning as they loaded the bases with no outs. Thomas Dillard started the inning with a single to left to extend his hitting streak to 23 games. Yan hit Brent Díaz and that was all for the Burlington starter. An error on a sacrifice bunt by Je'Von Ward against reliever Luis Ramirez loaded the bases. 

However, Ramirez escaped the inning on a flyout to shallow right, a force play at the plate, and a strikeout to keep the Rattlers lead at 1-0.

Nick Bennett, the Brewers 6^th round pick in the 2019 draft, entered the game for Contreras from the Wisconsin bullpen to make his Timber Rattlers debut. He retired the Bees in order in the sixth with a pair of strikeouts.

Wisconsin had another good opportunity to add to their lead in the seventh. Korry Howell singled with one out and a wild pitch by Ramirez let him take second base with David Fry at the plate. Ramirez uncorked another wild pitch and catcher Harrison Wenson couldn't find the ball immediately. Howell raced for home plate with an attempt to score from second, but was out on a flip to Ramirez covering home for the second out. Then, Fry drew a walk, but was promptly picked off by Ramirez for the third out.

Burlington (55-51, 16-30) made Bennett and the Rattlers sweat in the bottom of the seventh. Kevin Maitan started the inning with a triple to put the tying run on third base. Bennet got the first out on a grounder to third and struck out the final two batters of the inning and the score stayed 1-0.

Dillard started the Wisconsin eighth inning with a single and Díaz sacrificed him to second against reliever Ethan Clark. The inning ended with Dillard still at second and the score still 1-0 in favor of the Rattlers.
Logan Gillaspie relieved Bennett to start the bottom of the eighth, but he walked Harrison Wenson to start the inning and committed a balk to move the tying run into scoring position with no outs. Gillaspie struck out the next batter, but hit Connor Fitzsimons to put two runners on with one out.

Victor Contreras relieved Gillaspie and retired the next two batters with strikeouts to send the game to the ninth inning.

McClanahan singled and stole second to start the Wisconsin ninth. A ground out moved McClanahan to third with one away. Clark got the second out on a fly out to shallow left that could not advance McClanahan. Then, Howell and David Fry both walked with two outs to load the bases for the Rattlers again. Clark ended the ninth with a strikeout, the fourteenth of the night for Burlington pitchers and the game went to the bottom of the ninth with Wisconsin hanging on to its precarious one-run lead.

Burlington made the finish dramatic as Maitan singled, his third hit of the night, to start the ninth for the Bees against Castaneda. Adrian Rondon followed with a single to right and the Bees had the tying and winning runs on base with Francisco Del Valle coming to the plate.
Del Valle, who homered twice and drove in four runs for the Bees in their comeback win over Wisconsin on Wednesday night, struck out looking on the 3-2 pitch from Castaneda for the first out of the inning and the fourteenth strikeout of the night for Wisconsin pitchers.

Castaneda closed out the game by getting Nonie Williams to send a grounder to Fry at third base to start a game-ending 5-4-3 double play and the Rattlers held on for the 1-0 win.
The Rattlers stranded eleven runners on base as the teams combined to go 1-for-23 with runners in scoring position in the game as the Rattlers were 1-for-13 and the Bees were 1-for-10.

Wisconsin received good news in the second half Western Division Wild Card race as the Clinton LumberKings lost 8-4 at Quad Cities. The loss was the seventh in a row for the LumberKings. Clinton had pushed their lead over the Rattlers to six games after a victory at Wisconsin last Thursday night. The results on this Thursday night allowed Wisconsin to move to within one game of the LumberKings for the Wild Card with 24 games left in the regular season.

That Clinton losing streak began last Friday when the Rattlers beat the LumberKings 1-0 at Neuroscience Group Field.
The final game of Wisconsin's brief three-game road trip is Friday night at Community Field. Ethan Small, the #1 pick of the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2019 draft, is scheduled to start for the Rattlers. Burlington has named Robinson Pina (4-6, 4.08) as their starter. First pitch is set for 6:30pm. The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM and the TuneIn Radio app starting with the Papa John's Pizza Pregame Show at 6:10pm.