Burlington, IA - The Peoria Chiefs scored four runs early and held on for another nail-biting win over the Burlington Bees with a 4-3 victory Saturday night. The win, their fifth in a row, moves the Chiefs to 3-0 in the second half and 33-39 overall. The Chiefs jumped on lefty
Burlington, IA - The Peoria Chiefs scored four runs early and held on for another nail-biting win over the Burlington Bees with a 4-3 victory Saturday night. The win, their fifth in a row, moves the Chiefs to 3-0 in the second half and 33-39 overall.
The Chiefs jumped on lefty Nate Bertness in the top of the first. Stefan Trosclair doubled to right with one out and scored on a two-out double by Brian O'Keefe for a 1-0 lead.
Peoria added on in the third inning with the top of the order again doing the damage. Shane Billings extended his hit streak to 15 games with a leadoff double to right and Trosclair launched a two-run homer over the high right-field wall. The homer, Trosclair's fourth of the season, gave the Chiefs a 3-0 lead and marked their fifth home run of the second half. The inning didn't end there as Matt Fiedler tripled off the wall in right-center and scored on a one-out single by JR Davis for a 4-0 Chiefs lead.
The Bees got on the board against Chiefs All-Star Mike O'Reilly in the fourth inning. With one out Brennan Morgan hit a solo homer to left, his third of the season to cut the Chiefs lead to 4-1.
The Chiefs have second and third with no outs in the fifth but didn't score. That kept the game close and the Bees took advantage in the eighth against reliever Dewin Perez. A leadoff walk and stolen base put a runner in scoring position and Jordan Zimmerman's double with two outs cut the Chiefs lead to 4-2. Sam McDonnell singled home Zimmerman to cut the Chiefs lead to 4-3 and Eric Carter replaced Perez. The right-hander got Morgan to pop up in foul territory to end the inning.
Peoria loaded the bases in the ninth with no outs on singles by Dylan Carlson, Nick Plummer and Jose Martinez. But the next two batters struck out and a fielder's choice left the bases loaded with the Chiefs up one. Carter cruised through the bottom of the inning to earn the save with two straight strikeouts to finish off the win.
O'Reilly (5-2) earned the win as he allowed one run on two hits over six innings. The All-Star struck out five, walked two and hit one in his fifth quality start. Perez allowed two runs on three hits and a walk over 1 2/3 innings while striking out two. Carter earned his sixth save with two strikeouts over 1 1/3 perfect innings.
Notes…The Chiefs are 3-0 to start the second half for the first time since 2007…The last time the Chiefs won five in a row was May 14-18, 2016…Billings collected two hits and has a 15-game hit streak which ties Andrew Knizner for both the team lead in 2017 and the longest on the Chiefs since Javy Baez hit in 16 straight July 4-21, 2012…Trosclair has 17 multi-hit games, all two-hit games…He hit his first home run since April 24, a span of 155 at-bats…Two of Trosclair's home runs have come in Burlington and three have been in the state of Iowa…The Chiefs have 18 homers in 14 games against Burlington, eight more than against any other team…Of those 18 homers, 12 have come in the nine games at Community Field…Carlson leads the Chiefs with 29 walks…O'Keefe moved into 12th placed on the Chiefs career RBI list with 105 and he is now tied for 15th on the career doubles list with 42…The Chiefs are 12-11 in one-run games with back-to-back wins in this series….The Chiefs are 26-15 when allowing four runs or less…The Chiefs hit another batter and lead the league with 61 on the season…Peoria leads the season series 9-5… The series ends Sunday at 6:30 p.m. as the Chiefs send LHP Ian Oxnevad (1-7, 3.95) on the mound against Bees All-Star RHP Erik Manoah Jr. (2-4, 3.92)…The broadcast can be heard, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 1:45 p.m. on www.peoriachiefs.com/listenlive which also has downloads for a free app on the iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and Android…The broadcast is also available on the Peoria Chiefs Network in the Tune-In Radio App.
