PEORIA, IL - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers fought back from a three-run deficit to tie Monday's game with the Peoria Chiefs at Dozer Park. Brady Whalen denied the Rattlers a victory with an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to give the Chiefs a 5-4 win.
PEORIA, IL - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers fought back from a three-run deficit to tie Monday's game with the Peoria Chiefs at Dozer Park. Brady Whalen denied the Rattlers a victory with an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to give the Chiefs a 5-4 win.
Wisconsin (61-64 overall, 30-26 second half) took the lead with a run in the top of the second inning. Pablo Abreu singled with one out. Chad McClanahan bunted for a hit and a wild throw to first allowed Abreu to score for the 1-0 lead.
Peoria (47-78, 17-39) tied the game in the bottom of the second inning. Wisconsin starter Justin Jarvis retired the first two batters he faced, but walked Wadye Ynfante and gave up a single to Josh Shaw to extend the inning. Edwin Figuera was next and he singled to left to score Ynfante with the tying run.
The Chiefs took advantage of an error and three walks to take the lead in the bottom of the third. Jonatan Machado started the inning with a double. He took third on flyout to center. Wisconsin brought the infield in with Whalen at the plate. Whalen hit a grounder to first, but McClanahan couldn't handle the ball and the error let Machado score. Jarvis walked the next three batters with the final walk to Brandon Riley forcing home Whalen with a run for a 3-1 lead.
Whalen made it 4-1 in favor of the Chiefs with a two-out, RBI single against Joey Matulovich in the bottom of the fourth.
The Rattlers rallied for two runs in the top of the sixth inning. David Fry and Abreu singled to knock Peoria starter Dalton Roach out of the game on his 100th pitch of the night. McClanahan drew a walk against reliever Franyel Casadilla to load the bases with one out. Korry Howell was able to beat out a potential inning-ending double play to get Fry home with the first run of the inning. Abreu made a hard charge off third with Yeison Coca at the plate and that forced Casadilla to balk. The miscue allowed Abreu to score and Howell to take second with the tying run.
Wisconsin nearly tied the game when Coca looped a flyball near the left field line, but Riley made a diving catch to deny the Rattlers a third run in the sixth and the Chiefs held on to their one-run lead.
The Rattlers put the tying runs on base in the seventh and eighth innings, but left that runner stranded each time.
Adam Hill did his job out of the Wisconsin bullpen from the fifth through the eighth as he worked four scoreless innings with five strikeouts and retired the side in order in the sixth, seventh, and eighth.
In the top of the ninth, Coca started the inning by beating out an infield single and Jesús Lujano drew a four-pitch walk. Connor McVey bunted both runners into scoring position. Thomas Dillard ripped a single to right to score Coca with the tying. The ball was hit to sharply for Lujano to attempt to score and the Rattlers could not take the lead in the ninth.
Hill went back out for the bottom of the ninth inning and gave up a lead-off single to Figuera. Hill got first out on a flyout to center. Then, he got Delvin Perez to hit a grounder to short for a possible inning-ending double play. Coca couldn't handle the ball cleanly and everyone was safe.
Whalen made the Rattlers pay. He smacked the second pitch he saw from reliever Victor Castaneda into right field and Figuera scored the winning run.
Wisconsin stranded ten runners on Monday and was just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
In the other game involving contenders in the second-half Western Division playoff race, the Kane County Cougars defeated the Clinton LumberKings 8-4 at Kane County on Monday. The win by the Cougars allowed them to stretch their division lead over the LumberKings to three games and their lead over the Timber Rattlers to six games. Wisconsin's loss kept them three games behind Clinton for the Wild Card. There are fourteen games remaining in the second half.
The final game of the series is Tuesday night. Max Lazar (6-2, 1.63) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Peoria has named Colin Schmid (6-5, 3.93) as their starter. Game time is 6:35pm. The radio broadcast is on AM1280, WNAM and the TuneIn Radio app starting with the Papa John's Pizza Pregame Show at 6:15pm. MiLB.tv subscribers can watch the game over the internet.
