River Bandits Win Is An "Inside Job"

GRAND CHUTE, WI - The Quad Cities River Bandits snapped a five-game losing streak by beating the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 4-2 Tuesday afternoon at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium. Aaron Mizell hit a two-run, inside-the-park home run to give Quad Cities a lead they would never lose.

Wisconsin (5-8) went in front in the bottom of the second inning. David Denson started the inning with a double. Elvis Rubio singled to move Denson to third. Blake Allemand put the Rattlers on the board with a sacrifice fly to send Denson home.

Rattlers starting pitcher David Burkhalter had pitched around trouble in both the second and third innings to keep the River Bandits (3-10) off the scoreboard. However, he would not be as fortunate in the fourth.

Dexture McCall singled with one out for Quad Cities to bring Mizell to the plate. The wind was blowing in briskly from right-center in the cool and drizzly weather and the Wisconsin outfield was playing shallow for Mizell, who was 5-for-35 on the season coming into his fourth inning at bat. Mizell lined a 1-2 pitch from Burkhalter to the gap in left-center and the ball rolled to a stop at the 405' sign. He was around second by the time anyone could get to the ball. Mizell never broke stride and easily beat the relay throw for a dash around the bases and the Bandits were up 2-1.

Burkhalter left the game with two runners on and no outs in the top of the sixth in favor of reliever Scott Grist, who would face Mizell. This time, the second baseman for Quad Cities dropped a sacrifice bunt and Grist elected to go to third. His throw was late and wild and the Bandits had the bases loaded with no outs looking for some insurance. Grist got a grounder to third that turned into a force play at the plate and a popup for the first two outs and #9 hitter Antonio Nunez, who was 5-for-30 on the season, heading to the plate.

However, Grist fell behind Nunez 3-0 before coming back with a pair of strikes to fill the count. The payoff pitch was in the dirt for ball four and the insurance run scored.

The Rattlers cut the deficit back to one run in the bottom of the sixth. Mitch Ghelfi walked to start the inning. Denson, who had three hits in the game, lined a double to the corner in right and Ghelfi raced home with the run. Allemand lined a single to right with one out but hit it too hard for Denson to try and score the tying run. Adam Whitt escaped by getting the next hitter to ground into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.

Quad Cities pushed another run home in the top of the seventh. Kyle Tucker lined a triple to right-center with one out against Jordan Yamamoto. The infield was in to cut down the run at the plate, but a grounder to short was misplayed and Tucker scored for the 4-2 lead.

The only hit the Rattlers managed in their final three innings was a one-out single in the ninth by Allemand off Ralph Garza.

Denson bumped his season average to .355 (11-for-31) with his three-hit game on Tuesday. He has hit safely in six of his last seven games for Wisconsin.

The loss denied the Timber Rattlers an opportunity for consecutive wins at home. The Timber Rattlers are 3-3 in the first six-games of their current homestand. They have won games one, three, and five, while dropping games two, four, and six.

The final game of the series - and the homestand - is set for Wednesday night. Jon Perrin (1-0, 2.25) is the scheduled starting pitcher for Wisconsin. Quad Cities will counter with Albert Abreu (0-1, 6.75). Game time is 6:35pm.

It's the first Bang for Your Buck Night with Y100 of 2016! All fans may enjoy Cher-Make hotdogs and Pepsi products for $1. Fans 21 and older may purchase 12-ounce domestic beers for $1.

If you can't make it out to the stadium, the radio broadcast is on 1280 AM, WNAM starting with the pregame show at 6:15pm. The game is also available on the internet through IHeartRadio, TuneIn, and MiLB.TV.