Chiefs Hold on for 6-5 Sunday Win, Clinch Winning Road Trip
May 23, 2010 - Midwest League (MWL1)
Peoria Chiefs News Release
Davenport, IA - The Peoria Chiefs pounded out 14 hits and held on for a 6-5 Sunday afternoon road win against the Quad Cities River Bandits. The win clinches a winning 11-game road trip for the Chiefs with one game remaining Monday morning in Davenport. The Chiefs are now 25-19 on the season and in a tie for second place with Beloit, 1.5 games behind Cedar Rapids. The Chiefs jumped out to a great start against Michael Blazek in the first. Hak-Ju Lee doubled and moved to third on a bunt single by Logan Watkins. After a strikeout Justin Bour walked to load the bases but DJ Fitzgerald struck out. Nelson Perez put the Chiefs up 2-0 with a double to left and Mario Mercedes walked to reload the bases. Chris Notti relieved Blazek and got Richard Jones to fly out with the Chiefs up 2-0. Quad Cities couldn't manufacture anything against Rob Whitenack aver the first two innings but took the lead in the third. Roberto Espinoza led off with a walk and Luis Mateo singled to left. Ryan Jackson walked to load the bases and Jason Stidham's single to right tied the game 2-2. Niko Vasquez put the Bandits up 3-2 with a sac fly to right before Whitenack induced an inningending 6-4-3 double play off the bat of Matt Adams. Jorge Rondon came out of the Bandits bullpen and the Chiefs regained the lead in the fifth. Lee led off with an infield single, Watkins walked and Greg Rohan singled to load the bases. Bour singled to right to bring home two runs for a 4-3 Chiefs lead. Fitzgerald walked to reload the bases before Perez singled to center for a 5-3 lead. The Chiefs added to the lead in the seventh. Rohan led off with a triple and scored on a single up the middle by Bour for a 6-3 Peoria lead. The Chiefs eventually loaded the bases but Jason Novak came out of the bullpen and escaped the jam with a strikeout and a groundout. Quad Cities cut into the lead in the eighth against reliever Steven Grife. With one down Stidham walked and Vasquez launched a two-run homer into the left-field berm. The homer, Vasquez's second of the series and sixth of the season, cut the Chiefs lead to 6-5. After a walk to Stock, Jordan Latham relieved Grife and struck out Ryde Rodriguez to end the inning. Whitenack turned in his second quality start of the season with six innings of work and three runs allowed. He allowed a season-low three hits and walked three while striking out two. Grife allowed two runs on two hits and a walk while striking out one over 1 2/3 innings.
Casey's General Store Player of the Game - Nelson Perez (RF) - Perez doubled home two in the first and singled home a run in the fifth both times with the bases loaded. He was 3- for-5 with three RBI and has driven in 14 runs in eight games for the Chiefs this season.
Notes... Lee leads the Chiefs with 14 multi-hit games...Whitenack tied his season and careerhighs with six innings of work...Trey McNutt also has two quality starts this season...The Chiefs have scored 45 runs in their six wins on this road trip but just five runs in their four losses...With 12 hits the Chiefs now have at least 10 hits in six of the 10 games on the roadtrip...Fitzgerald is 12-for-32 (.375) on the roadtrip...Latham earned his first save since May 4....The first pitch temperature of 85 degrees was the highest of the season passing the 81 at O'Brien Field on May 6...The Chiefs are 18-1 when scoring first this season...Peoria is 3-0 in day games on the roadtrip but 7-8 overall on the season under the sun...The Chiefs are 4-4 in Sunday games...Matt Cerda was under the weather and missed his second straight game...The Chiefs started the game 3-for- 24 with the bases loaded this season, a .125 average...They were 3-for-8 with the bases loaded Sunday and Perez had two of the hits...The Chiefs are 5-3 in Whitenack's eight starts this season despite losing the last two by a combined tally of 27-4...The Chiefs, who were swept in Davenport in April, are 1-5 against Quad Cities this season and have been outscored 31- 12...Peoria was 14-6 against QC last season with a 4-3 mark in Iowa...Peoria is 6-4 on the roadtrip...The series and 11-game roadtrip concludes on Monday at 11:00 a.m. as the Chiefs send RH Nick Struck (2-4, 4.94) against River Bandits RH Shelby Miller (1-3, 3.97)...Miller was the Cardinals 1st round pick in last June's draft (19 overall) and is ranked by Baseball America as St. Louis' #1 prospect...The broadcast can be heard starting with the pregame show at 10:45 a.m. on 96.5 ESPN and www.peoriachiefs.com.
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