MWL1 Peoria Chiefs

Chiefs Score in Eighth to Win Pitchers' Duel 1-0

Published on August 26, 2010 under Midwest League (MWL1)
Peoria Chiefs News Release


Chiefs Score in Eighth to Win Pitchers' Duel 1-0 Batista throws six shutout innings for much needed win

Peoria, IL - The Peoria Chiefs kept their playoff hopes alive with a much needed 1-0 win on Thursday night over the First Half Western Division Champion Cedar Rapids Kernels. The win moves the Chiefs to 27-29 on the half and 65-60 overall, three games out of the Wild Card spot with 12 games left to play. Peoria's Frank Batista and Cedar Rapids starter Ariel Pena both threw six shutout innings. Peoria threatened immediately against Pena with singles in the first by Hak-Ju Lee and Logan Watkins. But Pena got three straight outs, including two strikeouts to escape the threat. Cedar Rapids put a runner on second base just twice against Batista with a double in the third inning and a walk and a sacrifice bunt in the sixth. Both times Batista got out of trouble to keep the game scoreless. Pena walked two in the sixth but again got out of it as both teams turned to the bullpen in the seventh. The Chiefs used great defense to keep the game scoreless. Lee set the tone early with one of the best defensive plays at O'Brien Field all season. In the fourth he slid into the outfield grass between short and third to glove a Casey Haerther grounder. Lee planted and fired a strike all in one motion from five feet into the outfield to get Haerther at first. Matt Cerda turned in a charging barehand play in the fifth at third base and Justin Bour had a diving play at first base in the fifth as well. In the eighth, as reliever Danny Keefe struck out Jon Karcich for the second out, catcher Jose Guevara threw out Carlos Ramirez trying to steal second to end the inning. Peoria finally broke through against Matt Oye in the eighth. Anthony Giansanti drew a leadoff walk and with one out Watkins singled up the middle. Ramriez tried to pick Giansanti off second but Anthony immediately took off for third and slid in with a stolen base. A wild pitch from Oye allowed Giansanti to scamper home with the first run of the game before the Kernels got out of the inning. Corey Martin came out of the Chiefs bullpen in the top of the ninth. Jean Segura barely beat out an infield single to second base and was bunted over to second. Segura moved to third on a wild pitch and the Chiefs brought the infield in. Jeremy Cruz hit a one-hopper to short and Lee made a great play to fire home as Guevara blocked the plate to tag out Segura. After a wild pitch moved Cruz to second as the tying run, Haerther lined out to Lee to end the game. Batista allowed two hits and a walk over six shutout innings with three strikeouts. Keefe (2-1) threw two scoreless innings and struck out two while allowing a hit and a walk. Martin allowed a hit and earned his fifth save of the season in seven chances.

Casey's General Store Player of the Game: Frank Batista (RHP) - Though he did not earn the win, Batista threw a career-high six innings for his first ever quality start. The right-hander allowed just three baserunners on two hits and a walk while striking out three.

Notes... The Chiefs are now three games behind Kane County for the wild card spot though Beloit is also ahead of the Chiefs in the standings, one game behind Kane County...Watkins has back-to-back multi-hit games with five hits in the last two contests...He is the fourth Chiefs player to reach 30 multi-hit games on the season joining Bour, Cerda and Lee...Cerda had a six-game RBI streak ended...Guevara threw out his first baserunner of the season in the first attempt against him...The Chiefs are 4-0 in Guevara's four starts...Peoria has 11 shutouts on the season, tied for the seventh most in a season in franchise history...The last 1-0 shutout was April 13 at Beloit...Perez had his 22nd multi-strikeout game of the season...Perez saw his 10-game hit streak broken in game one...The Chiefs are 22-47 when scoring four runs or less this season and 11-10 in shutouts...Peoria is 19-15 in one run games with 13 wins in their final at-bat...The Chiefs are 7-10 against Cedar Rapids this season with one game left on Friday...The series concludes Friday at 6:30 p.m. as the Chiefs send rehabbing Cubs RH Carlos Silva (0-0, 0.00) to the hill...Silva is expected to throw 40-50 pitches in his first game action since leaving an August 1 start in Colorado after four batters with an abnormal heart rate...He is 10-5 for the Cubs this season...Friday is also Cubs Mania and all fans who wear Cubs gear to O'Brien Field get $5.00 Club Box Tickets at the Box Office...There will be a Pitch-In For Charity Tennis Ball Toss to raise money for the Central Illinois Friends of People with AIDS...The Chiefs are expected to use RH Robinson Lopez (0-0, 0.00) acquired in the Derrek Lee trade after Silva is done...Cedar Rapids will start LH Max Russell (1-2, 5.55)...The broadcast can be heard starting with the pregame show at 6:15 p.m. on 96.5 ESPN and www.peoriachiefs.com

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Midwest League Stories from August 26, 2010


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