Peoria, IL – The Peoria Chiefs lost the final game of the three-game homestand to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 3-1 on Thursday night. With the loss the Chiefs fall to 28-25 as they head on the road for a three-game series with the first-place Cedar Rapids Kernels.
Wisconsin broke a scoreless tie in the top of the seventh inning against Chiefs starting pitcher Brennan Leitao. The first batter of the inning, Blake Allemand homered to right field to give the Timber Rattlers a 1-0 lead.
The Chiefs answered with one out in the seventh against Wisconsin reliever Jordan Yamamoto. Vaughn Bryan singled, stole second and scored on a single by Dylan Becker to tie the game 1-1. Yamamoto, in relief of starter Devin Williams, escaped the inning with the game tied as he retired Craig Aikin and Magneuris Sierra with Becker stranded at first.
The Timber Rattlers regained the lead for good in the eighth as the ended Leitao’s night. Max McDowell led off with a single and moved into scoring position on a sac bunt. Carlos Belonis singled to center to score McDowell and advanced to second on an error by Sierra. With the Chiefs down 2-1, Tyler Bray entered the game and allowed back-to-back two-out singles to Allemand and Isan Diaz for a 3-1 Wisconsin lead.
The Chiefs got a one-out single from Eli Alvarez in the bottom of the eighth to bring the tying run to the plate. Yamamoto got a groundout and a strikeout to end the inning and retired the Chiefs in order in the ninth for the 3-1 Wisconsin lead.
Leitao (3-5) took the loss allowing three runs, two earned, on six hits while striking out four and walking one in 7 1/3 innings of work. Bray allowed two hits and struck out one while not allowing a run of his own over 2/3 of an inning. Steven De La Cruz pitched the ninth and allowed no runs and one hit.
Notes: The Chiefs picked off a base runner for the second straight game…The Chiefs as a staff have five pick-offs this season all at first…The Chiefs are 3-6 in the final home game of a series…The Chiefs are 4-6 in two-run games…The Chiefs are 9-24 when scoring four runs or less…The Chiefs are 7-3 in their the last ten games…Chinea has a nine-game hit streak…Spitz ended his Dozer Park hit streak at 11 games… Chiefs starters have 27 quality starts this season…The Chiefs hit the road for a weekend series against the Cedar Rapids Kernels beginning Friday at 6:35 p.m. as the Chiefs start RHP Derian Gonzalez (3-0, 2.28) against Kernels RHP Miles Nordgren (2-1, 2.58)…The Chiefs and Kernels have not played yet this season, the only team in the West the Chiefs have not faced…Cedar Rapids leads the Chiefs by two games in the standings and this will be the first meeting since the Kernels eliminated the Chiefs from the 2015 playoffs in September…The broadcast can be heard, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 6:20 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.
