Beloit, WI – The Peoria Chiefs hit a pair of home runs and limited the hosts to one run for a 4-1 win over the Beloit Snappers Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series. The win moves the Chiefs back to 12 games over .500 at 45-33 on the season and they are 6-2 in the second half.
The game was scoreless after three innings as Peoria’s Alex Fagalde and Beloit’s Mitchell Jordan matched zeroes. Matt Fiedler got the Chiefs on the board in the top of the fourth with a solo home run to left field, his third of the season.
The Chiefs doubled their lead an inning later. Rayder Ascanio singled with one out and beat the throw to second on an infield single by Elehuris Montero. Yariel Gonzalez put the Chiefs on top 2-0 with a single to left for his 34th RBI of the season.
Beloit cut the lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the fifth as Ryan Gridley hit a solo homer to left-center, his first of the season. The Chiefs extended the lead two innings later when Montero slammed a mammoth home run to center field with Jose Martinez on third base. The blast, Montero’s ninth of the season, extended the lead to 4-1.
Fagalde (3-2) allowed just one run on six hits and a walk over six innings while striking out six. Kodi Whitley allowed three hits over two shutout innings while earning a hold. CJ Saylor nailed down his first save of the season with one hit and one walk allowed over a shutout inning as he struck out one.
Notes…Fagalde has six quality starts in seven starts this season…He has three quality starts against Beloit and has allowed three runs in 18 innings against the Snappers this season…Montero is fifth in the MWL with 46 RBI…After hitting seven straight solo homers, the last two for Montero are two-run shots…He leads the Chiefs with nine homers…The Chiefs are 15-9 in June, 7-3 on the road…Denton and Montero both have six-game hit streaks…The Chiefs are 40-7 when allowing four runs or less…The Chiefs are 15-10 in the first game of a series, 6-6 on the road…Rodriguez has thrown out 19 would-be base stealers with a 43% clip and the Chiefs lead the MWL having thrown out 46% on the season…Rodriguez picked Austin Beck off first base in the first inning, his second pickoff of the season…The series continues at 7:00 p.m. Friday as the Chiefs start RH Paul Balestrieri (3-3, 4.37) against Beloit LH Jared Poche (3-5, 4.55)…The broadcast can be heard, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 6:45 p.m. on www.peoriachiefs.com/listenlive and is also available on the Peoria Chiefs Network in the Tune-In Radio App.
