Peoria, IL – The Peoria Chiefs scored twice in the first inning and held on for a 2-1 win over the Kane County Cougars Wednesday afternoon. The win, their third in row, moves the Chiefs to 7-7 in the second half and 47-37 overall as they go for the sweep on Thursday.
After the Cougars left a runner at third in the top of the inning the Chiefs took the lead in the bottom of the first against Emilio Vargas. Magneuris Sierra beat out an infield single and stole second before Edmundo Sosa walked. Eli Alvarez singled to right and Sierra scored on an error by Joey Armstrong with Sosa taking third on the play. Alvarez moved to second on a wild pitch and with two outs Sosa scored on a balk for a 2-0 Chiefs lead.
Dailyn Martinez, who was roughed up Sunday against Clinton, was much better his second time around. He allowed a run in the second inning on a double by Armstrong, a single by Fernery Ozuna and a sacrifice fly by Gerard Hernandez. He pitched out of jams in the fourth and fifth innings as the Cougars left two runners on base each time.
Martinez left with a runner on second and two outs in the seventh inning and Tyler Bray got the final out of the inning. Kane County put a runner on third against Bray in the eighth but he got a flyout to end the threat. Stephen De La Cruz allowed a two-out single in the ninth before securing his fourth save of the season.
Martinez (1-1) allowed one run on eight hits over 6 2/3 innings while walking three and striking out seven to earn his first Midwest League win. Bray allowed one hit and struck out one over 1 1/3 shutout innings. De La Cruz struck out two in a shutout ninth.
Notes… All five Chiefs hits came from the top three batters in the lineup as Sierra had two, Sosa one and Alvarez two…Sierra leads the Chiefs with 28 multi-hit games while Alvarez is second with 23…The Chiefs did not have a RBI in the game…Kane County out-hit the Chiefs 10-5 but left 10 runners on base as they were 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position…Martinez delivered the Chiefs 38th quality start of the season…De La Cruz joins Bray, Luke Harrison and the promoted Landon Beck for the team lead with four saves…De La Cruz leads the MWL with 30 appearances…Bray picked up his first hold of the season…The Chiefs scored in the first inning for the first time since June 26 at Burlington…Jose Godoy threw out two would-be base stealers…The Chiefs are 6-0 against Kane County at home this season and have won 11 straight nine-inning home games against Kane County including last year’s first round playoff opener…Overall the Chiefs are 8-1 against the Cougars in 2016…The series and homestand conclude Thursday at 7:00 p.m. as the Chiefs are expected to activate RH Jake Woodford (4-3, 2.93) off the DL to start against Cougars RH Justin Donatella (7-4, 3.62)…Thursday is a Miller Lite Thirsty Thursday with $2.00 16 ounce domestic draft beers and fountain sodas…The broadcast can be heard, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 6:45 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.
