Valdez, Perez team up on the mound for 6-3 Bandits win
DAVENPORT, Iowa – The River Bandits completed their second straight sweep of the Burlington Bees with a 6-3 win on a rainy Wednesday night at Modern Woodmen Park. Gabriel Valdez allowed one run and stuck out a career high seven batters before an approximately hour long rain delay halted play in the fourth. Cionel Perez threw four innings in relief and earned the win.
Quad Cities (19-18) rattled off four consecutive hits with two outs in the first inning off Bees’ (11-24) starter Erik Manoah. A Ray Henderson RBI single and a Carmen Benedetti run-scoring double gave the Bandits a 2-0 cushion. Roberto Baldoquin cut the Bandits lead in half with an RBI single in the visitor’s second. In the fourth, the Bandits loaded the bases with none out then scored a run on a Brennon Lund error in center field. After the error, rain showers stopped play for an hour and nine minutes with the Bandits up 3-1.
Following the break, Wander Franco bounced out to second to force in a run. Osvaldo Duarte followed with a two-run single widening the margin to 6-1 Quad Cities. Burlington’s Brennon Lund drove home a run with a single in the fifth and Roberto Baldoquin followed with an RBI single in the seventh, but it was too little, too late for Burlington.
Perez (2-2) replaced Valdez in the fifth. The lefty pitched four innings, allowed two runs, five hits and struck out two. Erasmo Pinales worked a perfect ninth and recorded his second save of the year. Burlington’s Erik Monoah (0-2) lasted three innings and surrendered all six Bandits runs, five of them earned.
Quad Cities hits the road for four games with Kane County over the weekend before returning home for eight straight at home next week. RHP Forrest Whitley (1-2, 4.80) goes to the mound to oppose Kane County LHP Cody Reed (2-1, 1.38). First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Pregame coverage can be heard at 6:15 p.m. on riverbandits.com and 1170 AM KBOB with Jake Levy.
