06
May
2017
Cionel Perez strikes out seven over 5.2 scoreless innings in first MiLB win
DAVENPORT -- In his second outing of his Astros career, Cionel Perez struck out seven over 5.2 scoreless innings to lead the Quad Cities River Bandits to a 6-2 win over the Lake County Captains in front of 5,510 fans at Modern Woodmen Park on Friday night. Randy Cesar and Spencer Johnson each had two-run doubles to lead the offense while Alex De Goti pushed his on-base streak to 19 consecutive games.
The River Bandits (15-11) got their fifth win in six series openers at Modern Woodmen Park this season. After his two-homer performance Thursday, Marcos Almonte laced a double off the wall in left to lead off the second inning then scored on two wild pitches to give the Bandits an early lead. The following inning a two-out walk and single got Cesar to the plate for his lazer double off the wall in right to make it 3-0. Johnson laced his two-run double down the left field line in the sixth then later scored on a sacrifice fly from Carmen Benedetti.
Perez (1-1) was pulled when his pitch count crossed over 75 after 5.2 innings of scoreless baseball. He allowed two hits and one walk while striking out seven to earn his first win in the Astros organization. Speaking of Astros organization, former first overall pick that did not sign with Houston, Brady Aiken, suffered his fifth loss (0-5) in as many games this season. The lefty allowed three runs over five innings of work on four hits and four walks while striking out three.
Both Lake County (10-17) runs came on solo homers in the seventh inning. Emmanuel Tapia and Luke Wakamatsu both went deep off Abdiel Saldana who allowed the two runs on three hots in 2.1 relief innings. He struck out the side in the eighth and Erasmo Pinales did the same in the ninth to close out the win.
Quad Cities is the furthest above .500 since 2015, when the River Bandits had the best record in all of Minor League Baseball. The Bandits look to win their third straight game and earn an early series win against the Captains Saturday at 6:35 p.m. at Modern Woodmen Park. The River Bandits send top prospect Forrest Whitley (1-0, 0.00) to the mound for his first home start of the year against Justin Garza (0-0, 4.70) for the Captains. Gates open at 5:35 and the live broadcast begins at 6:20 on 1170 AM K-BOB, riverbandits.com and the TuneIn app.
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