Five-run sixth inning sinks River Bandits in ninth shutout loss of the season
FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- A five-run sixth inning buried the Quad Cities River Bandits in a 6-0 loss to the Fort Wayne TinCaps Wednesday night at Parkview Field. Myles Straw and Pat Porter each had two hits, providing the only four knocks of the game for Quad Cities in the series opener. Yoanys Quiala had retired ten consecutive batters prior to his troublesome sixth inning, in which he was charged for all five runs.
The River Bandits (10-10, 41-48) were blanked for the ninth time this season, including all three series openers on the road against Eastern Division opponents. The TinCaps (9-11, 45-45) went 6-for-7 with runners in scoring position in the game, a bulk of which came in the five-run sixth frame.
Nine-hole hitter Peter Van Gansen led off the sixth with a single to center, snapping a streak of ten consecutive hitters retired by Quiala. Kodie Tidwell was able to land a two-strike sacrifice bunt before an eruption of five straight hits launched a five-run inning for Fort Wayne. Tyler Moore hit a lazer double off the left field wall to plate the first run before three more RBI knocks furthered the advantage. The final hit in the inning was a grounder that was ruled fair over the third-base bag for a ground rule double, plating two runs. River Bandits manager Omar Lopez was ejected for arguing the ball was foul.
Quiala (1-7) was charged with all five earned runs. Despite five outstanding innings prior to the meltdown, Quiala's final line read 5.1 innings, allowing five runs on nine hits with four strikeouts. He did not issue a walk. The San Diego Padres' recent acquisition Chris Paddack went five scoreless innings, surrendering two hits while striking out nine and walking one. At one point he retired 14 straight batters, but took no decision. Corey Kimber (2-0) got the win for three scoreless innings, allowing two hits.
The TinCaps final run came on a solo home run in the eighth inning from Brad Zunica, who was the first batter to face Chris Murphy. Murphy bounced back to get soft outs from the next three hitters. Makay Nelson tossed 1.2 scoreless innings of relief for Quad Cities and Osvaldo Duarte had his nine-game hitting streak snapped one game short of tying both his and the River Bandits season-long hit streak. Straw doubled to lead off the game, but was stranded. After that two-bagger, the next 14 hitters were retired before Porter broke up the streak with a single to center.
Quad Cities is still winless against Fort Wayne since 2013. They look to break that stretch and even the series Thursday in game two of the series. Matt Bower (2-0) gets the ball for Quad Cities against Thomas Dorminy (2-2) for Fort Wayne. First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m. CT and you can join Jake Levy for the radio broadcast, starting with the LLOYD Agencies Pregame Show at 5:50 on 1170 AM K-BOB, riverbandits.com and the TuneIn app.
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