River Bandits Insider: QC closes regular season with another rally, gains some momentum for playoffs

Blake Mitchell drove in two runs in the Quad Cities River Bandits' 3-2 Sunday road victory in Peoria over the Chiefs. The Quad Cities River Bandits struggled putting together much offense in Peoria last week, scoring just 22 runs in the split of the six-game series against the Chiefs at Dozer Park. They were outscored by five runs in the six-game series. They did, however, pick up a little momentum heading into this week's High Class A Midwest League playoffs against South Bend with another late-game rally for a 3-2 Sunday victory. Despite a dearth of offense once again, QC found enough for a third victory with an improbable eighth-inning rally. Asbel Gonzalez Asbel Gonzalez got that started with a two-out single and moved all the way to third on a wild pickoff throw. Blake Mitchell, who drove in Gonzalez twice in the game, then came through with an opposite-field RBI single to left for his 75th RBI of the season. Manager Jesus Azuaje's River Bandits took a 2-0 lead in the first when Nolan Sailors (single, two stolen bases) and Gonzalez walked to lead off the game. Sailors scored when catcher Sammy Hernandez's throw to third sailed into left field. Gonzalez scored on Mitchell's sacrifice fly. Between the third and eighth innings, though, Peoria pitchers retired 15 straight batters until Gonzalez started the eighth-inning uprising that rallied the 70-57 Bandits, who finished with the best second-half record (40-24) in the league. Reliever Jordan Woods fired 3.1 innings of scoreless ball in relief of starter Blake Wolters and earned his first professional pitching victory as he struck out five without walking a batter. Jackson Cleveland gave up a one-out double in a scoreless ninth to pick up his first professional save in one inning of work. With those 4-plus innings of scoreless relief out of the Bandits' bullpen on Sunday, QC relievers pitched to a 1.38 ERA (six earned runs in 49.0 innings) in the last eight games.