August 31 Game Notes

ABOUT LAST NIGHT: The River Bandits beat the Timber Rattlers 6-3. Jon Edwards and Blake Murphy both homered and knocked in two runs for the Bandits and the Timber Rattlers committed four errors in the game.

A TRIO OF RUNS: Quad Cities grabbed an early 3-0 lead. Jon Edwards hit a solo homer in the bottom of the first. In the second, Blake Murphy drew a bases loaded walk and an RBI grounder by D’Marcus Ingram put the River Bandits up three.

TRADING RUNS: Wisconsin got their first run on a sacrifice fly by Alex Liddi, but a solo homer by Murphy in the sixth got Quad Cities back up by three runs.

WITHIN ONE: The Rattlers scored twice in the seventh inning to get to within 4-3. Denny Almonte drove in a run with a triple and scored on an sacrifice fly by Blake Ochoa.

INSURANCE: The River Bandits went back up by three with two more runs in the bottom of the seventh. Edward drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly and Curt Smith doubled in the run to make the score 6-3.

A CHANCE: In the top of the ninth, Almonte reached on a one out single. He was running on a pitch to Juan Diaz, when Diaz hit a sharp grounder towards right. The ball hit Almonte for the second out. Ochoa drew a walk to bring the tying run to the plate. But, Dylan Gonzalez picked up the save by getting the third out to complete his second scoreless inning.

THAT HASN’T HAPPENED IN A LONG TIME: The Rattlers committed four errors in the game last night. Those errors led to three unearned runs for the River Bandits. The last time the Rattlers committed more than two errors in a game was June 12.

FOR COMPARISON: The Rattlers had been charged with just 24 errors in the first 27 games of August.

2 x 3: Almonte had two triples last night. He is the first Rattler to get a pair of three-base hits in a game this season. The last Rattler to have two triples in a game was Carlos Peguero. Coincidentally, Peguero also had his two triple game against the Swing of the Quad Cities in John O’Donnell Stadium – the former name of the River Bandits and of Modern Woodmen Park.

LONG RELIEF: Ryan Moorer worked 4-2/3 innings in relief last night. That was the longest relief stint of the season by a Rattler.

SCORELESS STREAK: Natividad Dilone pitched 1-2/3 innings last night. He has not allowed a run since August 10. Dilone has reached 13 innings in his scoreless streak over the last seven games.

A NOTE ON THE Ks: Wisconsin struck out 11 times last night. Rattler hitters have struck out 1140 times this season.

ABOUT THE OPPONENTS: The Quad Cities River Bandits are the Midwest League affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. They missed out on the playoffs in both halves of the season. Quad Cities is 67-65 overall and 34-34 in the second half. The River Bandits are 36-29 at home this season. In their most recent series, the River Bandits split a four game series at Burlington.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST: The Timber Rattlers are hitting .242 as a team and have scored 512 runs (3.8/game). Wisconsin has hit 60 home runs this season. The Timber Rattler pitching staff has a combined ERA of 3.84. Quad Cities is hitting .241 as a team. They have scored 559 runs (4.2/game). The Bandits have hit 99 home runs this season. The Quad Cities pitching staff has a combined ERA of 3.77.

2008 SEASON SERIES: The Rattlers lead the season series 7-5. Wisconsin and Quad Cities split a four game series at Modern Woodmen Park to open the 2008 season. The Rattlers won the first two games of a series on Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium that was scheduled for four games from June 5-8. The games on June 7 and 8 were rained out. The teams split the four game series in Grand Chute August 21-24.

QUAD CITIES STARTING PITCHER: LH Ryan Kulick was picked by the St. Louis Cardinals in the eighth round of the 2008 draft out of Rowan (NJ) University. Kulik went 10-2 with an ERA of 1.72 and struck out 144 while walking just 24 over 94-1/3 innings for the Profs. Kulik started his professional season with the Batavia Muckdogs in the New York-Penn League with a pair of starts that lasted three innings each. He allowed one unearned run on three hits and struck out five before being promoted to the River Bandits. He is 5-5 in 11 starts with a 5.57ERA since joining Quad Cities. In his start prior to this evening, Kulik lost at Burlington on August 26. He allowed nine runs (four earned) on eight hits in just 1-2/3 innings. Tonight is Kulik’s second start against the Rattlers. On August 21 in Grand Chute, Kulik gave up 11 hits over seven innings, but only allowed three runs for the victory. Kulik struck out a nine batters to match the high for a single game in his professional career.