Slumping Bandits lose 5th straight
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By Steve Batterson | Sunday, May 11, 2008 |
The numbers don’t lie.
It’s been a struggle from the start recently for the Quad-Cities River Bandits, who had some opportunities Friday but were unable to avoid a fifth straight Midwest League loss.
Kane County scored twice in the first inning on its way to a 4-1 win over Quad-Cities at Modern Woodmen Park.
“Second and third with one out, first and third with one out, a guy on third with one out. We had chances to score, but we weren’t able to put the ball in play when we needed to,” River Bandits manager Steve Dillard said.
“I thought we swung the bats a little better, but we just weren’t able to get the clutch hit when we needed it.”
Cougars pitchers Jamie Richmond and Justin Friend had something to do with that, striking out 10 while combining on a six-hit victory.
Richmond continued a string of strong starts by opposing pitchers who have faced the River Bandits this week.
Quad-Cities has faced three of the league’s four ERA leaders during its current skid, and the results haven’t been pretty.
Opposing starters have gone 5-0 against the River Bandits with a combined 0.28 ERA, allowing one earned run in 312/3 innings. Collectively, they have struck out 40 batters and given up just 17 hits.
“No question, we’ve seen some good pitching, but our hitting hasn’t been what it should be. We’re working hard on it every day. We did some extra hitting (Friday afternoon) and we’ll keep at it. That’s the only way I know to get better,” Dillard said.
“We’ve got guys making adjustments in batting practice, but so far it hasn’t carried over to games, and that needs to happen.”
Quad-Cities pushed its lone run across in the bottom of the eighth when Jose Garcia scored on a triple by Charlie Kingrey.
By then, the River Bandits had stranded runners in scoring position in the second, fifth and sixth innings as they attempted to rally from the 2-0 deficit Kane County created before Quad-Cities recorded its first plate appearance.
Shane Keough led off the game with a walk and scored on a Matt Ray triple to left that the Bandits’ Matt Arburr lost in the sun.
That allowed Corey Brown’s double to give the Cougars a 2-0 lead that stuck until the seventh. Matt Smith drove the ball to the wall in left, and a leaping Arburr brought it back into the ballpark, but as the ball rolled onto the turf, Smith reached third base and eventually scored on a passed ball.
Dillard was generally pleased with the work of pitchers Brian Broderick, Pete Parise, Josh Wilson and Cardoza Tucker, who combined to limited Kane County to five hits.
“That’s not bad, but sometimes it’s about how you bunch those hits together,” Dillard said. “They did, we didn’t and that was the game.”
Steve Batterson can be contacted at (563) 383-2290 or sbatterson@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.
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