Bandits open floodgates with 6-run rally

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By Steve Batterson | Tuesday, June 10, 2008 11:20 PM CDT | () comments

When it rains, it pours.

Nobody knows that better than the Quad-Cities River Bandits.

After three days of postponements forced by rains and wet grounds, Quad-Cities returned to action Tuesday and swamped Peoria with a six-run deluge in the third inning of an 8-5 Midwest League win at Modern Woodmen Park.

A Thrivent Financial Night crowd of 6,822 — the largest since the stadium was renovated before the 2004 season — watched the River Bandits rally from a 3-1 deficit with their most-productive inning in nearly two months.

“After sitting for a couple of days, it felt good to have a big inning like that. As a team, everybody came through, getting base hit after base hit,” said Tommy Pham, who collected two of the three home runs Quad-Cities hit during the game.

Manager Steve Dillard wasn’t exactly certain what to expect.

“After sitting that long, you don’t really know,” he said. “We swung the bats well enough and hit some balls out, which didn’t hurt.”

Chiefs starter Chris Siegfried was dominant early.

The left-hander surrendered only the first of Pham’s two solo home runs and didn’t allow any other baserunners through two innings. But he found himself flirting with trouble when he issued back-to-back walks to Luis De La Cruz and Mike Folli to open the third.

Nick Peoples followed with a single to center before a wild pitch scored De La Cruz and pulled Quad-Cities within 3-2.

Pete Kozma then put the River Bandits ahead to stay, drilling a line-hugging single to left to score two runs.

Charlie Kingrey followed with a run-scoring double off of the center field fence that ended Siegfried’s start, shortly before Matt Arburr greeted reliever Zach Ashwood by sending a towering two-run homer over the fence in left to give Quad-Cities a 7-3 lead.

“With a 3-1 pitch, I was looking for a fastball. I’ve been working hard at staying back on the ball and it paid off,” Arburr said. “It just felt good to be back on the field.”

The Chiefs chased Bandits starter Thomas Eager from the mound in the top of the fifth when Marquez Smith — who had homered in the third to give Peoria its early lead — drove a pair of runs home with a single.

Reliever Matt Spade entered the game with runners on the corners and no outs, but he struck out cleanup hitter Jovan Rosa and Dylan Johnston before Peoples made a leaping catch of a fly ball to left by Brandon Guyer to end the Chiefs’ threat.

“Spade came in in a tough situation and did a great job and (Brian) Broderick was about as good as he’s shown,” Dillard said.

Pham belted his second homer to open the sixth, providing Broderick with a chance to finish off four innings of three-hit relief that included eight of the 11 strikeouts recorded by Quad-Cities pitchers.

Steve Batterson can be contacted at (563) 383-2290 or sbatterson@qctimes.com.