Peoria, Illinois – For the second straight night, the Quad Cities River Bandits (68-56, 38-23) were denied a spot in the 2026 Midwest League playoffs with a loss to the Peoria Chiefs (62-66, 30-32), falling 5-3 at Dozer Park. Their magic number remains one with three games remaining in the regular season.
Starting pitchers Jacobs Odle and David Shields dominated the first third of the game, with the pair racking up 11 of their combined 17 strikeouts prior to the fourth inning.
Odle, Peoria’s right-hander, finished his night with a career-high 12 strikeouts but was the first to blink in the run column, surrendering a two-run shot to Jose Cerice in the top of the fourth to give Quad Cities the lead. The homer marked Cerice’s sixth of the year and his second off Odle this summer.
Aside from an Austin Charles error that allowed Jose Suarez to reach in the third, Shields did not see a baserunner through the first 3.2 innings of his night. Yordalin Pena broke the string in the fourth, though, lining a two-out double down the left-field line.
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Three pitches later, Tristan Bissetta hit a routine fly ball to center field that Asbel Gonzalez lost in the lights and failed to catch, allowing Pena to score and Bissetta to reach second with a double of his own.
After a Shields balk, Anyelo Encarnacion turned the table on Quad Cities, launching a two-run go-ahead homer to put Peoria ahead 3-2.
While Shields finished off the fourth, he did not return for the fifth, as Ethan McElvain worked a scoreless frame before Bissetta came to the plate in the sixth and lifted a two-run homer of his own to center field, extending the Chiefs’ lead to 5-2. The homer marked the first runs allowed by McElvain in his professional career, snapping a scoreless-inning streak at 6.2.
Though they took advantage of a Peoria error and scored an unearned run against Dylan Driessen in the eighth, the Bandits recorded just one hit beyond the fourth inning, with Gerardo Salas (2.0 IP) and Driessen (1.0 IP) each earning holds with scoreless appearances out of the Chiefs’ bullpen.
Following McElvain (2.0 IP), Yimi Presinal (1.0 IP) and Jackson Cleveland (1.0 IP) kept Quad Cities’ deficit at bay, combining for four of the staff’s 12 strikeouts on the night.
Charles, via double, and Erick Torres, who was hit by a pitch, both reached base in the top of the ninth against Ruben Menes, but the Peoria right-hander collected his third save of the season, closing out the Bandits in the final frame and stranding the tying runs on base.
Odle (3-4) earned the win for Peoria, allowing two runs on Cerice’s homer over 5.0 innings, while Shields (11-6) was saddled with the loss, giving up three runs on three hits, no walks and five strikeouts during a 4.0-inning performance.
Once again, Quad Cities can secure a second-half West Division title and punch its ticket to the 2026 Midwest League playoffs with a win or a Beloit loss tomorrow and sends Kendry Chourio (2-2, 3.18) to the mound opposite Brian Holiday (0-1, 6.00) for game four of its six-game set at Dozer Park. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.
