South Bend, Indiana – The Quad Cities River Bandits (31-37, 1-4) snapped a four-game losing streak and secured their first win of the second half Thursday, as David Shields’ second quality start of the season helped propel the Bandits over the South Bend Cubs (42-26, 3-3) 8-1 at Four Winds Field.
Shields, the Royals No. 4 prospect (MLB Pipeline), held South Bend out of both the hit and run column through the game’s first four innings, while Quad Cities’ bats pushed ahead 4-0 against Cubs starter Mason McGwire.
The River Bandits brought eight men to the plate against the right-hander in the third and plated their first run on Erick Torres’s bases-loaded walk. After Connor Rasmussen scored Derlin Figueroa on a fielder’s choice, Asbel Gonzalez made it 3-0 Quad Cities with a two-out RBI single.
Torres came through again and made it 4-0 in the fourth, driving home Ramon Ramirez with a sacrifice fly.
After his hitless start, Shields surrendered a leadoff double to Matt Halbach to begin the fifth. One pitch later, Jose Escobar cracked a double of his own to bring in Halbach and trim the Bandits’ lead to three.
Luke Pelzer, who increased his league-leading batting average to .343 with a three-hit game, got the tally back in the seventh with an RBI groundout off Cubs reliever Nate Williams.
Working with a 5-1 lead, Quad Cities left-hander Mason Miller took over for Shields and struck out a pair over a scoreless seventh and eighth before the River Bandits’ bats struck for three more runs in the top of the ninth against Luis Rujano. Tyriq Kemp and Torres both worked bases-loaded walks before another fielder’s choice off Rasmussen’s bat made it 8-1 Quad Cities.
Right-hander Yimi Presinal struck out Hartshorn as part of a one-two-three top of the ninth to lock up Quad Cities’ win.
Shields (6-4) struck out six and earned the win in his ninth start of five-plus innings this year, while McGwire (1-1) allowed four runs over 4.0 innings on seven hits, two walks and four strikeouts.
Quad Cities returns to Four Winds Field for game four of the six-game series tomorrow night and sends Royals No. 2 prospect (MLB Pipeline) Kendry Chourio to the mound opposite South Bend’s Nazier Mule (2-2, 3.55). First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET.
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