The Peoria Chiefs used four pitchers to shutout the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Sunday afternoon at Dozer Park for a 2-0 victory. Wisconsin outhit the Chiefs 5-4, but couldn’t push a run across the plate in the series finale. The six-game set ended with both teams winning three games.
The starting pitchers were locked in a duel through 4-1/2 innings. Peoria starter Wilfredo Pereira worked around a pair of doubles, a walk, and a single and kept Wisconsin off the scoreboard in his five innings of work. Timber Rattlers starter Victor Castañeda allowed one walk through his first four innings as he retired twelve of the first thirteen batters he faced in the game. That changed in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Tyler Reichenborn doubled to start the fifth for Peoria (25-41). He was still at second with two outs. Imeldo Diaz sent a grounder towards left, but David Hamilton cut the ball off deep in the hole to hold Reichenborn to third base. However, Matt Chamberlain followed with an RBI single to right to score Reichenborn and the Chiefs were up 1-0.
Moises Castillo made it 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning when he greeted Wisconsin reliever with a lead-off homer. The Chiefs hit at least one home run in each of the last eleven games between the two teams this season.
Wisconsin (31-34) only got two more hits in the game off three Peoria relievers. David Hamilton had a one-out single in the sixth and Hayden Cantrelle, who had doubled to start the game, singled with two outs in the eighth.
Cantrelle has at least one hit in five straight games. He is 7-for-17 during the streak.
Freddy Pacheco closed out the game by striking out the side in the top of the ninth for his sixth save of the season.
Sunday marked just the third time Wisconsin has been shutout this season. The Timber Rattlers had not been held scoreless in a game since June 18 when they lost 9-0 in a no-hitter at Quad Cities.
Sunday was also the end of the season series between Wisconsin and Peoria. The teams split the 24-game schedule as each team won twelve times.
The Timber Rattlers are off on Monday. They return to action on Tuesday at home against the South Bend Cubs for the first game of a six-game homestand. First pitch on Tuesday night is 7:05pm.
