Chiefs blank Loons

by Jason Wolverton

On the warmest night of the year at Dow Diamond, the Great Lakes Loons’ bats remained cold.

The Loons’ losing streak reached eight games Friday as Great Lakes was shut out by the Peoria Chiefs 3-0. Again the story of the game was the Loons’ stagnant offense, which managed just three hits on the night. The Loons have now scored only four runs in their last four games and are hitting just .212 as a team on the season.

But while the offense let the Loons down all game, it was the defense that caused problems in the first.

Matt Camp led off the game for Peoria with a ground ball to shortstop that Preston Mattingly couldn’t field cleanly. Camp would then advance to second on a passed ball by Kenley Jansen before eventually coming around to score on a Wellington Castillo single.

The Loons defense has now committed 23 errors on the season, including five by Mattingly and six more by third baseman Josh Bell.

Castillo would strike again for the Chiefs with one out in the top half of the third, hitting a towering drive to left that just kept carrying. The ball would hit off the top of the wall and bounce into the berm to give the Chiefs a 2-0 lead on Castillo’s second home run of the year.

Things would move quickly from there as starter Cody White would settle in and not allow another run. White would finish the game with five innings pitched, allowing four hits and only one earned run while striking out six. He would take the hard-luck loss, though, and is now 0-3 on the season despite lowering his ERA to 1.98.

As good as White was, the Chiefs’ Jose Ceda was just a little bit better. The big righty improved to 2-1 on the year, touching 97 mph on the radar gun in striking out five in six innings of work. Three Peoria relievers would combine to hold the Loons to one hit the remainder of the night.

The Loons first real scoring threat took place in the eighth when Jansen and Bridger Hunt would draw back-to-back walks to start the inning. But Jansen would get thrown out at third on a Trayvon Robinson sacrifice attempt, Mattingly would fly out, and Elian Herrera would get called out on strikes to end the threat.

And if that didn’t deflate the Loons’ sails enough, the Chiefs’ Yusuf Carter would lead off the ninth with a home run to right to give Peoria the three-run cushion. The Loons would eventually put two runners on with no outs in the ninth but two straight strikeouts and a groundout would give the Chiefs the sweep and send the Loons to 4-10 on the season.

Up next for the Loons is a four-game series against the Cedar Rapids Kernels. Thomas Melgarejo will take the mound Saturday against Jeremy Haynes. Game time is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

Game Notes:

• Spc. Robert Allor was recognized by the PA announcer after the top of the fifth inning and received a standing ovation from the crowd. Allor is on leave from Iraq.
• Friday’s attendance was announced at 4,340.
• Prior to the game, the Los Angeles Dodgers announced the addition of infielder Elian Herrera to the Great Lakes Loons’ roster. To make room for Herrera, infielder Michael Rivera was transferred to the Ogden roster. Herrera started and went 0-for-4.

A box score of Friday’s game is available at milb.com.