PEORIA---When the crowd of 5,154 walked through the turnstiles of Dozer Park on Thursday night, everyone knew they were about to see something special as St. Louis Cardinals' starter Jaime Garcia was going to take the mound for his first rehab start since injuring his groin on June 24th in Miami. Little did anyone know, Garcia's start would be overshadowed by something the Peoria Chiefs (Single-A) had not done since July 4th, 2011.
Peoria's opponent on the evening was the struggling Clinton LumberKings, losers of 13 of their last 14, and on this night their problems did anything but vanish.
From the start, both Garcia and Clinton's Zack Littell were sitting down the opposition with ease, as after five innings the score was still knotted at zero. In fact, at that point there were only two hits total (both by Peoria). Despite the no-hitter, Chiefs' manager Joe Kruzel removed his rehabing starter after 58 pitches, resting the duty to continue on the shoulders of the bullpen, specifically Steven Sabatino and Cody Schumaker.
Sabatino, who was just demoted from Palm Beach (Single-A Advanced), couldn't have entered for his Midwest League debut at a more pressure-packed time, and it showed immediately as he left an offering over the plate to sixth inning lead-off man James Alfonso. The Clinton catcher lined the ball to center field for what looked to be the first hit of the game. Not so fast! Peoria center fielder Jhohan Acevedo came running forward and made a diving catch to keep history alive. Thanks to the amazing play, Sabatino settled down and went 2.1 innings before handing the ball to Cody Schumaker with one out in the top of the eighth.
Schumaker, also demoted from Palm Beach earlier in the season, sat down Joseph DeCarlo and Chantz Mack to extend the LumberKings' hitting drought to eight frames. But the Chiefs had a problem, they had yet to score on Littell. Luckily, that would soon change.
Although the bottom of the eighth started uneventfully with Kenny Peoples-Walls popping out, Peoria was able to string together an Andrew Sohn double and Acevado single (advanced to second on throwing error) to put runners on second and third for 2015 Midwest League All-Star Oscar Mercado. Oddly, Mercado wouldn't have to do anything to drive in a run since Littell threw a wild pitch that scored Sohn easily, making it 1-0 Chiefs. The Cardinals' 25th prospect (Mercado) later added one more run for good measure with an RBI single to advance the lead to two, which would be more than enough on this night.
In the top of the ninth, the crowd was rocking when Schumaker stepped back on the hill with the intention to sit down the Lumberjacks 1-2-3. To begin, the former Missouri State Bear quickly induced fly outs of Alfonso and Martin Peguero, inching himself one away from sending the crowd home estatic. Could he do it? No doubt, as Schumaker was able to get Austin Cousino to line out on the infield for the 27th out of he game.
Interestingly enough, the last time Peoria no-hit another team it was also Clinton by the same score as last night.