Patrick Sandoval struck out 71 batters for the River Bandits this season. The Astros traded him to the Angels late last month. (Photo by Craig Wieczorkiewicz/The Midwest League Traveler)

The Quad Cities River Bandits pitching staff broke the Midwest League record for strikeouts in a single season Friday, and have 16 more games left to go.

River Bandits starting pitcher Leovanny Rodriguez’s third strikeout of the game was QC’s 1,308th punchout of the year — one more than the Fort Wayne TinCaps pitching staff collected last season. Quad Cities struck out 11 batters Friday, bringing its strikeout total to 1,316. QC’s previous franchise record for strikeouts in a season was 1,275 (in 2017).

Despite breaking the record, the River Bandits still lost the game, 8-3, to the Kane County Cougars.

Perez 4-for-4 in MWL debut

Wenceel Perez went 4-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored in his Midwest League debut for the West Michigan Whitecaps, who beat the Lansing Lugnuts 5-0 Friday.

Perez was one of two Detroit Tigers prospects added to the Whitecaps roster before Friday’s game, taking the place of Kody Clemens and Brock Deatherage, who were promoted to the High-A Lakeland Flying Tigers. Clemens batted .302 with 4 HR and 17 RBI in 41 games with the Whitecaps. Deatherage batted .313 with 14 extra-base hits, 18 RBI and 15 stolen bases in 46 games with West Michigan.