Cubs Minor League News: Iowa rallies late to top Indians

Dustin Riese - Senior Writer - Wednesday, April 02 2025

INDIANAPOLIS—On a Cold Spring night at Victory Field in Indianapolis, the Iowa Cubs (2-1) kicked off the road portion of their 2025 schedule against the Indianapolis Indians (0-2). As is the case every season, baseball in the Midwest this time of year is challenging to navigate, and both of these teams have already experienced those struggles.

Iowa's series finale against Omaha was rained out on Sunday, while the Indians were blanked by St. Paul 11-0 on Friday, only to have their next two games rained out. Cold conditions or not, both teams were just happy to take the field on Tuesday, and they treated the fans to an old-school pitcher's duel.

Tailing 1-0 entering the ninth, Iowa benefitted from a patient approach at the plate as they managed to load the bases off Eddy Yean with one out. After Chase Strumpf drew a walk to bring home the tying run, Christian Franklin grounded into an inning-ending fielder's choice; however, the go-ahead and game-winning run would score as the Cubs battled back for a 2-1 victory.

Although it was another win for the team, you do wish that Chris Flexon would've been rewarded for his strong effort on the mound as he made his first start in the Cubs organization. Despite allowing seven hits, several of which were hard-hit balls, and walking four across 4 2/3 innings, Flexon made the pitches he needed to make, managing to finish his outing with only one run allowed.

That run came in the third inning off the Matt Gorski grounder, as the Indians took an early 1-0 lead. Typically, one run is never enough, especially not in AAA, but given the weather conditions, one run was looking to be enough, as neither team was able to do much offensively throughout.

Flexen gave way to Brooks Kriske and Luke Little, who combined to pitch 2 2/3 hitless innings of relief, walking one and striking out two. Not only did Flexen put together a great start, but Mike Burrows also did, matching Flexen pitch for pitch in the early going to give his team 3 2/3 shutout innings of work with four strikeouts. He gave way to his pen in the fourth inning, and this became a battle of the bullpens from the fifth inning onward.

Still trailing 1-0 in the eighth, it appeared Owen Caissie was about to tie things up with a home run, only to have the wind knock his ball down on the track. One inning later, however, the Cubs abandoned their traditional offensive approach and adopted a more patient one against Yean, which ultimately worked in their favor.

It all started with a leadoff walk to Ben Cowles, which put the tying run on base, as he would advance to third on a well-placed single by James Triantos. Triantos would eventually steal second on a Jonathon Long strikeout. Still, with a pair of runners in scoring position and one out, the Indians knew they needed to keep the double play in order and walked Greg Allen to do that.

Although a well-thought-out plan, it backfired for the Indians as Strumpf followed the intentional walk with a great at-bat and wound up working a walk to bring the tying run home. One batter later, Franklin bounced into what looked to be an inning-ending double play, only to have Allen intentionally put himself in a rundown, allowing the go-ahead run to score before he was tagged out.

That was all the Cubs' offense would need, as Jack Neely came in to shut the door in the ninth, striking out the final two hitters he faced to hand the Cubs a 2-1 victory.

Jack Neely strikes out the final batter to secure the W! pic.twitter.com/BBOZ2WQfl4
— Iowa Cubs (@IowaCubs) April 2, 2025

Iowa was held to six hits in the game, with Kevin Alcantara leading the way with two. Keegan Thompson earned the win in relief, striking out both hitters he faced in the eighth.