Down on Cubs Farm: Giambrone impressive, Marquez continues to dazzle, Zapata’s career game |
It was a busy day in more than one way in the system as several players were on the move after the Cubs made some deadline deals. With the teams still needing to focus on wins, the Cubs managed to go 5-4 on the night to give fans a winning record.
IOWA CUBS 7 – Reno Aces 4: Led by a huge five-run third inning, the Cubs were able to put an end to their losing streak topping the Aces 7-4. Matt Swarmer earned the win to improve to 6-10, tossing six innings of 3ER ball. With the game tied 0-0 heading into the third, Iowa erupted with a big inning which proved to be enough for the win. Another Jim Adduci double opened the scoring with the Cubs taking a 1-0 lead. Zack Short followed that up with his third homer of the season before Trent Giambrone brought home a pair with a double of his own for the 5-0 lead. Reno managed to chip away in the bottom half of the third on singles from both Domingo Leyba and Juniel Querecuto making it a 5-2 game. With the score still 5-2 heading into the seventh, the Cubs looked to put the game away after Swarmer delivered six good innings. Look no further than Giambrone adding his second RBI double of the night as he is making a case to be a September call up this season. Johnny Field would add a sacrifice later that frame to push the lead to 7-2 before Leyba brought home a pair in the bottom of the seventh to make things 7-4. That was as close as things would get as Dillon Maples set things up for Danny Hultzen to earn his first save of the season and 7-4 win. Iowa is now 58-51. The middle of the order provided the thunder in terms of hits as Mark Zagunis, Addison Russell and Giambrone all had two-hit nights. Giambrone also led the way with 3 RBI’s. Taylor Davis did not play in this one. With 22 doubles and 20 home runs, Trent Giambrone is the first Iowa Cub with 20 of each since Javy Baez hit 24 doubles and 23 homers in 2014. pic.twitter.com/y4GqVGW9wh Trent Giambrone keeps mashing ?? pic.twitter.com/rHF1OudJxk Cubs win!!! ?? pic.twitter.com/3fhxQXuMhN TENNESSEE SMOKIES 1 – Chattanooga Lookouts 7: Looking at the box score you would think that Erick Leal and the Smokies got dominated in this one. That was not the whole story as all seven of the Lookouts runs came in the fourth inning which was more than enough to win 7-1. The Smokies are now 46-63 with that loss. Leal took the ball and was on top of his game through three innings keeping things tied 0-0. It was in that fourth when everything began to come unglued. The big blow of that inning came off the bat of Brantley Bell as his bases-loaded double was the winning hit and 3-0 lead. Another double from Calten Daal pushed the lead to 5-0 before singles from both Wendolyn Bautista and Already Rodriquez stretched the lead to 7-0. All seven of those runs were charged to Leal. From that point on, the combination of Jake Stinnett and Tommy Nance was merely brilliant, keeping the Lookouts off the board the rest of the game while allowing five hits. Unfortunately for the Smokies, their offense struggled throughout with a seventh-inning RBI force out from Zach Davis as their lone run to fall 7-1. With just six hits, Tennessee couldn’t get much going, but it was Charcer Burks leading the way with two. Nico Hoerner and Davis added hits from the top of the order with Connor Myers and Leal picking up the other two. Nance dropped his ERA to 3.44 with his scoreless outing. Smokies three game road winning streak snapped by some late runshttps://t.co/k0JFlhDSyN MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS 2 – Frederick Keys 5: Looking for a series win to climb out of last place officially, the Pelicans met up with the Keys as Alexander Vargas took the ball. What started as a strong outing with the Pelicans up 2-0 early turned sour as Frederick pushed across five runs in two innings to prevail 5-1 and send Myrtle Beach to 41-66. It was all about the pitching in the first few innings as both teams were held scoreless through three innings of play. That all changed in the fourth when the Pelicans broke through to take the lead. With a runner in scoring position, Tyler Durna ripped a single to bring home the games first run keeping things rolling for the offense. That paid off in the end as Grant Fennell doubled the lead to 2-0 with a single of his own to send the game to the fifth. Not to be outdone, the Keys responded with a pair of runs off Vargas in the fifth as singles from Patrick Dorrian, and Zach Jarrett evened things up 2-2. Looking to give his team one more inning and get through seven, Vargas seemed to run out of gas as the Keys tagged him hard in the seventh. Led by the Dorrian and Jarrett combo, the Keys were able to bring home a trio of runs as the Dorrian sacrifice fly provided the winning run with Jarrett adding insurance with a two-shot to make things 5-2 Frederick. That would be all the Keys would need as the Pelicans wasted two great opportunities in both the seventh and eighth innings to fall 5-2. Delvin Zinn continued to see High-A pitching well, leading his team with two hits in the game. Newly promoted D.J. Artis picked up a hit in his first game with Aramis Ademan, Durna, Fennell and Cam Balego picking up the rest of the hits for the Pelicans. Ethan Roberts and Chad Hockin tossed 2 2/3 innings of one-hit ball in relief. The Pelicans fall to the Keys in the middle game of the three-game set. SOUTH BEND CUBS 5 – West Michigan Whitecaps 1: Ever since that rough patch during their Wisconsin road trip the Cubs have turned it around nicely moving to a season-best 58-48 on the season following their 5-1-win Wednesday night. Brailyn Marquez continues to steal the show and proved once again why his name came up in trade talks for big-time bats. In his six innings of work, the No. 4 prospect not only allowed 0ER but 0H in the process to go with 1BB and 8K. He has thrown 12 straight scoreless frames with 1BB and 22K in his last two starts. It took a while for the South Bend bats to get going, but once they did in the fourth inning, they managed to score all five runs in a three-inning stretch. Jonathan Sierra not only provided the go-ahead hit in the fourth but the game-winning also hit as his single put the Cubs up for good 2-0. The lead grew to 3-0 in the fifth when Brennan Davis picked up another RBI hit. With the momentum fully on their side, the Cubs continued to put the bat to the ball in the sixth as both Yonathan Perlaza and Clayton Daniel picked up RBI hits to push the lead to 5-0 in favor of South Bend. That would be all Marquez, and the Cubs would need as the South Bend bullpen looked to finish the job off before Ulrich Bojarksi ended the shutout bid with a ninth-inning single. It still didn’t take away from the Cubs 5-1 win as they are surging for a postseason berth. The top of the order proved to be a problem yet again as both Daniel and Andy Weber tallied two hits each. Nelson Maldonado, Cole Roederer, and Sierra all added multi-hit games of their own as those five contributed for 10 of the teams 14 hits. Every starter had at least one hit in the game. EUGENE EMERALDS 1 – Spokane Indians 3: For the second straight game, the Emeralds were involved in a pitchers duel with the Indians. This time it was Spokane getting the upper hand as they managed to pick up the 3-1 win to send Eugene to 20-27. The Emeralds continue to go with pitcher buy committee as five different arms allowed 3ER in this one. Matteo Bocchi and Chris Kachmar were especially impressive as they tossed five scoreless frames out of the pen. Spokane was able to grab the lead immediately in the first inning on the Blaine Crim RBI groundout before pushing the lead to 2-0 in the second with the Obie Ricumstrict homer. That homer proved to be the winning run as the Emeralds couldn’t manage much offensively throughout. Eugene did manage to make things a 2-1 game in the second as Alexander Guerra made his season debut for the Emeralds and put the offense on the board with an RBI double. That was their lone run of the game as Luis Asuncion brought home the games final race with a seventh-inning single for the 3-1 Spokane win. The Emeralds managed just five hits in the loss with no one picking up more than one. Along with the RBI single from Guerra, Eugene picked up hits from Edmond Americaan, Darius Hill, Luis Vazques, and Caleb Knight. Fernando Kelli and Jake Slaughter combined to go 0-7 with 3K while Chase Strumpf was out of the lineup. DSL CUBS (2) 11 – DSL Cardinals 3: It was all DSL Cubs 2 on Wednesday morning, as they improved to 32-19 with an 11-3 win. Led by Luis Devers five solid frames and a five-run inning, the Cubs had the Cardinals on their heels throughout and never looked back. Felix Stevens remained red-hot at the dish as his first-inning homer was his fifth of the season to give the Cubs a 2-0 lead. Now up 3-0 in the second, the Cardinals were able to break through as Claudio Ramirez pushed across their first run with a sacrifice fly to make things 3-1. The fourth inning is when everything changed as the Cubs erupted for a big frame to seize control. With the bases juiced, it was Orlando Zapata picking up the big hit of the day clearing the bases with a double to bust the game wide open 6-1. Jose Lopez followed that up with his first homer of the season and just like that it was 8-1 Cubs after their five-run frame. Zapata went on to add two more RBIs later in the game as DSL Cubs cruised 11-3. Not only did Zapata lead the way with three hits, but he did so while bringing in a career-high five RBIs. Add in multi-hit efforts from Lopez, Malcolm Quintero, and Starlin Mateo, and you can see why they have the record they have as so many people can beat you at the plate. DSL CUBS (1) 2 – DSL Pirates 9: Unlike DSL 2, the DSL Cubs 1 have had a difficult go of things falling to 23-28 on Wednesday. If it wasn’t for the Pirates five-run fourth inning things may have been different, but in the end, the Cubs would fall 9-2. Already down a pair after the Pirates pushed across two runs in the second, DSL Pirates busted things wide open in the fourth using a five-run frame to take the 7-0 lead. Jose Berroa and Luis Tejada provided the thunder in that inning as both picked up a pair of RBIs’ with a triple and double. The Pirates padded that lead to 9-0 in the sixth with another triple as Juan Jerez got in on the action. It wasn’t until the eighth inning when the Cubs were able to push across a run as Nestor Heredia went deep for his third of the year. A Jonathan Rodriguez single in the ninth brought home the Cubs second run, but that was all they could result in a 9-2 loss. Despite nine hits, the Cubs only managed those two runs with Heredia and Yohendrick Pinango picking up two hits each. AZL CUBS (2) 3 – AZL DBacks 2: The AZL 2 Cubs moved back above 500 at 18-17 as they rallied late to pick up a 3-2 win. After Carlos Ocampo allowed 2ER in four innings, the combo of Maikel Aguiar and Jamie Galazin kept the DBacks off the board the final five frames to give the Cubs the win. Kevin Cron wasted no time in the first inning putting the DBacks on top as his first homer of the year had the Cubs down 2-0. That lead wouldn’t last long, however, as Nelson Velazquez legged out a fielder’s choice to bring home the Cubs first run before Luis Verdugo tied things up 2-2 with a single. That score would hold up until the eighth inning when Ricardo Venezuela dropped down a perfect safety squeeze bunt to bring home the go-ahead run 3-2. That run proved to be the difference as Galazin finished things off in the ninth for the win. Both Verdugo and Josue Huma were essential to the Cubs offense as both collected three hits each. Richard Nunez added a two-hit game of his own while Velazquez and Abraham Rodriguez provided the other two hits. AZL CUBS (1) 5 – AZL Athletics 0: The AZL Cubs played what may have been their most complete victory of the season as they moved to 18-16 following the 5-0 win. It all started with Benjamin Rodriguez on the mound as he set the tone with five scoreless frames. Luis Rodriguez took over from there for the final four innings as the offense provided them with the rest. The Cubs needed only two innings to get rolling as an Ethan Hern double, and Carlos Pacheco grounder put the Cubs on top for good 2-0. Yovanny Cuevas was able to double that lead in the sixth inning with his third homer to make things a 4-0 Cubs lead. Ezequiel Pagan capped off the scoring in the eighth with a single as the Cubs cruised 5-0. Pagan, Hearn and Fabian Pertuz accounted for six of the teams seven hits.
The Birds are back in action tomorrow night!
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