Cubs Minor League News: Ballesteros with 4 RBIs, Gray pitches gem, Ramirez raking, more
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Cubs Minor League News: Ballesteros with 4 RBIs, Gray pitches gem, Ramirez raking, more
by - Senior Writer - Sat May 04 09:20:34 GMT-05:00 2024

Another day has come and gone in the Cubs Minor League system, and it was another day of mixed results. While two of the games were all about strong pitching, the other two saw the offenses come to life. That earned the Cubs system a 2-2 record, which has been the norm a lot this season.

This will also be the final day four minor league teams will play as the Arizona Complex League begins on Saturday. That will give the Cubs and their fans five affiliations to keep tabs on, and more of them are coming later this summer.

OMAHA STORM CHASERS 7 - IOWA CUBS 4

What started as a strong performance from Iowa quickly went south as a six-run sixth inning pushed the Storm Chasers to the victory. It was a tough-luck loss for Thomas Pannone, the Cubs best starter all season. Pannone was charged with a season-high three runs in 5 1/3, but only two runs were earned as his ERA remains below 3.00.

Luis Cessa opposed him for Omaha, and like Zach Davies earlier this week, he is trying to pitch his way back into the majors. After five innings of one-run, five-strikeout baseball, Cessa is doing his part. With Brennen Davis and Cam Devanney exchanging sacrifice flies in the first two innings, this was a 1-1 game early, as that score held until the sixth inning.

That was when the Storm Chasers offense came to life. They lit up Pannone and Porter Hodge for six runs in that sixth to break things open 7-1. Devin Mann and Devanney produced three of those runs with a pair of RBI singles, but it was Drew Waters three-run shot that broke things wide open to put the Storm Chasers up 7-1.

Iowa was in catchup mode the rest of the way as Davis picked up his second RBI with a single in the seventh before they added two more runs late to pull within 7-4. That was as close as things would get as the Cubs fell by that score.

Darius Hill and David Bote were responsible for four of the team's six hits, with Davis adding two RBIs.

TENNESSEE SMOKIES 8 - BILOXI SHUCKERS 6

The most exciting game in the Cubs system was also the highest-scoring game of the night, as the Shuckers and Smokies combined for 14 runs. Both teams put up four-run innings, with the Smokies' four-run sixth being the difference in the win.

Matthew Thompson continues to pitch well for Tennessee, delivering his best outing of the season. Thompson pitched five innings, allowing three runs, while his offense did the rest to back him up. Thompson was backed by some immediate offense as the Moises Ballesteros double in the first put the Smokies in front 2-0.

Ballesteros was the offense early on, as he added an RBI single in the third to make things 3-0, with a Pablo Aliendo sacrifice fly pushing their lead to 4-0 early.

Once the sixth inning rolled around, the offense from both sides came to life as the Shuckers started to size up both Thompson and Chris Kachmar. An RBI double from Carlos Rodriguez cut the Smokies lead in half, with Justin Dirden making things 4-3 with a sacrifice fly. Biloxi ended up tying things up later that inning off an error, and suddenly, this was a 4-4 game.

Not to be outdone, the Smokies offense took their turn at the plate as they used a four-run bottom of the sixth to retake the lead for good. A Ballesteros fielder's choice and a passed ball led to two of those runs.

RBI singles from Cole Roederer and Ezequiel Pagan closed out the scoring for the Smokies, leading 8-4.

Biloxi continued to keep the pressure on in the seventh, with Rodriguez delivering an RBI triple to make things 8-5 before coming home on the Ernesto Martinez double, but that was as close as they would get as the Smokies pen toughened up down the stretch to win 8-6.

Ballesteros had a massive night with three hits and four RBIs to lead the Smokies offense.

SOUTH BEND CUBS 3 - LANSING LUGNUTS 0

There haven't been many cases where the South Bend pitching set the tone, but this was one of those rare cases. Drew Gray delivered his best outing of the season, tossing four scoreless frames to lower his ERA to 1.17 before handing the ball to Koen Moreno.

Moreno followed suit with three more scoreless innings before Jose Romero closed things out for the win.

Opposing Gray was Grant Judkins, who tossed five strong innings, allowing just two unearned runs. Both runs came on one swing as Pedro Ramirez connected for a two-run blast in the top half of the third to put the Cubs in front for good 2-0.

Those would be the only runs South Bend would need, but they did get another run off the Rafael Morel single in the ninth to win this game 3-0.

Ramirez led the Cubs with two hits and two RBIs.

SALEM RED SOX 7 - MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS 0

While the South Bend pitching stole the show in High-A, it was an overall rough night on both sides of the diamond for Myrtle Beach. Marino Santy has had a rough go of things early on, which continued as he was charged with seven runs (5ER) in just four innings. Considering Salem starter Jedixson Paez struck out seven in five scoreless frames, the early hole he dug them was too much to overcome.

Salem only needed one inning to put this thing away as they scored three times in the first to grab the 3-0 lead. Nazzan Zanetello is credited with the game-winning solo shot, with Nathanael Yuten picking up an RBI triple to push the lead to 3-0. One inning later, same story as the Red Sox three more times in the second to push the lead to 6-0.

This time, none of those runs were scored via an RBI hit, as a wild pitch and a two-run error led to the offense. The Pelicans were down big early, 6-0. Salem managed to score one more run the rest of the way on the fourth-inning Miguel Bleis single, but the Pelicans were held to just four hits in the loss.

Cristian Hernandez was responsible for two hits, with Christian Olivo and Reggie Preciado adding the rest.

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