Cubs Minor League News: Swarmer impressive in I-Cubs loss, Deichmann homers, Morel with 3 |
Don't look now, but much of the minor league season is ending as teams are down to their final ten games. Unless you are in the DSL or AAA where you play until October or find a way to make the postseason.
As things sit, only ACL Cubs and the Myrtle Beach Pelicans have a shot to make the postseason, which isn't a guarantee. That means once next Sunday hits, most of Minor League Baseball will come to a close, closing the book on a challenging, but a much-needed 2021 for every organization.
Despite a late-game rally, the Iowa Cubs still couldn't find a way to muster enough offense falling to the Mud Hens. Since moving back into the rotation, Matt Swarmer has been brilliant, and that continued last night. Across his seven innings of work, Swarmer allowed two runs off a pair of solo homers and struck out 10 on the night. Those homers came in the first five innings, with Josh Lester connecting for both solo shots with one in the third and one in the fifth to give Toledo a 2-0 lead. That 2-0 score held until the bottom of the eighth when Iowa started to mount their comeback effort. After homering three times in the past two games, Trayce Thompson was kept in the yard, but it didn't stop him from collecting an RBI single in the eighth to pull the Cubs within 2-1. With Dakota Mekkes now on to pitch the ninth, Toledo picked up a huge insurance run with Jacob Robson smoking an RBI single to give the Mud Hens a 3-1 lead. That proved to be the game-winner as Greg Deichmann collected a solo shot of his own in the bottom of the ninth, but Iowa still came up short 3-2. Even with the loss, the Cubs outhit the Mud Hens, and Zach Davis led the way with two hits. Ian Miller, Deichmann, Thompson, and Taylor Gushue were several of the players who recorded hits. Final from Principal Park. pic.twitter.com/WvtQQLM50n
Pitching was certainly the theme in the upper-level minor leagues, with the Smokies dropping a pitchers' duel 2-0 to the Lookouts. Although Dakota Chalmers continues to struggle with his command, he had a nice bounce-back outing going five innings and allowing two runs on four hits as he kept his team in the game. Eury Ramos, Bryan Hudson, and Samuel Reyes followed that up with four scoreless innings of relief. Just like in the Iowa game mentioned above, both Lookouts runs came in the third and fifth inning as those were all the runs they would need. Leonardo Rivas picked up the game-winning RBI single in the third before Matt Lloyd homered for the seventh time in the fifth inning to cap off a 2-0 Lookouts win. Not only were runs hard to come by, but so were hits as Tennessee collected just three hits. Nelson Velazquez, Bradlee Beesley, and Edwin Figuera had the hits while Carlos Sepulveda (1) and Tim Susnara (2) added walks. Smokies hold Chattanooga to just two runs during UT Night. #SmokiesBaseball pic.twitter.com/6zAVm8joi2
Despite giving a great effort all series long, the Cubs have come up short in three of the four games dropping this one in walk-off fashion. It stings especially more when Davidjohn Herz made his second High-A start and continues to pitch well in the process. Across his six innings, Herz was roughed up a little bit, allowing four earned runs, but continued to show poise striking out nine batters. He gave way to 2021 16th round pick Zachary Leigh who struck out four in two innings of work while allowing a run, and Gabriel Jaramillo, who took the loss. South Bend found themselves in front immediately in the first inning when Bryce Ball continued his great series with a two-run double to make things 2-0. It didn't take long for the Snappers to answer as Bennett Hostetler took Herz deep for a two-run shot making it 2-2. The Cubs retook the lead in the fourth off the Yonathan Perlaza single only to see the Snappers answer with a Jan Mercado triple to tie things up again before grabbing a 4-3 off a wild pitch. Not only did the back-and-forth affair continue into the sixth when Miguel Pabon tied things up with an RBI single, but the Cubs managed to grab a 5-4 lead in the eighth off the Pabon RBI triple. Grabbing the lead was no problem, but keeping the lead was another issue as Leigh allowed a Troy Johnson single in the bottom of the ninth as the teams were tied 5-5. What 98 looks like from the dugout. Zach Leigh debut pic.twitter.com/ZyfvADwrip After failing to score in their half of the ninth, Jaramillo took the ball in the bottom of the inning and immediately put himself in a tight spot. With the bases loaded and one out, Jaramillo surrendered the game-winning hit to Ricky Aracena, and the Snappers cap off a walk-off 6-5 win. Both Ball and Perlaza led the way with three hits, but Pabon and Yohendrick Pinango also had multi-hit games. Jake Slaughter, Alexander Canario, and Tyler Durna also added hits. DJ Herz fans nine, South Bend gets some great debuts from Zachary Leigh and Miguel Pabon, but the Cubs fall on a walkoff. pic.twitter.com/lgOpO4E0GY
On the strength of a five-run third, the Riverdogs were able to top the Pelicans in game one of a doubleheader. Manuel Espinoza was on the mound and, despite tossing a pair of scoreless frames, was charged with seven runs in 3 2/3 innings. 2021 14th round pick Frankie Scalzo Jr pitched the final 2 1/3 innings and didn't allow a run as his ERA fell to 1.59. Despite allowing the big inning, the Pelicans managed to score first in the top half of the third when Josue Huma connected for his first homer with his new team. That lead was extremely short-lived as the Riverdogs used a trio of homers to not only grab the lead, but to bust the game wide open. Johan Lopez connected for the first of those homers to tie the game before Oslevis Basabe added a two-run shot and Diego Infante picking up a solo shot. Jonathan Embry picked up a sacrifice fly later in the inning as the Pelicans were down 5-1. Give Myrtle Beach a ton of credit as they battled back in the fourth to keep things close. With an Owen Caissie single pushing across their second run, Jacob Wetzel hit his first homer in a while as his two-run shot pulled the Pelicans within 5-4. Unfortunately, that would be as close as they would get with Matt Dyer connecting for a two-run single in the fourth to cap off the 7-4 Charleston win.
In a makeup of Friday's postponement, the Pelicans didn't have any luck falling 15-1. It was the second time in this series where they have been defeated by 10 or more runs as their playoff hopes are starting to slip away. Trailing 1-0 in the second after a first-inning Basabe homer, Miguel Fabrizio used his legs to tie things up in the second as he induced a throwing error to push across the Pelicans lone run. From there, it was all Charleston as they closed out the game with 14 unanswered runs to cruise to the victory. In the second, homers by Garrett Hiott and Luis Leon gave Charleston a 4-1 lead, before the Alexander Ovalles homer in the third stretched the lead to 6-1. Charleston would score four more times in the fourth and five times in the sixth to cap off the beatdown. Jordan Nwogu and Jonathan Sierra were the only players with a hit in game two.
The Cubs are picking a great time to play some of their best ball of the season crushing the Diamondbacks 13-2. With just one week left in their season, now is the time to make a playoff push, and it seems like this team is doing just that. The Cubs used five different pitchers to get through seven innings, including Jason Adam, who continues to rehab from a shoulder injury. Offensively, all it took was a five-run second inning for the Cubs to grab the lead, and they never looked back. Rafael Morel and Juan Mora connected for RBI singles to put the Cubs up 2-0 ahead of a throwing error to make things 3-0. Add in the Yeison Santana RBI double, and the Cubs led 5-0 after just two innings. Both runs for the Diamondbacks came in the top of the third when Junior Franco connected for a two-run shot to close the deficit to 5-2. After that, it was all Cubs as they ended the game with eight unanswered runs. RBI singles from Morel in the third and fourth innings brought home three more runs as the Cubs built their lead up to 8-1. A homer by Mora in the seventh, followed by the Santana RBI single, stretched the lead to 10-2, but it was the Malcom Quintero homer in the eighth that capped off the scoring as his second homer of the season lifted the Cubs to a 13-2 win. Santana and Morel not only led the team with three hits, but each of them brought home three runs joining Malcom Quintero.
Score aside, this was a very competitive game that went down to the wire as the Cubs rallied late to tie things up before both teams combined for seven runs in the extra frame. It was all Dodgers in the early stages as they scored in each of the first four innings to grab a 4-0 lead. Wilman Diaz was responsible for two of those RBIs doubling in the second and homering in the fourth while Miguel Droz singled home the game's first run and Darol Garcia doubled home the other. It took six innings for the Cubs to get on the board as they used a wild pitch to end the shutout. Later that inning Carlos Ramos picked up an RBI groundout, and the Cubs were within 4-2. Much like the Dodgers in the first four innings, the Cubs scored in the seventh and eighth using a Leonel Espinoza single in the seventh to pull within 4-3 before a Ramos sacrifice fly tied things up in the eighth and forced extras. Looking to cap off their late-game rally, Frank Hernandez picked up the go-ahead RBI double in the 10th before coming home on the Joanfran Rojas single. Add in a wild pitch, and the Cubs led 7-4 heading into the bottom half of that inning. With just three outs standing between them and a win, the Dodgers used a wild pitch and the Diaz double to pull within 7-6 before Luis Morales delivered a walk-off shot to hand the Cubs an 8-7 loss. Oscar Hernandez and Rojas paced the offense with three hits, with Frank Hernandez adding two. Cristian Hernandez was one of several other players with a hit and is now hitting .289 on the season. DSL BREWERS 7 – DSL CUBS RED 3: It doesn't seem to matter what Cubs team is playing the Brewers anymore as the results remain the same. After tying things up in the seventh inning, the Brewers pushed across four runs in the final two innings to win 7-3. Enmanuel De La Cruz deserves a ton of credit as he lowered his ERA to 1.48. In four innings, the right-hander not only kept the Brewers off the board, but didn't allow a hit as he continues to pitch well. That gave the Cubs momentum early, which they used to their advantage by stealing home in the second to grab the 1-0 lead. That lead held until the fifth inning when an error allowed the Brewers to tie things up only to see Cristian More answer with an RBI triple to retake the lead 2-1. Continuing to battle back, Jose Gonzalez tied the game with an RBI single in the seventh before the Brewers took a 3-2 lead off a wild pitch. Add in a wild pitch from the Milwaukee staff, and the Cubs were back to even tied 3-3 through seven. This is when the game changed in the Brewers favor as they pushed across four runs in the final two innings, including the game-winning single from Jamal Zalm in the eighth to put them in front 5-3. Gonzalez added an RBI single later in that inning to take a 6-3 lead before the Diego Larez homer in the ninth capped off the scoring in the 7-3 win.TOLEDO MUD HENS 3 – IOWA CUBS 2
CHATTANOOGA LOOKOUTS 2 – TENNESSEE SMOKIES 0
BELOIT SNAPPERS 6 – SOUTH BEND CUBS 5
CHARLESTON RIVERDOGS 7 – MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS 4
CHARLESTON RIVERDOGS 15 – MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS 1
ACL CUBS 13 – ACL Diamondbacks 2
DSL DODGERS 8 – DSL CUBS 7 (10 innings)
