Down on Cubs Farm: Colin Rea with 11 K's, Assad leads Pels to victory, SB road woes, more |
Once again, the Cubs continued to put their future on display despite a less than pleasing 1-3 record for the night. With the Rookie league teams also going 1-3 it was a rough 2-6 overall night for the farm.
IOWA CUBS 6 – Las Vegas Aviators 8: The second half free fall continued Wednesday night as a three-run ninth inning for Vegas proved to be the difference in the 8-6 win. If it wasn’t for Colin Rea on the mound, this game might have gotten out of hand much earlier as he continued to prove he deserves a shot in the MLB this season. Despite lasting just 5 2/3 and allowing 3ER, Rea recorded a season-high 11K to go with just 1BB. It was the Iowa offense that got on the scoreboard first as a Mark Zagunis sacrifice fly in the first added with a P.J. Higgins second-inning homer gave the Cubs a 2-0 advantage. The Aviators responded in the top half of the third however as Eric Campbell doubled home the first run for Vegas before the Corban Joseph grounder tied things up 2-2. Iowa took full control in the bottom of the third as they saw continued production throughout the lineup. Phillip Evans put the Cubs back in front 3-2 as he went deep for his 15th of the season. Addison Russell added a sacrifice fly later that inning before Higgins brought home another run with a single for the 5-2 Cubs lead. That would be the last of the Iowa offense for quite some time as Vegas tied things up 5-5 in the eighth before taking the lead for good in the ninth. The ninth inning proved to be Iowa’s undoing as Joseph picked up the go-ahead single to make things a 6-5 game. A few batters later saw Skye Bolt deliver the game-winning knock with his 10th homer of the season putting Las Vegas up 8-5. Russell managed to pick up his second sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth, but that was it as the Cubs fell to 61-54 on the season following their 8-6 loss. Both Jim Adduci and Evans led the way in the hit category as the two of them picked up three hits each in the loss. Both Higgins and Zagunis added two hits themselves while combining for three RBI’s while Russell, although hitless tallied two RBI’s. Robel Garcia was 1-5 with 3K. Crushing it, @PEVANS28. pic.twitter.com/gNR6mbgtZD Las Vegas wins the battle tonight. We're back in action with a 7:08 first pitch tomorrow at Principal Park! pic.twitter.com/M54qdCGycY TENNESSEE SMOKIES 5 – Biloxi Shuckers 6 (11 innings): Facing off against one of the leagues best, the Smokies went toe to toe with Biloxi only to fall in the 11th 6-5 to fall to 49-66 on the season. Jack Patterson proved he is human in his first start with AA allowing 4ER in five innings after not allowing a single run for High A Myrtle beach. The first inning brought plenty of excitement as Tennessee came out swinging. Looking to back their new pitcher with some run support, Jhonny Pereda got the scoring started with a double for the quick 1-0 lead. With runners on second and third, a balk brought home the games second run ahead of the Jared Young sacrifice fly and just like that the Smokies were up 3-0. Biloxi got a pair of runs back in the second off Jake Gatewood’s 11th homer before taking a 4-3 lead in the fifth with RBI’s from Cooper Hummel and Weston Wilson. Down to the final at-bats and still down 4-3, Eddy Martinez was able to come up huge with his second homer of the season to tie things up 4-4 and send the game to extras. With Dillon Thomas doubling home the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th, it was a wild pitch in the bottom half that allowed Tennessee to score and extended the game a bit longer. However, the Shuckers managed to laugh last as Joantgel Segovia doubled home the winning run in the top of the 11th to give the Shuckers a 6-5 win. Tennessee managed six hits in the game with no one recording a multi-hit effort. Charcer Burks, Nico Hoerner, and Vimael Machin all grabbed hits from the top spots in the lineup with Pereda, Martinez and Christian Donahue adding the other three. After both Manuel Rondon and Ben Hecht tossed four scoreless frames, Wyatt Short allowed both earned runs in extras to take the loss. However, with none of those being earned runs Short lowered his ERA to 1.69 in the process. A thrilling game but the Smokies came up short in free baseball. https://t.co/vMYDN9kubM MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS 5 – Winston-Salem Dash 2: With the news that Ben Zobrist will be rehabbing this weekend, there seems to be a bit more buzz in Myrtle Beach this week as fans eagerly await his arrival. Javier Assad gave the fans more to celebrate on Wednesday, tossing 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball to improve to 4-8 on the season with the Pelicans moving to 45-68 following a 5-2 win. Both teams were held in check through five as the game was moving along very quickly. That changed in the sixth when the Pelicans erupted for a big inning to claim the win. Already with the bases juiced, Miguel Amaya got the party started as single gave Myrtle Beach the lead for good 2-0. Back with the Pelicans, Luke Reynolds delivered the game-winning knock as his single made things 3-0. Delvin Zinn capped off the four-run frame with a sacrifice fly. The lone run Assad allowed came in the top of the seventh as JJ Muno connected for the ground-rule double and 4-1 deficit. Grant Fennell brought home another run with a seventh-inning sacrifice fly before Andrew Vaughn capped off the scoring in the eighth with a double as the Pelicans win 5-2. Reynolds returned from his South Bend stay to deliver one of his better games of the season with three hits and 1 RBI. Both Cam Balego and Amaya added multi-hit efforts as Amaya picked up a 2RBI’s himself. Manuel Rodriguez and Ryan Lawlor pitched great in relief with Lawlor earning the save for his second of the season as his ERA is now 2.70. Wake up with the highlights from last night's victory!#MBPelicans | #GoBirds pic.twitter.com/lndqblcOJn Luuuuuuuuuke!@LukeReynolds_11 set the tone for another #BirdsWin and is tonight's @panerabread Bread Winner of the Game ?? pic.twitter.com/Rj4NNY66eP SOUTH BEND CUBS 5 – Lansing Lugnuts 9: Much like their MLB counterparts, the Cubs have had a challenging time winning on the road despite a league-best home record. Wednesday that trend continued as the Cubs fell to 61-52 on the season following the 9-5 defeat at the hands of Lansing. For the first time in a while, Faustino Carrera was hit hard failing to get out of the fifth inning before allowing 5R with just 3ER. That put all the pressure on the South Bend offense whom after starting fast puttered out down the stretch. That fast start can be evident in the first inning when the Cubs took the lead on a Nelson Maldonado double for a quick 2-0 advantage. Andy Weber added to that lead in the third with his 28th double of the season to make things 3-0 before the Lugnuts got on the board with a Gabriel Moreno single to make it 3-1 Cubs. Johnny Aiello homer sparked a three-inning rally in which Lansing pushed across eight total runs to take the 9-4 lead with Jake Slaughter getting an RBI single for the Cubs in the seventh. Marcus Mastrobuoni put an end to the Lansing scoring binge with an RBI single in the eighth to pull within 9-5, but that is all she wrote in the end with South Bend falling on the road. Three more hits from Weber led the way as he remains near the top of the league in second-half hits. Both Darius Hill and Nelson Velazquez picked up a pair of hits, but with two walks added to his line, Velazquez reached base four total times. Slaughter and Maldonado continue to hit the ball hard with their new team driving in runs in the process. Cubs drop the opener at Lansing by a final of 9-5. We'll give it another go tomorrow at 7:05! pic.twitter.com/LCrG5KFaB0 EUGENE EMERALDS: All-star break Mort and Hill are headed up to the @SBCubs to join eight former 2019 Emeralds teammates at the A-Full level. Release:https://t.co/6TU6Z5tZbf
