Cubs Minor League News: Iowa wins seventh straight, Smokies walk it off, SB falters late |
Dustin Riese
· · 5 hours ago
There may not be a hotter team in AAA right now than the Iowa Cubs, who have not only won the first four of this series, but have pushed their winning streak to seven straight. This one didn't come easily, as the starting pitching wasn't sharp for either team, resulting in a high-scoring walk-off win. You got a sense of how things were going to go early as Chris Kachmar surrendered a pair of first-inning runs off a Bobby Dalbec single that put the Storm Chasers in front 2-0. Kachmar didn't have his best stuff, lasting 4 1/3 innings, but gave up eight runs, which has been an issue in his past few starts. Iowa began to battle back in the second with Dixon Machado tying things up with his two-run single only to take the lead on the Hayden Cantrelle single who would have the biggest hit of the night later in the game. Already with two runs driven in, Dalbec continued to do his thing in the third as his RBI double followed the MJ Melendez homer to put the Storm Chasers back on top 4-3. For the second time in as many innings, it was the Cubs finding a way to battle back as the bases-loaded walk to Nicky Lopez kept the line moving to tie things up 4-4. That set the stage for one of the game's biggest hits of the night as Caleb Knight cleared the bases with an RBI that put Iowa on top 7-4 before a Carlos Perez single made this an 8-4 game through four. It was in the fifth when the Omaha offense started to take things over as they began to single Kachmar to death with Drew Waters, Isan Diaz, and Peyton Wilson all coming through with RBI singles to make this an 8-7 game. Omaha capped off their four-run fifth with a sacrifice fly, and once again, things were tied 8-8. Both teams continued to exchange blows the next several innings with Chase Stumpf delivering the go-ahead homer in the bottom of the fifth, only to have Moises Ballesteros tack on a single to push the lead to 10-8. With Harold Castro and Perez both tacking on homers in the sixth, Iowa continued to lead as this was an 11-9 lead. Trailing by one in the ninth, it was that man Dalbec again coming through with the Storm Chasers' biggest hit as his solo blast brought things to 11-11 with extra innings on the horizon. Leave it to Cantrelle to change all that as he came through with a massive RBI double in the bottom of the ninth to secure the walkoff 12-11 win.
For the second time this week, the Smokies and Trash Pandas treated the fans to some free baseball as nine innings weren't enough to decide a winner in this one. Regardless, it was the Smokies doing what they had to do as they secured a 5-4 walk-off win for their third straight victory. This was one of those games where one bad pitch turned a strong outing into a mediocre one as Grant Kipp allowed a two-run blast to Ryan Nicholson in the first that put the Trash Pandas on top 2-0. Kipp would just have one more run for the duration of his start, but with only 4 1/3 innings, the bullpen was going to have to pick up the slack. Speaking of one bad pitch, had it not been for the Corey Joyce homer in the bottom of the third to tie things up 2-2, Sam Aldegheri would have thrown a shutout as that was the lone blemish on what was a seven inning start with six strikeouts and with David Mershon adding an RBI single in the fifth to put Rocket City on top 3-2, he was in line to secure a huge win. That score would hold until the bottom of the ninth when Pablo Aliendo decided to play hero as his solo shot tied things up 3-3 and pushed this game into extras. In the extra frame, it was the Trash Pandas getting on the board first as Ben Gobbel's single put the Trash Pandas back on top 4-3. Not to be outdone in the bottom of the 10th, it was the Smokies responding immediately as Brett Bateman's single brought home the tying run as the Smokies' offense was still threatening. Well, threatening no more as BJ Murray Jr followed up the Bateman single with one of his own as his single brought home the winning run in the 5-4 walk-off win.
It may not have ended the way the Cubs wanted, but they still deserve a ton of credit for how they were able to turn their season around. Needing to win out for the Cubs to have any hopes of a playoff berth, they saw that dream come to an end on Friday in a 9-2 loss. Of all the losses this team has suffered this season, this one is going to sting as Brooks Caple deserved a much better result than this. After watching his team grab an early 2-0 lead courtesy of the Reggie Preciado second-inning groundout mixed with a Rafael Morel single, Caple managed to hold that lead until the sixth when the Rattlers got on the board with a sacrifice fly. Still, with six innings of one-run, five-strikeout baseball, Caple did more than enough to win this game, but it was the bullpen that struggled as they would allow eight runs over the final three innings. The first of those runs came in the seventh with Luis Castillo using an RBI single to tie things up, only to take the lead for good on an error. The eighth inning is when the Rattlers put the game away for good as Wisconsin responded with four more runs to open up a commanding 7-2 lead. While a wild pitch and a bases-loaded walk led to two of those runs, Wisconsin did a great job of manufacturing their own runs as a sacrifice fly paired with the Daniel Guilarte single made this a 7-2 game before winning 9-2.
Although things haven't gone as planned for the Pelicans in this series, these games no longer matter, as both teams will be playing in the postseason. Ironically, they will be playing themselves, as they will become really familiar with each other over the next two weeks. This was one of those games where the Pelicans struggled to get anything going on either side, as a sluggish pitching performance paired with a struggling offense led to the result you saw. While Victor Zarraga wasn't terrible, allowing three runs in five innings, all three of those runs came in one inning, which highlights the type of outing he had. That inning happened to be the fourth inning as a pair of RBI singles from Jose Cerice and Milo Rushford led to two of those three runs, with a sacrifice fly producing the other. Had they not scored the rest of the way, those runs would've been enough as the Pelicans managed to push home just one run despite picking up 10 hits. Their lone run came in the seventh off the Kane Kepley single as the Pelicans pulled within 5-1 at that point. Columbia would tack a run in the ninth off the Tyriq Kemp triple to push home the final run in the 6-1 Fireflies win.IOWA CUBS 12 - OMAHA STORM CHASERS 11
KNOXVILLE SMOKIES 5 - ROCKET CITY TRASH PANDAS 4 (F/10)
WISCONSIN TIMBER RATTLERS 9 - SOUTH BEND CUBS 2
COLUMBIA FIREFLIES 6 - MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS 1
