Cubs Minor League News: One win, plenty of missed chances

Patrick Gorski - USA Today Sports

Dustin Riese · Senior Writer · 4 hours ago

Saturday was a rough one for the Cubs' Minor League System as the wins were tough to come by. Sure, there were several performances worth noting, but when the system picks up just one on the night to finish the day with a 1-5 mark, there is some disappointment that comes with that.

SAINT PAUL SAINTS 5 - IOWA CUBS 4

When you talk about disappointment, look no further than the Iowa Cubs, who surrendered three runs in the ninth to get walked off 5-4. To make matters worse, all five of the Saints' runs came from the seventh inning on after the Cubs controlled most of the game up to that point.

After struggling to find his footing since signing with the Cubs, Spencer Turnbull delivered a great start as he struck out five across five shutout innings. He walked three in those five innings, but also didn't allow a hit as the Saints had no answers for the right-hander. Turnbull was backed by an offense that took a little while to settle in as the Kevin Alcantara three-run shot in the fourth broke a scoreless tie and gave the Cubs a 3-0 lead.

Homers played a massive role for the Cubs in this one with Owen Caissie adding a solo shot in the eighth after the Aaron Sabato double in the seventh as Iowa held a 4-1 lead late. After pulling within 4-2 on the DaShawn Keirsey Jr triple in the eighth, the Saints were down to their final outs as Gavin Hollowell took over to close things out.

Ever since his return to Iowa after a brief stint in the bigs, Hollowell has struggled, and those struggles continued in this one as a Payton Eeles single made this a 4-3 game, only to have a costly throwing tie things up at four. Looking to keep things there and get to extras, the Saints had other plans as the Gabriel Gonzalez single brought home the winning run to give the Saints a 5-4 walk-off win.

BILOXI SHUCKERS 4 - KNOXVILLE SMOKIES 2

When things are going well for the Smokies, they are one of the best teams in the Southern League. When things aren't going well, you get what you have gotten this season, which is basically a .500 team. You saw some of that tonight as the three-run first inning was all Biloxi would need as they picked up the 4-2 win.

Nick Dean was on the losing end in this one, allowing three runs in just two innings before yielding to Tyler Santana and the Smokies pen. Those runs all came in the first with the newly promoted Blake Burke providing some early thunder with a two-run shot while a fielder's choice put the Smokies in a 3-0 hole.

Had they not scored the rest of the way, it would've been enough to get the win as KC Hunt was dialed in, allowing just one hit in six innings and striking out four. Those three runs would be all the offense until the seventh when a Luis Lara single pushed the Shuckers' lead to 4-0. It took eight innings for the Smokies offense to get rolling as the Jordan Nwogu double made this a 4-1 game before an RBI fielders choice from Brett Bateman cut the deficit in half 4-2.

That was it for the Smokies' offense as they dropped another game to the Shuckers and are on the verge of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2021. Nwogu paced the Smokies with two of the team's four hits as Reivaj Garcia and Pablo Aliendo added the other two.

SOUTH BEND CUBS 4 - FORT WAYNE TIN CAPS 1

If you were solely watching the Cubs over the past month, you would think that they were well on their way to a playoff berth. However, when you start the season nearly 30 games under .500, it becomes an uphill climb as the Cubs have been playing from behind all season.

Despite that, they have positioned themselves to make some noise over the final month of the season as they are now 21-19 in the second half and just two games out of first. Saturday was more of the same for the Cubs as another strong start from Evan Aschenbeck set the tone for what was an impressive 4-1 win.

The left-hander gave the Cubs six innings of one-run baseball to improve to 4-4 on the season, dropping his ERA to 2.65. All of the Cubs' damage came in a three-inning stretch, which all started on the third-inning homer from Cristian Hernandez to put the Cubs in front 2-0, as that goes down as the game-winning hit.

Reggie Preciado added to the Cubs' lead with a third-inning double, only to have the Tin Caps pull within 3-1 in the fifth on a Ryan Jackson groundout. That was the only run they would score in this one as the Cubs added a run in the bottom of the fifth to push their lead to 4-1 before winning by that score. Hernandez was one of three Cubs to record multiple hits, joining Leonel Espinoza and, of course, Ariel Armas, who led the way with three.

FREDERICKSBURG NATIONALS 7 - MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS 6 (F/10)

Nothing has come easy for the Pelicans in this series, but as things currently stand, they still hold a 3-2 series lead this week. This was the second time this week that the Pelicans needed extra innings, but this time it was the Nationals taking care of business 7-6.

This is a game that the Pelicans want back as Ethan Flanagan battled through five innings, allowing three runs and striking out five. One of the main reasons for the massive second-half turnaround for the Pelicans has been the influx of new faces over the past few weeks. Apart from game one of this series, the Pelicans have dominated things, but with Nick Hollifield (double) and Wyatt Henseler (single) striking first, it was the Nationals taking a quick 2-0 lead in the first.

The Pelicans didn't wait long to tie things up as an Angel Cepeda single made things 2-1 in the second before Justin Stransky added an RBI single of his own to make this a 2-2 game. Following a third inning Hollifield groundout that put the Nationals back in front 3-2, Matt Halbach came through in the fourth as his single brought home a pair to give the Pelicans their first lead of the game 4-3.

As the game progressed, the back-and-forth affair continued with a wild pitch tying things back up in the seventh with another Cepeda single putting the Pelicans back on top in the seventh 5-4. With another wild pitch leading to the game-tying run in the eighth, it was the Nationals retaking the lead as an RBI groundout put the Pelicans in another hole, 6-5.

For what seems like an every-game occurrence at this point, the Pelicans just don't quit as another RBI single off the bat of Ty Southisene brought things back to even 6-6 in the eighth and helped send this one into extras. Unfortunately for the Pelicans, that was the last of their runs as an Enmanuel Ramirez sacrifice fly in the 10th brought home the game-winning run in what was a 7-6 Nationals win.

Cepeda and Halbach paced the Pelicans with four hits and four combined RBIs as Myrtle Beach had four players with multiple hits. Stransky and Southisene were the other two players in what was a fun game despite the loss.