Down on Cubs Farm: C.J. Edwards continues rehab, Eugene wins, DSL Cubs updates, more
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Down on Cubs Farm: C.J. Edwards continues rehab, Eugene wins, DSL Cubs updates, more


by - Senior Writer -

With two teams traveling on Tuesday, it was a rather light night on the farm for the Cubs system. Despite that, the team with the best record was in action as they looked to continue that trend once again. If it wasn’t for three bad innings on the night, the Cubs might have gone 3-0 for the evening. Instead, they had to settle for 1-2 as the pitching was a problem on two levels.

IOWA CUBS 4 – Oklahoma City Dodgers 13: It was a night to forget for the Cubs as the Dodgers plated seven runs in the first two innings off Trevor Clifton to cruise to the 13-4 win. On the positive side of things Iowa did manage to plate some runs early but never could get into that groove, they were hoping for.

Already down 2-0 in the second after a first-inning Will Smith homer, the Cubs quickly found themselves down by six as Smith connected for his second homer in as many innings this time for a Grand Slam. Edwin Rios added a solo shot later in the second to put the Dodgers on top 7-0 as they never looked back from there.

It was in the bottom of the second when Iowa broke through on the scoreboard when Dixon Machado plated a pair with his 14th double of the season to make it a 7-2 game. With Smith adding another RBI in the top of the third with a bases-loaded walk, Donnie Dewees got in on the long ball fun belting his 13th of the season over the fence to make it an 8-3 game. That was as close as Iowa would get as OKC had things under control.

Up 9-3 in the eighth, the Dodgers opened things up a bit more with a four-run frame capped off by a Gavin Lux solo homer to push their advantage to 13-3. Iowa managed to push across one more run in the ninth on a Zack Short homer, but it was nowhere near enough as the Cubs fell 13-4. Iowa is 54-42 and maintains the best record in the Cubs organization.

Mark Zagunis continues to show his bat is ready for an everyday MLB role picking up two more hits in this one. Four other players picked up one hit each while both Jim Adduci and Ian Happ went hitless. Carl Edwards Jr threw a scoreless inning of relief allowing 2H to go with 3K.

TENNESSEE SMOKIES 3 – Mobile Bay Bears 8: Looking for the series split, Erick Leal took the ball looking for his second win of the series against Mobile. What looked like a promising outing, 3R 2ER in 5 2/3 innings, quickly turned sour as one rough inning from Jake Stinnett prevented any shot of a Smokies comeback with Tennessee falling 8-3.

Tennessee wasted no time getting the offense going as they struck for the games first run in the bottom of the first. A one-out Nico Hoerner double turned to gold as Jhonny Pereda drove him in with a two-out single to make things a 1-0 game. Mobile managed to tie things up 1-1 in the third when Jo Adell picked up an RBI single. It was Gioskar Amaya responding in the fourth with a single of his own to put the Smokies back in front 2-1 heading to the fifth.

It was in the sixth when the game began to flip as Leal found himself in a bases-loaded jam before being lifted for Manuel Rondon. Looking to make the perfect pitch to get out of the inning, Rondon yielded the go-ahead single to Erick Salcedo as the Bay Bears grabbed the lead for good 3-2. Things went from bad to worse in the seventh for Tennessee as they now trailed 4-2 before Julian Leon blasted a Grand Slam to cap off a five-run frame with Mobile in complete control 8-2.

With just two innings remaining, Tennessee needed a plethora of runs or once again this was going to be a disappointing loss for them. Charcer Burks got them going in the right direction with a ground-rule double in the eighth as they climbed within 8-3 before coming back to bat in the ninth. With one down in the ninth, a Roberto Caro walk and Hoerner single put two runners on base as Tennessee looked to get something going. However, that rally was not meant to be as Vimael Machin ended the game with a double play to drop the series with an 8-3 loss bringing their record to 42-53.

Pereda had the hot hand in this one, leading the way with three hits and an RBI. Hoerner got back to his hitting ways, grabbing two hits of his own while five others picked up one hit including Machin. The bright spots out of the pen came from Michael Rucker, Oscar De La Cruz, and Ben Hecht as they combined to throw two shutout innings with 2K in the loss.

MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS: Off travel day

SOUTH BEND CUBS: Off Travel Day.

EUGENE EMERALDS 8 – Boise Hawks 1: After stumbling to start July and without a series win since the first week of the month, Eugene had a chance to change that as they sent Kohl Franklin to the hill Tuesday. In his four innings, Franklin continued to make quick work of his opponents allowing just 1ER on 4H to bring his ERA to 1.40 on the season as the bullpen and offense took care of the rest 8-1 to give the Ems a much-needed series win.

Fortunately for Eugene, they were able to recover after allowing the game’s first run in the bottom of the first when Joe Aeilits picked up an RBI single. That was the lone run they allowed in the game as the offense did their best to take care of the rest from that point on. Darius Hill got the Ems on the board in the third as his sacrifice fly tied things up 1-1.

Looking for a big inning to take control of the game, look no further than the fourth as Eugene opened things up with a robust offensive approach. With consistent traffic on the bases throughout, both Luis Vazquez and Luis Diaz tallied RBI singles as the Emeralds were now in front for good 3-1. Following an RBI groundout from Hill to make it 4-1, Jake Slaughter capped off the inning with another RBI single as the Emeralds headed to the bottom of the fourth in front 5-1.

That score would hold up until the eighth inning when a Jacob Olson double and Zac Taylor single brought home two more runs as the lead ballooned to 7-1. Vazquez added a sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth to push the lead to 8-1 as the Emeralds closed things out in the bottom of the ninth to pick up a much-needed series win.

Eugene is now 14-18 on the season as they continue to scratch their way out of the cellar. Both Vazquez and Olson played considerable roles in the offense in this one collecting a pair of hits each to go with three combined RBI’s. Five other players recorded a hit with Hill adding two RBI’s despite no hits in the game.

Following Franklin on the mound was 17th round pick, Tanner Dalton, earning his first win of the season with one scoreless inning of work before Chris Allen tossed the final four frames to earn a rare four-inning save.

Starting today, I will be adding ROOKIE League scores to the recaps. However, no extended recap highlights will be provided because none of these games are televised.

DSL CUBS 2 5 – DSL Cardinals Red 3: The DSL 2 Cubs improved to 24-14 with a solid 5-3 win. Leading the way offensively was Ronny Simon who went 1-3 but picked up 2 RBI’s. Kelvin Feliz started and picked up the win, going five innings and allowing 1ER on 9H 2BB and 6K. His ERA is 2.58 for the year.

DSL CUBS 1 2 – DSL Pirates 1 5: The DSL Cubs 1 fell to 18-20 on the season as a three-run seventh inning did them in for a 5-2 loss. The Cubs managed just one hit in the ball game with Rafael Morel picking up that hit.

AZL CUBS (1) 6 – AZL CUBS (2) 16: It was a win-win situation in the Arizona League as both Cubs rookie teams squared off. It was AZL 2 picking up the win 16-6 as they improve to 9-14 dropping AZL 1 to 13-10. Notable performers were for AZL 1: Johnny Field going 1-4 with 2 RBIs on his rehab assignment. Alfredo Colorado and Raidel Orta both previously of Eugene struggled in relief allowing eight runs in five innings of work.

For AZL 2, catcher Alexander Guerra stole the show going 4-5 with 10 RBI’s as he provided a three-homer night. Two other players had multi-hit games including rising prospect Luis Verdugo. D.J. Artis continues his rehab assignment with a 1-4 performance.

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