Cubs Minor League News: I-Cubs earn split with Braves |
Dustin Riese
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- 15 hours ago
INDIANAPOLIS—It's no secret that baseball in the Midwest this time of year is miserable. From the cold temperatures to the unpredictable weather, finding ways to play scheduled games can be a challenge. Take the Iowa Cubs (3-2) and Indianapolis Indians (2-2), for example, who not only had their Wednesday game rained out but also had to deal with rain during game two of Thursday's doubleheader.
With Iowa dropping game one of the doubleheader at Victory Field, the Cubs turned to their top pitching prospect, Cade Horton, with the hopes of earning a doubleheader split. Despite struggling with his command through 3 1/3 innings, walking four and striking out six, Horton did what the Cubs expected him to do, as the Cubs' offense came to life late in the 6-1 win. Horton has been known to struggle occasionally on the mound, but even he struggled more than he was accustomed to. Just getting through his start without allowing a run has to be considered a win, given the unfavorable weather conditions. Despite Horton keeping the Indianapolis bats in check, the same can be said for Braxton Ashcraft, who matched Horton pitch for pitch in the early innings. Ashcraft gave the Indians five innings of five-strikeout baseball, allowing eight hits and two runs as he did his part to pick up the win. Both of the runs he allowed came in the fifth inning, as the game remained scoreless through four. All it took for the Cubs' offense to get rolling was for the top of the order to set the tone, as a one-out double from Christian Franklin set the Cubs' offense up. Franklin would come in to score on the next pitch as Owen Caissie smoked one into the left field corner to put the Cubs in front 1-0. CAISSIE ARE YOU KIDDING?!?! @owen_caissie pic.twitter.com/OmoigS5NR0 Chicago tacked on another run later in the inning off a Jonathan Long single, as his single put the Cubs in front 2-0 and proved to be the winning run. JONATHON it's been so LONG! 1st RBI of the season! pic.twitter.com/lnp31tt0I0 Not to be outdone, the Indians responded in the bottom of the inning as they looked to get to Gavin Hollowell. As is often the case, walks do come back to haunt you at this level. After Hollowell walked Bryce Johnson to put a runner on base, it was Nick Yorke who made him pay, as his RBI double made this a 2-1 game. Hollowell would come out later in the inning before being replaced by Jack Neely, and that was the lone run of the game for Indianapolis. There is an old saying in baseball that "It's not how you start, but instead how you finish." The Cubs took that to heart in this one, as they overcame an extremely slow start to finish strong by scoring six runs in the final three innings. That included another RBI from Franklin in the sixth, as his fielder's choice allowed Greg Allen to score, making the score 3-1. MCGUIRE WITH THE HUSTLE! 3-1 I-CUBS! pic.twitter.com/borGunkgQi Iowa would then put the game away in the top of the sixth, pushing across three more runs to break the game open 6-1. Long got things started in a big way with a leadoff single while walks to James Triantos and Ben Cowles loaded the bases with no outs. The key play of the inning appeared to be the double play sacrifice fly off the bat of Dixon Machado as the Indians conceded a run, but were on the verge of escaping the inning without further damage. That was until Allen and Reese McGuire delivered a pair of RBI hits later in the inning to add two more runs, giving the Cubs a 6-1 lead with three outs to go. Trevor Richards took care of the rest, retiring the Indians in order in the seventh to close out the 6-1 victory. With the weather looking very iffy at best for the next few days, it will be interesting to see how many more games these teams will play in this series.
