Cubs Minor League News: Alcantara plays hero, Smokies with three homers, more |
Sooner or later, you will hear chatter about guys being promoted through the system to different teams. You already see that at the lower levels with Christian Franklin moving on from Myrtle Beach and joining South Bend.
Given the start the entire Cubs organization has gotten off to, it is only a matter of time before the promotions come more frequently. With another week of Minor League action kicking off, the Cubs saw mixed results as they had some great pitching and great offense mixed with some poor pitching and offensive results. All that together saw the Cubs post a 2-2 record on Tuesday as they opened up four new six-game series.
Despite the great start to the Cubs season, you have to be concerned with their pitching, as that hasn't been very good. Javier Assad was the latest to take the ball, and his rough season continued as he gave the Cubs three innings but allowed three runs. Assad struggled with his command as he has yet to be able to duplicate his WBC form from the spring. While giving up three runs isn't terrible, it is when five of your six pitchers allow runs, with Tyler Duffey the lone exception. Mix that in with a strong start from Levi Stoudt, who struck out four in five innings, and Iowa was in for a long night. Ironically, the Cubs grabbed the early lead with the suddenly hot Brennen Davis putting Iowa up 1-0 with an RBI single in the second. That lead held until the fourth when Louisville not only chased Assad but pushed across five runs over the fourth and fifth innings. Three of those came in the fourth with an RBI groundout from Nick Martini tying things up and the TJ Hopkins single putting Louisville in front, while the two-run shot by Matt McClain put the Bats up 5-1 in the fifth. Add a Hopkins homer to that in the sixth, and the Bats were starting to pull away and were leading 6-1 at this point. Things got interesting in the bottom of the seventh as the Cubs bats began to show signs of life. Sergio Alcantara got the party started with an RBI triple to pull the Cubs within 6-3. Alcantara would later come home to score on the Dom Nunez single to make things 6-4, but Iowa wouldn't get any close as Louisville tacked on three more runs late. Nunez paced the offense with two hits and was joined by Yonathan Perlaza in that category. Matt Mervis and Christopher Morel went hitless as Morel struck out three times to see his average fall to .311. First pitch set for 12:08 tomorrow pic.twitter.com/tMWinMxE4Y
When the Smokies can consistently get good pitching, they will be tough to beat, as their offense will score runs. Their pitching has come around lately, as Daniel Palencia took the ball on Tuesday. Despite only going three innings and struggling at times with his command, Palencia kept Birmingham off the board, which is all you can ask for at this point. He gave way to Walker Powell, who struck out five in 3 1/3 innings of one-run ball, with Bailey Horn tossing the final two innings. Horn also struck out five as the Smokies pitchers combined to strike out 13 Birmingham hitters. The Smokies got off to a quick start, using a pair of long balls from Pablo Aliendo and Bradlee Beesley to grab a 2-0 lead in the second. That would be all the offense for the next few innings until Taylor Snyder pulled the Barons within 2-1 after taking Powell deep in the fifth. In desperate need of some late-game offense, the Smokies benefitted from a sixth-inning wild pitch to add another run, with Owen Caissie delivering an RBI single in the seventh and extending the lead to 4-1. The late-game offensive surge continued for the Smokies as Chase Strumpf added a solo shot in the eighth with another wild pitch in the ninth, capping off the scoring in the 6-1 win. Tennessee pounded out 11 hits, with five players having multi-hit games. Beesley, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Strumpf, Caissie, and Aliendo were those guys, with BJ Murray Jr adding the final hit. Smokies homer three times to take the opener in Birmingham. #BestYearEver #NextStartsHere #flythew pic.twitter.com/gT9ZFOjcRd
If you want to talk about a game where runs were at a premium, South Bend was the place to be, as the Cubs and Chiefs combined for five runs, four of which came after the seventh inning. With Richard Gallardo giving the Cubs five strong innings and Alex Cornwell tossing six shutout innings, neither offense was able to settle in as pitching dominated this game. Nathan Church provided the games only run through eight innings as his third-inning RBI double had the Chiefs up 1-0. Despite limited action for the remainder of the night, you had to think the Cubs would break through eventually. That they did as the Jaguar Kevin Alcantara was starting to set in and connected for the game-tying solo shot in the ninth to help send the game into extra innings. A game-tying @hoosierlottery HR from Kevin Alcántara in the 9th... and then he WALKS IT OFF AN INNING LATER!! pic.twitter.com/jace1GUMWE In the extra frame, the Chiefs struck first as Sheldon Reed uncorked a wild pitch to give Peoria the 2-1 lead. Down to their final out in the 10th, South Bend kept the inning alive as Andrew Marrero and Josue Huma took walks to load the bases, with Alcantara coming to bat. Knowing the magnitude of this at-bat, Alcantara needed only three pitches to deliver as his single up the middle brought home a pair and gave the Cubs the 3-2 walk-off win. The Jaguar walks it off!!!!#CubsWin #FlyTheW #walkoff #cubs pic.twitter.com/wOnnDolxkb Alcantara led the offense with two hits and all three RBIs as his breakout two weeks continue. Yohendrick Pinango, Haydn McGeary, and Ethan Hearn added hits for the Cubs in a great win. WHAT A WIN! pic.twitter.com/AWUhm1S1yJLOUISVILLE BATS 9 - IOWA CUBS 4
TENNESSEE SMOKIES 6 - BIRMINGHAM BARONS 1
SOUTH BEND CUBS 3 - PEORIA CHIEFS 2 (F/10)
CHARLESTON RIVERDOGS 5 - MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS 2
If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best, and the Charleston Riverdogs have been the best for a while now. This is one of the few teams that has had the Pelicans number for the past two seasons, which has continued into 2023.
Despite only scoring in two innings on Tuesday, the Riverdogs made those innings count, as they posted crooked numbers both times. That was good enough for Trevor Martin, who gave Charleston five innings of one-run seven strikeout ball in the win.
Opposing him was Michael Arias, who allowed one run in three innings with four strikeouts. Yovanny Cabrerra duplicated that performance with three relief outings before the Riverdogs pulled away late.
Although runs were tough to come by most of the night, Andy Gariola continued his excellent start to his season by belting his third homer of the season in the second for the early 1-0 Pelicans lead.
GARRIOLA GOES DEEP!
— Myrtle Beach Pelicans (@Pelicanbaseball) April 25, 2023
The third home run of the season for @AndyGarriola is a solo shot to center to put the Birds up 1-0.#MBPelicans | #NextStartsHere pic.twitter.com/DfkFybz4nx
Once the fourth inning began, it was all Charleston as Dominic Keegan tied things up with an RBI triple before coming home on the Xavier Isaac sacrifice fly to put the Riverdogs on top for good.
Moving to the seventh and with the score still sitting at 2-1, the Riverdogs started to pull away, getting to the Pelicans pen again. A couple of errors aided in the big inning, as all three runs that scored were unearned. Myrtle Beach added a Jefferson Encarnacion solo shot in the ninth, but it wasn't enough, as they would fall 5-2.
With five hits, it was tough to get much of anything going as Pedro Ramirez led the way with two. Gariola, Encarnacion, and Felix Stevens added the remaining three hits.
Final from the series opener.
— Myrtle Beach Pelicans (@Pelicanbaseball) April 26, 2023
We’ll play two tomorrow in Charleston.#MBPelicans | #NextStartsHere pic.twitter.com/NpcdIbKJBi
