Cubs Minor League News: Noland impressive, Strumpf raking, Morel homers, more |
Saturday continued to be a rough night on the diamond for the Cubs Minor League system, as the wins haven't come easy this week. With South Bend playing in a doubleheader, there were eight games to keep track of as the Cubs battled but only posted a 3-5 record on the night.
Despite the Cubs' struggles against the Saints this week, most of the games have been highly competitive and tight. That wasn't the case on Saturday, as a four-run fourth broke the game open to seal the deal. Thomas Pannone went from being the Cubs' best starter the first month of the season to being a complete liability ever since, falling to 4-8 after allowing six runs in four innings. Only three of those runs were earned, but he has struggled since starting the year 3-0. He opposed Louie Varland, who only lasted five innings, but with seven strikeouts and no runs allowed, you could make the case this was his best start of the season. Varland was backed by a pair of early runs as the Yunior Severino double in the first put the Saints on top for good, 1-0, with Chris Williams making things 2-0 in the second with a homer. The fourth inning is when the Saints put the game out of reach as they pushed across four runs to open up a 6-0 lead. Anthony Prado started all that with an RBI double before a trio of RBI singles from Edouard Julien, Severino, and DaShawn Kiersey JR. ended the massive inning. Saint Paul tacked on two more runs in the sixth to open up an 8-0 lead before the Cubs put an end to the shutout in the seventh. Moises Ballesteros ended the shutout bid with an RBI single, which was followed by Alexander Canario's single, but that was it in the Cubs' 8-2 loss. Just Canario doing Canario things🤷#iowacubs #milb #onlyindesmoines pic.twitter.com/1nlLz2VvJQ Ballesteros and Chase Strumpf led the offense with two hits, while Frank Scalzo Jr. dominated in his two-plus innings of relief. Series finale tomorrow!! pic.twitter.com/jsMvZAgPLg
With Birmingham winning the first half of the season by just .5 games over the Smokies, all Tennessee needs to do to make the playoffs is stay close to the Barons the rest of the way and ahead of the rest of the field. The second half hasn't gotten off to the best start, but they continue to battle as they doubled up the Barons 4-2 on Saturday. Connor Noland returned to doing what he does best on the mound as he gave the Smokies six impressive innings to lower his ERA to 2.86. He allowed one run with four punchouts in another strong showing. The Smokies needed him to be lights out as Noah Schultz entered the game with a sub 2.00 ERA and went on to strike out seven in less than four innings. A first-inning single from Wilfred Veras gave the Barons an early 1-0 lead, only to have the recently promoted Felix Stevens come through with a game-tying single in the third. That score would hold until the sixth, when one of their newest free agent acquisitions, William Simoneit, came through with a massive double, which would go down as the winning hit to put the Smokies up 3-1. Jacob Gonzalez pulled the Barons to within 3-2 with a seventh-inning single, but Josh Rivera's sacrifice fly closed out the scoring as the Smokies took care of business 4-2. The Smokies had six hits from six different players in the win. Good game boys! | @Zips3mincarwash
What was expected to be an exciting doubleheader on Saturday turned into a nightmare as the Cubs dropped both ends of the double dip. To make matters worse, they scored just one run in the two games, which came in a 10-1 loss in game one. Drew Gray continues to struggle with his command, walking six and striking out three in three innings while also serving up seven runs. That alone was enough to give the Rattlers the win, as Will Rudy was impressive in his five innings of work. In the blink of an eye, the Rattlers had a 3-0 lead as a bases-loaded walk in the first, followed by an error, gave them a lead they wouldn't give up. They extended that lead to 4-0 on a second-inning Gregory Berrios single before putting up back-to-back three-run innings in the third and fourth innings to open up a 10-0 lead. Jeremy Vargas delivered a bases-loaded double in the third, with Luke Adams and Matthew Wood delivering RBI singles in the fourth. Eduardo Garcia also had an RBI in the fourth off his double, as it was all Wisconsin from start to finish. The lone run of the game for the Cubs came in the fifth off the Rafael Morel homer as they fell 10-1 in game one. The Cubs had six hits, with Pedro Ramirez and Ed Howard grabbing two.SAINT PAUL SAINTS 8 - IOWA CUBS 2
TENNESSEE SMOKIES 4 - BIRMINGHAM BARONS 2
Box Score: https://t.co/6Sv6IcMmpC pic.twitter.com/ae0y3jXhECWISCONSIN TIMBER RATTLERS 10 - SOUTH BEND CUBS 1 (Game 1)
WISCONSIN TIMBER RATTLERS 6 - SOUTH BEND CUBS 0 (Game 2)
If game one wasn't bad enough, why not get shutout in game two? The Cubs couldn't get anything done offensively. Credit Yujanyer Herrera for that. He gave the Rattlers five shutout innings with five punchouts before handing the ball off to Brian Fitzpatrick, who struck out three in two innings.
Their efforts alone were enough to silence the Cubs offense as Will Sanders was on the losing end of another start. Sanders only lasted 2 2/3, allowing two runs as Nick Hull took over the rest of the way. Most of the Rattlers' damage in this one came in the third inning when they pushed across five runs to take a 5-0 lead.
Barrios opened the scoring with an RBI single to put Wisconsin up 1-0, which would go down as the winning hit. Wisconsin added three runs later in the inning on a pair of errors, and the Garcia sacrifice also helped cap off that massive frame. The Rattlers closed out the scoring in the sixth inning off the Eduarqui Fernandez single as they took care of business 6-0.
The Cubs were held to four hits in the loss, with Jonathon Long collecting two.
Series finale set for tomorrow at 2:10 PM. pic.twitter.com/cHdZeRc6I1
— South Bend Cubs (@SBCubs) June 30, 2024
FAYETTEVILLE WOODPECKERS 8 - MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS 7 (F/10)
In what was a back-and-forth game all night, it was the Woodpeckers who got the last laugh as they topped the Pelicans in extras 8-7. JP Wheat got the start and only went one inning before Mason McGwire and the pen took over. McGwire gave the Pelicans some length with four innings, but with four runs allowed, it wasn't a great four innings.
Backed by a first-inning error and bases-loaded walk, the Woodpeckers opened a 2-0 lead, as the Pelicans seemed a bit lethargic early on. That was until the bottom of the first, when they responded for three runs, as the Cristian Hernandez grounder put them on the board to make this a 2-1 game. Alfonsin Rosario followed that up with a solo homer, which sparked a nice two-run rally, as Miguel Pabon added an RBI single to make things 3-2.
It was in the fourth when both offenses came to play, as a total of eight runs were scored in that fourth inning. Four came from each side as the Xavier Casserilla single brought things back to even 3-3. Then came the big blow as Victor Diaz launched his second homer of the season to bring home three as the Woodpeckers opened up a 6-3 lead.
Looking to repeat their first inning when they fell behind, the Pelicans' offense was more than up for the challenge ahead. An Andy Garriola double brought them within 6-4. That was followed by a pair of RBI singles from Frank Hernandez and Drew Bowser, but it was Bowser's two-run single that put the Birds back in front 7-6.
Still clinging to that lead in the ninth, the Woodpeckers had one last rally in them as the Nehomar Ochoa Jr homer brought things back to even and helped force extra innings.
In the extra frame, the Woodpeckers struck again, with Casserilla adding his third RBI of the game with a double, which proved to be the winning run in an 8-7 victory.
ACL RANGERS 6 - ACL CUBS 4
DSL CUBS RED 7 - DSL PIRATES 6
DSL CUBS BLUE 5 - DSL GUARDIANS 1
