Cubs Minor League News: Young homers, Perlaza raking, Alcantara homers, more |
Saturday was another challenging night on the diamond as the Cubs saw their organization go 2-3. While half of the games were blowouts and half were close, it is becoming abundantly clear that fans should have some form of playoff baseball this season with Myrtle Beach continuing to do their thing.
The back and forth series with Omaha continued Saturday with the Storm Chasers grabbing the 9-3 win. That is what happens when you face Zach Greinke. Yes, that Greinke who has been in the Major Leagues for 15 seasons as he tossed seven innings and allowed three runs. That was good enough with Robert Gsellmen struggling through three innings, allowing five earned runs on four hits. Trailing 1-0 in the game's early stages, Omaha busted the game open in the third and pushed four runs across home. Cam Gallagher delivered the big blow in that inning with a three-run shot. David Bote did his best to keep things close with an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth, only to have Gallagher pick up an RBI double in the fifth ahead of the Brewer Hicklen single to make things 7-1. Jared Young capped off the scoring for Iowa with a two-run shot to pull within 7-3 and fell 9-3 in the end. Deep fly for JY! pic.twitter.com/pEJ3QBV6tz Young and Bote not only drove in all three runs but also had two hits each in the loss. Final from Principal Park. pic.twitter.com/jCGuwssTBe
Despite Pensacola not scoring for eight innings, it was still too much for the Smokies as a five-run first would be all the offense Pensacola would need. Riley Thompson was on the mound and got lit up for five earned runs in just 1/3 of an inning. He gave way to Chris Clarke, who tossed 5 2/3 scoreless frames with eight strikeouts before Scott Kobos finished things off. That five-run first was more than enough for Jeff Lindgren, who allowed two first-inning runs before getting through six innings with three runs allowed. Although mostly in check offensively, Matt Mervis cashed in early as his RBI double put the Smokies in front 2-0 in the first. Hoping that would be enough of a cushion for Thompson, who was making his first start in a while, two-run homers by Troy Johnston and Griffin Conine had the Bule Wahoos in front 4-2. Thompson would allow Devin Hairston single later in the inning as he was hit hard in this outing. Apart from the first, Pensacola did nothing offensively, giving the Smokies a chance to battle back. Unfortunately, a Jake Slaughter homer in the sixth was all they could get as they dropped another close one to the Blue Wahoos. Yonathan Perlaza led the way with two hits while five others grabbed one. There's always time for one more cast ??. The final game of the series is slated for 5:05pm EDT tomorrow evening. pic.twitter.com/acgw7FHTYL
At some point, you have to feel for Kohl Franklin as this season has not gone as planned for him. The top 10 prospect is not only searching for his first win, but his 10.13 ERA hasn't made things easy. Although only lasting three innings, Franklin allowed just one run as he was much better. Joe Nahas took over and was tagged with four runs in the loss as Charlie Neuweiler tossed six strong innings in the win. The lone run Franklin allowed came in the second inning off a double steal as Dillan Shrum raced home on the back end. South Bend tied things up in the third off the Yeison Santana ground out as things were close early. Morgan McCullough put the River Bandits in front for good in the fourth with a sacrifice fly before the three-run fifth anchored by the Kale Emshoff homer put the game away. With five hits, the offense was hard to come by as Santana, Yohendrick Pinango, Jake Washer, Fabian Pertuz, and Luis Verdugo had hits. We go for the split tomorrow at 2:00 ET. pic.twitter.com/ILm5OuRJTi
Although it wasn't a shutout, the Pelicans picked up their fourth win of the week and inch closer to the first-half division title with a 44-18 record. Tyler Schlaffer continued to build on his previous two outings, tossing five innings of one-run ball to go with six strikeouts in a no-decision. He needed to be on top of his game as Bryan Caceres matched him pitch for pitch through five innings before the bullpen allowed four runs late. The lone run off of Schlaffer came in the third inning when Jeremy De La Rosa put the Nationals in front with an RBI single. One of the hottest hitters in minor league baseball remains Ezequiel Pagan, whose RBI triple in the fifth put the Pelicans on top 2-1. That score held until the seventh inning when Jacob Young tied the game up with an RBI groundout as it was now a matchup between bullpens. Fortunately for the Pelicans, the offense came through late as they pushed across two runs in the seventh off a Kevin Alcantara homer and two more runs in the eighth off the Juan Mora inside-the-park homer to win 6-2. Mora and Alcantara were responsible for six of the team's nine hits as they each had three hits.OMAHA STORM CHASERS 9 - IOWA CUBS 3
PENSACOLA BLUE WAHOOS 5 - TENNESSEE SMOKIES 3
QUAD CITY RIVER BANDITS 6 - SOUTH BEND CUBS 1
MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS 6 - FREDERICKSBURG NATIONALS 2
ACL CUBS 6 - ACL ATHLETICS 2
Sparked by a five-run inning, the ACL Cubs topped the Athletics and continue to play much better baseball. After the Athletics grabbed an early 1-0 lead off a wild pitch, Ronnier Quintero tied things up with a fourth-inning single before going to work in the fifth.
Miguel Pabon started that rally with an RBI single, but the bases-clearing Rafael Morel double was the game-winning hit as the Cubs were up 5-1. Brayan Altuve got in on the fun with an RBI hit to cap off that inning with the Cubs up 6-1 and winning 6-2. Quintero had the hot hand on offense with three hits as Pabon and Morel added multi-hit games.
DSL CUBS RED 9 - DSL CUBS BLUE 1
Another week of DSL play ended with both Cubs teams facing off. DSL Red took the win on Saturday, using strong pitching and a relentless offense to do the trick.
Yenrri Rojas set the tone for DSL Red, allowing just two hits in four shutout innings. With Adrian Martinez allowing nine runs in just two innings, Joel Jimenez played a massive role as he kept the DSL Red offense off the board the rest of the way.
DSL Red wasted little time grabbing the lead as they put the game away with a five-run first. Adan Sanchez picked up a sacrifice fly before Yidel Diaz delivered the game-winning knock with an RBI single. Add in a pair of errors and a Jose Escobar single, and DSL Red took a 5-0 lead through one inning.
As if that wasn't good enough, DSL Red was at it again in the third, with four more runs coming across to score on three RBI doubles. Carlos Ramos (2), Escobar, and Lizardo Ruiz came through with those RBI hits as things were now 9-0 in DSL Red's favor. It took seven innings for DSL Blue to score as Luis Maza ended the shutout with an RBI fielder's choice in the 9-1 loss.
