Cubs Minor League News: Rookie League Action |
With just eight days remaining in the 2024 Rookie League season, things are getting down to the wire. This will be the second-to-last Rookie League Monday. Barring a late-season hot steak and some help along the way, it does look like both of the Cubs DSL teams will be sitting home for the postseason.
Until then, fans have a few more opportunities to watch this team play or follow, as media coverage is non-existent at this level. With one of their three games getting canceled on the day, the Cubs still had two games and posted a 1-1 record for the afternoon.
If any of these teams are to make the postseason, it would be DSL Blue, which is 26-23 on the season and third in their division. They will need some help, of course, to get in, but if they finish the season with a winning record, it would be a huge accomplishment. Despite Geovanny Vasquez's short two-inning start, the Cubs' pitching was very good. He was relieved by Ronny Lopez, who struck out five in three scoreless frames, and Jordi Romero, who closed things out. Both of the Royals' runs came against Vasquez, as a wild pitch mixed with an error led to those runs and put the Cubs in an early 2-0 hole. It was in the third inning when the Cubs began chipping away at their lead as they scored one run against each of the Royals' three pitchers. That included the Ludwing Espinoza single in the third to put the Cubs on the board before Josias Ramirez tied things up in the sixth with a triple. The Cubs capped off their comeback effort in the seventh as a steal of home on a strikeout led to the winning run as the Cubs picked up the 3-2 win. Espinoza and his two hits led the Cubs as he was joined by Ramirez. Although the Cubs allowed two runs, they didn't allow a hit and combined to toss the first no-hitter in the Cubs organization this season.
While the Cubs MLB team gears up to play the Guardians tonight, their DSL team faced off against them earlier today in hopes of closing the season strong. Hopefully, this isn't a sign of things to come later, as the Guardians used a five-run fourth inning to break the game open before winning 9-3. Oddly enough, it was the Cubs who opened up the scoring first as the Daniel Campos first-inning grounder gave them an early 1-0 lead, which was the only lead they would have in the game. Come the second inning, the Guardians tied things up off a throwing error before taking a 2-1 lead off the Pedro Delmargo double in the third. The Cubs continued to keep things close in the top half of the fourth, with Vicent Nunez cashing in with an RBI single to tie things up 2-2 before the Guardians broke things open with a five-run bottom of the fourth to seize command of the game. Robert Arias worked a go-ahead bases-loaded walk to get the scoring started before a wild pitch pushed home the winning run. That was the first of two wild pitches in that inning, but the Juneiker Caceras triple broke the game open to help the Guardians open up a 7-2 lead. Campos closed out the scoring in the top half of the fifth for the Cubs with a sacrifice fly before the Guardians tacked on two additional runs to pick up the 9-3 win. The Cubs tallied five hits in the win, with Fernando Cruz leading the way with two.DSL CUBS BLUE 3 - DSL ROYALS 2
DSL GUARDIANS 9 - DSL CUBS RED 3
