Cubs Minor League News: Verdugo with 5 hits, Alcantara with 4 RBIs, SB score 26 runs, more
Verdugo had five hits in the win

Cubs Minor League News: Verdugo with 5 hits, Alcantara with 4 RBIs, SB score 26 runs, more
by - Senior Writer - Thu Sep 07 11:41:48 GMT-05:00 2023

Another day, and another day of .500 baseball for the Cubs Minor League system as they continue to struggle to put wins together. Granted, the results in the early part of this week are better than the results they had last week, but they still dropped a pair of crucial games that could come back to haunt the Cubs later on.

Once again, both losses came from the two teams battling for playoff spots, as they haven't been it easy on themselves. You think that has to change at some point, but all that matters right now is seeing a lot of the Cubs minor leaguers get back on track after a rough week last week.

OMAHA STORM CHASERS 11 - IOWA CUBS 7

With every passing game, the Cubs are further worsening their playoff chances, as they are 6.5 games out of a playoff spot after this loss. What is more concerning is the rapid decline of Caleb Kilian as he is limping to the finish line. Kilian was once the top pitching prospect in the Cubs system, and at some point, you have to wonder if he will ever find it again. Kilian lasted just one inning and served up six earned runs, which was too much for the Cubs to overcome.

Devin Mann opened the scoring for Omaha in the first with an RBI double, with Tyler Gentry smoking a three-run shot shortly after to extend the lead to 4-0. On the verge of escaping the inning without further damage, Morgan McCullough roped an RBI triple just out of the reach of Pete Crow-Armstrong to push home two more runs and put the Cubs in a 6-0 hole.

Despite facing a significant deficit early, the Cubs did a great job battling back and used the long ball to make things close. Luis Vazquez picked up his ninth homer with Iowa and 20th of the season in the second to pull the Cubs within 6-3, with Jared Young adding his third homer in two days in the next inning to make it 7-6.

Trailing 8-6 in the sixth, Bryce Windham pulled the Cubs within one as his RBI single made things 8-7.

That was as close as the Cubs would get as Omaha tacked on three runs off of Ben Brown in the seventh to pick up the 11-7 win. Windham and Vazquez led the offense with two hits, picking up three RBIs in the loss. Brandon Hughes and Brown both returned from the IL, and neither pitched well in their return.

IOWA CUBS vs. OMAHA STORM CHASERS (Cancelled)

MISSISSIPPI BRAVES 4 - TENNESSEE SMOKIES 3

The Smokies can't buy a win right now as they dropped their eighth consecutive game on Wednesday. This one stings more than the rest, as they held an early 3-0 lead before getting walked off in the ninth. Brandon Birdsell made another start, which was his best yet in AA. Birdsell gave the Smokies five shutout innings, allowing two hits and striking out five, as his ERA is sitting at 3.47 with the Smokies.

Birdsell was backed by some run support in the first half of the game, with BJ Murray Jr. opening the scoring with a fourth-inning RBI double to give Tennessee a 1-0 lead. Murray Jr. added an RBI single one inning later to push across another run, with Owen Caissie getting in on the action with an RBI double as the Smokies held a 3-0 lead after five.

Holding that 3-0 lead in the sixth, Mississippi finally got on the board as they touched up Blake Whitney for two runs in the bottom of the sixth. Luke Waddell used an RBI single to make things 3-1 with an RBI double, bringing home the second run of the game for the Braves. Tennessee managed to hold that 3-2 lead into the final inning as Porter Hodge was looking to lock things down to end the streak.

Mostly reliable this season, Hodge wasn't at his best as a pair of RBI singles from Javier Valdes and Cody Milligan lifted the Braves to a walk-off win as they took down the Smokies 4-3.

Caissie and Murray Jr. paced the offense with two hits while driving in three. Despite the loss, the Smokies remain in a good position as both Chattanooga and Rocket City lost again.

SOUTH BEND CUBS 26 - QUAD CITIES RIVER BANDITS 7

Where has this offense been all season? For whatever reason, the Cubs have saved their best offense for the season's final week after they are out of contention. Anytime you score 26 runs, you are doing something right, but all 26 runs came in the first five innings, which is no small feat.

Connor Noland may not have won, but he pitched well. Noland scattered two hits in four innings, but with some command issues, he did allow three runs. He turned things over to Derek Casey and Joe Nahas as Casey picked up the win to lower his ERA to 2.93. The Cubs offense was the story in this one, and they wasted no time opening the scoring as the James Triantos single in the first had South Bend up 1-0, and they never looked back.

After a throwing error made things 2-0, Christian Franklin used a sacrifice fly to close out a three-run first with the Cubs leading 3-0. Immediately following a strong first inning, the Cubs offense was at it again in the second, with Triantos getting things started again with a two-run triple before coming home on a Kevin Alcantara RBI groundout. Moises Ballesteros would add a homer later in the inning as the Cubs pushed their lead to 7-0 after two.

Once the third inning rolled around, Noland began to run into trouble as he served up a Jean Ramirez RBI double to put Quad Cities on the board, with an RBI groundout making things 7-2. Fortunately for him, the South Bend offense couldn't be stopped as they continued to put up crooked numbers left and right.

Felix Stevens opened the scoring in the bottom of the third with a solo blast, only to have Luis Verdugo and Ezequiel Pagan pick up RBI doubles to make things 10-2.

Another RBI from Alcantara capped off their second straight four-run frame as South Bend held an 11-2 lead. After Shervyn Newton homered in the top half of the fourth to make things 11-3, the Cubs offense went ballistic, scoring 11 times in the bottom of the fourth to blow the game wide open and more.

Yohendrick Pinango started things off with an RBI single, while the Josh Rivera homer made things 14-2.

Another RBI hit from Triantos pushed the Cubs lead to 15-2, with Alcantara extending it to 17-2 with an RBI double. Alcantara would later come around to score on a wild pitch as the Cubs batted around and still weren't done. Pinango and Triantos picked their second RBI hits of the inning, sandwiched around another Verdugo RBI as South Bend opened up a 22-3 lead and had the River Bandits begging for mercy.

Even with Ramirez homering in the top of the fifth to make things 22-4, the Cubs continued to flex their muscles, with Pinango and Verdugo adding a pair of two-run shots in the bottom of the fifth to push the Cubs lead out to 26-4. Those would be the final runs of the night for South Bend as Herard Gonzalez closed out the scoring for Quad Cities with a bases-loaded RBI double in the eighth to make things 26-7.

The Cubs had contributions from everyone in their lineup, but it was Triantos coming away with a four-hit, five-RBI night to lead the way. Verdugo added five RBIs with five hits, while Pinango picked up four hits and four RBIs. Despite only having one hit in the game, Alcantara did a great job manufacturing runs and drove in four in the win.

MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS 5 - COLUMBIA FIREFLIES 2

Two games in and two game-winning homers for Brian Kalmer as his 2023 summer continues to roll on. Led by another impressive pitching performance from Jackson Ferris and that Kalmer homer, the Pelicans won again 5-2. Ferris has been locked in for a while, but his best starts of the season happen to be his last two.

Ferris rolled through five innings, allowing just one hit and striking out six as his ERA fell to 3.38.

Sam Armstrong took over for him and allowed two runs before Garrett Brown secured his first save. It didn't take the Pelicans long to score as Malcolm Quintero gave them the lead for good in the second with an RBI single to make things 1-0.

That was until the Kalmer three-run blast in the fourth opened up a 4-0 lead as that homer will go down as the second game-winner in as many days for the rookie. It took six innings for Columbia to come through, but with one swing, the Fireflies cut the deficit in half as Trevor Werner delivered a two-run triple to make things 4-2. Columbia wouldn't get any closer as the Pedro Ramirez homer in the bottom of the sixth closed out the scoring in another Birds win.

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