Down on Cubs Farm: Patterson impressive, Cam Balego homers, South Bend edged at home, more |
For the second night in a row, things were quiet on the farm, but three teams were still in action.
Despite the Cubs going 1-2 for the day, several new players continue to make impacts with their new teams as the system is starting to look good. IOWA CUBS: All-Star break. It was the Triple-A all-star game on Thursday in which the PCL defeated the INT 9-3. Iowa had just one all-star named to the team in Colin Rea. Iowa native Colin Rea represents @IowaCubs in Triple-A #ASG and strikes out 2 in a scoreless inning. That’s former I-Cub David Freitas catching him too. #PCL pic.twitter.com/0aFGA1OvIE
TENNESSEE SMOKIES: Off travel day. Hey guess what, the Smokies are back at home tomorrow night ?? pic.twitter.com/v6rBfsdeYH
MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS 3 – Potomac Nationals 0: The terrific story of Jack Patterson continued Thursday as the 32nd round pick from 2018 dominated the Nationals. After making a spot start for South Bend a few weeks back, Patterson has been on an impressive run with High-A Myrtle Beach, and that continued Thursday as he tossed five innings of one-hit ball to earn the win as his ERA remains 0.00. The Pelicans only needed one run to earn the victory in this one, and they got that in the second inning when Kevonte Mitchell took a bases-loaded walk to push the winning run across for the 1-0 Pels advantage. That score would hold up until the later stages of the game when Myrtle Beach was able to add some key insurance runs late. In the seventh, the Pelicans had a runner on second following a Zach Davis double before Delvin Zinn moved him to third with a groundout. Davis was able to come home and score on that same play as a throwing error from the first basemen made things a 2-0 game. Cam Balego pushed the lead to 3-0 with his 10th homer of the season in the eight before Manuel Rondon finished things off in the ninth for his first save of the season and 3-0 win. Elevate and celebrate ??
The Pelicans are continuing to battle as they are now 32-56. Don’t look now but Miguel Amaya is nearing 230 for his batting average leading the way with two hits again last night. Five other Pelicans recorded one hit in the game while the bullpen combo of Rondon and Jesus Camargo tossed four scoreless frames to preserve the excellent start from Patterson. ??Web Gem Alert??: Great all around play beginning with @delvinzinn3 knocked down the grounder, making the throw from his knees across the diamond & then @CBalego95 stretching for out. To top it off the @Pelicanbaseball get the 3-0 win over Potomac.#SCtop10 @MiLB pic.twitter.com/cYtmj8IIHh
The ball still hasn't landed, but we named @CBalego95 the @panerabread Bread Winner of the Game anyway. ????????#BirdsWin | #MBPelicans pic.twitter.com/KuTzNXXKHa
SOUTH BEND CUBS 2 – Kane County Cougars 3: Looking to build on his last start, Brailyn Marquez took the ball against Cougars looking to hand the Cubs a victory. Marquez was a little bit up and down throughout his outing lasting just 4 1/3 innings allowing 3R and 2ER runs in a losing effort as the Cubs couldn’t muster much on offense falling 3-2. Buddy Kennedy was able to put the Cougars on top 1-0 in the first benefitting from an Andy Weber error to get things going. South Bend evened things up 1-1 in the bottom of the second when Luke Reynolds hit his first of the season for the Cubs after spending most of the season with the Pelicans. It was in the fourth that saw the Cougars take the lead for good when Zack Shannon took Marquez deep for his seventh homer of the season and a 3-1 Kane County advantage. Still down by that score in the eighth South Bend was able to get a run back with hopes of a late-game rally. With one out Clayton Daniel reached base with a double to set the Cubs offense up in a great position. Weber redeemed himself of that first inning error with his 20th double and just like that it was a 3-2 game. Unfortunately, the Cubs were not able to get any closer as they were retired in order in the ninth to drop another tight one 3-2. South Bend falls to 47-40 with the loss and will look to get back to home cooking on Thursday. The top of the order was the table setter in this one with both Daniel and Weber recording multi-hit nights. Reynolds added a multi-hit effort of his own with Gustavo Polanco picking up the final hit. Following Marquez was Ivan Medina who dropped his ERA to 0.84 with 2 2/3 innings of shutout relief. In total the bullpen tossed 4 2/3 innings of scoreless relief with Peyton Remy and Eugenio Palma each adding an inning. Cubs drop the opener tonight against Kane County. We'll give it another go tomorrow at 7:05! pic.twitter.com/Y74Ent0hfK
EUGENE EMERALDS 5 – Salem-Keizer Volcanoes 6: After struggling at home with the Volcanoes earlier this week, the teams switched venues as the Emeralds were hoping for some better fortunes this time around. Early on it appeared things would be different as Kohl Franklin spun four shutout innings in his start before turning things over to the pen. That is when things went south as one big inning from Salem-Keizer proved to be the difference in the 6-5 Volcanoes win. Chase Strumpf appears to have gotten his slow start well in the rear-view mirror as put Eugene in front early with an RBI double for the 1-0 lead in the first. With Franklin dealing on the hill, the Emeralds were able to increase their lead in the fifth when Yonathan Perlaza came through with a double of his own for a 2-0 advantage. The Bottom of the fifth is when the wheels began to fall off as the Eugene pen got roughed up big time. Three straight singles to start the frame put the Volcanoes on the board with Sean Roby picking up his teams first RBI. Now with one out Ricardo Genoves delivered the big blow of the inning as he continues to crush Northwest League pitching for his sixth homer of the season to put Salem in front 4-2. Now scrambling to rally late, the Emeralds refused to go down without a fight as Nelson Maldonado rolled one through the middle in the eighth to bring home a pair and just like that, we had ourselves a 4-4 game. Eugene continued to use that momentum in the ninth when Perlaza picked up his second RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly to make things 5-4 Eugene. Looking to lock things down in the ninth, John Pomeroy was called upon as he looked for the save. Things proved to be a nightmare for him as the first three hitters reached base on singles with Franklin Labour tying things up 5-5 with nobody out. An error on the play allowed Sean Roby to reach third before Labour took second on defensive indifference. Those extra 90 feet proved to be extremely costly as Genoves picked up his fourth RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly to hand the Emeralds a walk-off 6-5 loss. Eugene is searching for answers as they are now 10-16 but may have some help from rookie ball on the way as the Cubs top two pitchers could be on the move soon. Eugene received plenty of support from the top of their order as Strumpf, Perlaza, and a 20th round selection Darius Hill all had two-hit nights with both Perlaza and Maldonado recording two-RBI games. Outside of the rough fifth inning from Brandon Hughes, the Emeralds were very strong on the mound with this year's 17th round selection Tanner Daulton throwing a pair of scoreless innings in his Emeralds debut. Tough loss tonight as the Volcanoes walk it off in the 9th, 6-5.
?? @CBalego95 | ?? @noahcloonan pic.twitter.com/TlkzCRQI3T
Bounce back and grind tomorrow in Salem. Same time same place.#GoEms
