After a busy trade deadline here is what the Cubs minor league affiliates did on July 31.
The AZL Cubs got back on track after a day off beating the AZL Royals 8-2. Ben Carhart and Daniel Lockhart each had two, a run scored, and an RBI. Jacob Rogers was 1-for-4 with a run scored and two RBIs. Albert Almora was leading off tonight, but left after his first at-bat. He was replaced by Yasiel Balaguert who had a nice night going 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI. Jorge Soler did not have a hit, but he did drive in his seventh run of the season and he stole his third base. Carl Lang got the start and pitched an impressive four innings allowing no runs on four hits and struck out four. Jasvis Rakkar pitched one scoreless inning striking out one. Ethan Elias got the win, but did not have a great night giving up two runs on five hits in two innings. Daniel Adrian finished the game off striking out two in the last two frames. Obviously we are a bit concerned as to why Almora left the game. When we have an update we will let you know, but it was a nice night for the Cubs.
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After winning a few 1-0 games the Boise Chiefs held on to win a shootout 10-9. It was a wild game as Boise had a big lead, but gave it up and had to win in walk-off fashion. The Cubs had a few nice nights at the plate highlighted by Daniel Vogelbach‘s first home run at Boise, a three run shot with two outs in the third. Stephen Bruno had three hits and two RBIs, raising his average to .324. Jeimer Candelario was the hero going 3-for-4 with a double and three RBIs including a walk-off double. Dong-Yub Kim and Trey Martin each had two hits on the night and Marco Hernandez connected for his third home run of the season. The Hawks pitching struggled most of the night, but the offense did the the job. Eduardo Orozco blew a save, but ended up getting his second win of the season. it is nice to see Boise maybe turning things around.
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Peoria never got things going against Quad Cities losing 5-1. Michael Jensen got the start and pitched pretty good, although he took the loss. He pitched five innings surrendering two runs on three hits, while striking out six. Jeffry Antigua continued to impress pitching two more scoreless innings. Pete Levitt struggled in his one inning of work. There wasn’t much excitement at the plate for the Chiefs on Tuesday. Javier Baez was one of the few bright spots going 2-for-4 with the Peoria’s lone run scored. Bijan Rademacher also had two hits including his third double of the season. Nothing too exciting happening for Boise tonight.
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Daytona won a close one on Tuesday beating Fort Myers 5-4. Daytona pounded out 14 hits so there were a lot of nice nights at the plate. It was good to see Timothy Saunders get back on track going 3-for-4 with double, runs scored, and an RBI. Ronald Torreyes continued his hot stretch of late adding two more hits, including his 19th double of the season and two RBIs. Matt Cerda, Rubi Silva, and John Andreoli each had two hits with Andreoli driving one run in. Austin Kirk started and got the win allowing four runs in five innings. Kirk was not as sharp as he has been in the past walking five batters, but he did strike out five. The relief was outstanding on Tuesday. Hunter Cervenka and Jeffrey Lorick combined to pitch three scoreless innings, striking out a batter each. AJ Morris closed the deal striking out two in one scoreless inning, notching his fourth save of the season.
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Tennessee’s game was suspended because of rain. The Smokies were winning 2-1 in the fourth and will be continued tomorrow as part of a double header.
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Iowa dropped another to New Orleans losing Tuesday 5-3. Frankie De La Cruz started and took the loss giving up three runs in four innings. Jairo Asencio and Marcus Hatley did a nice job in relief both throwing a scoress inning. Dave Sappelt was the main bright spot for the Cubs offense going 3-for-4 with two doubles and two runs scored. Brett Jackson hit his 21st double of the season and drove in his 46th run as well. James Adduci had another hit and is hitting .375 since his promotion to Triple-A. As I have said recently Iowa just can’t seem to get things going in the right direction.
Thanks for Reading,
-Mark
Born on Third 