Cubs Minor League News |
Dustin Riese
· · 6 hours ago
Another week, and another Monday, as Monday will always be known as Rookie League Monday. Today was an interesting day for the Cubs as there were some strong pitching performances, great hitting and just overall strong play from several of the Cubs younger prospects as they posted a (1-2) record.
The lone win on the night came in the desert, and it came in walk-off fashion as the Cubs walked off the Guardians 4-3. Dawson Netz got the ball for the Cubs, and despite not being perfect, he did his best to grind away against the Guardians' offense. Sure, he walked four and struck out three, but with six innings of work and only three runs allowed, he did his part on the mound to keep things close. Netz was backed by an offense that struggled to hit the ball early yet found a way to push across two runs with Ismael Mena working a bases-loaded walk in the second ahead of a third-inning steal of home that had the Cubs in front 2-0. All of the Guardians' damage in this one came in one inning, as they used a three-run fourth inning to battle back and take the lead. Robert Arias opened the scoring for the Guardians in that inning with an RBI single, while the Yeiferth Castillo grounder brought things back to even 2-2. Later in the inning, and it was Luis De La Cruz coming through as his sacrifice fly had the Guardians on top 3-2. Almost as quickly as the Cubs fell behind, things were tied once again with Fernando Cruz picking up an RBI double, as that was the only RBI to come off a hit. Not only would that 3-3 score hold for the rest of the way, but it also held until the bottom of the ninth, when the Cubs were down to their final outs. The Cesar Lugo RBI forceout was the difference in the Cubs' walk-off 4-3 win. Ronny Cruz continues to see the ball well as he led the Cubs with two hits. Fernando Cruz added a hit in the win, as did Lugo Mena and Jan Luis Reyes, as the Cubs had six hits.
Despite outhitting the Mariners 3-1, it was the Cubs' offense that failed to score as the Mariners found a way to get the job done 1-0. Luis Ghisays was on the losing end of this decision as he fell to 0-3 on the season despite a 3.20 ERA. He walked one and struck out five across his five innings while allowing just one hit, which came on the Dawel Joseph homer in the fourth that gave the Mariners a 1-0 lead. That is all the offense they would need, as Cristian Aray gave the Mariners five shutout innings before Max Rodriguez took care of the final two. Juan Cabada, Ivan Cespedes, and Leonel Vivas had the three hits for the Cubs.
With the Cubs set to open the month of July with the Guardians on Tuesday, it was one of their rookie league teams taking a swing at the Guardians on Monday. This was a game all about the offense, as 23 total runs were scored as part of a 14-9 Guardians win. Apart from 2 1/3 strong innings of relief from Fleury Soriano, there wasn't much pitching to talk about, as this was all about the offenses right from the jump. That included a three-run first that saw the Cubs open up an instant 3-0 lead as a trio of RBI doubles from Robin Ortiz, Julio Acosta, and Daniel Campos led to those early runs. Not only did the Guardians' offense respond, but they responded massively, knocking home five runs to take a 5-3 lead after one inning. Three of those runs came on a bases-loaded hit by pitch, a walk, and a wild pitch, while the two-run single from Romer Taveras put the Guardians in front. It was a lead they would never give up as both teams added a pair of runs in the second and fourth innings before another big inning from the Guardians broke the game open in the fifth. Wuinder Torres and Henis Brito were responsible for two of the four runs on their doubles, with Taveras adding a two-run single to make this a 10-4 game. The Cubs continued to battle back in the sixth with an Ortiz double pair with an Acosta single leading to two runs to pull the Cubs within 10-6. They continued to fight back in the seventh as RBI singles from Juan Tomas and Luis Santos made this an 11-8 game. That was as close as the Cubs would get as the Guardians capitalized on several Cubs miscues in the bottom of the seventh to add three runs to open up a late 14-8 lead. Josias Ramirez added a solo homer later in the game to close out the scoring in the 14-8 Guardians win.ACL CUBS 4 - ACL GUARDIANS 3
DSL MARINERS 1 - DSL RED CUBS 0
DSL GUARDIANS 14 - DSL CUBS BLUE 9
