Cubs Minor League News: Cubs DSL teams go 1-2, Caissie, Torres, and Granadillo impressive, |
Mondays are for Rookie League fun.
That will be the case for the rest of the season as the Rookie League takes center stage on Monday, with the rest of the system using that day as a travel day. While you have one rookie league team in Arizona who has proven to be one of the best in the league, both DSL Rookie teams are struggling to find their footing in the early part of the season. That was once again the trend last night, as you can see which teams are heading in a good direction and which ones are not. At the end of the day, the Cubs saw their system go 1-2 with the expected team to win and the expected ones to lose based on what has transpired thus far.
Now sitting at 11-4 following their win, the ACL Cubs are proving to be a force in the ACL this season. One thing that stands out from the rest of the league is the amount of firepower this team has offensively, and they once again put that on display Monday. Led by starter Porter Hodge who survived five innings on the mound, the Cubs not only got off to a fast start, but an impressive start that carried over throughout the game. Hodge surrendered five runs in five innings of work, but just like Alec Mills against St. Louis, he was only charged with two as his line looked better than the final line. Errors were the theme of the night, with the Cubs grabbing a 2-0 lead in the first curtesy of a Rafael Morel groundout and throwing error on the play. That lead ballooned from 2-0 to 6-0 in the second, with Malcom Quintero getting things started with his first homer of the season. Add in the Reivaj Garcia single and Owen Caissie double, and the Cubs were off and running early. After an error, put the Diamondback on the board in the second, Juan Batista had the crowd on their feet as his inside the park homer in the third pulled the Diamondbacks within 6-2. That was until the Cubs used another crooked number inning in the fourth to continue pouring it on as Jose Lopez picked up a sacrifice fly followed by RBI singles from Shendrik Apostel and Yovanny Cuevas. Division De Los Santos had the hot hand the next few innings picking up a solo homer in the fourth before adding an RBI single in the fifth to close the deficit to 9-5. The Cubs then used a Reggie Preciado single followed by a Caissie walk to take an 11-5 lead before Jose Lopez picked up a homer and a triple later in the game to cap off the scoring for the Cubs as they cruised 14-8. The Cubs pounded out 18 hits in the win, with Caissie leading the way with three hits to go with his three RBIs. He also worked three walks and reached base six times in the win. Malcom Quintero added three hits of his own while, Cuevas, Apostel, Lopez, Garcia, and Preciado all had multi-hit efforts in the win. Yeison Santana came off the bench as a pinch hitter and went hitless.
There wasn't much to like about the Cubs loss to the DSL Red Sox 16-2, as they fell to 1-5 on the season. Right from the start, you could tell it was going to be a long game with three pitchers getting charged with at least three earned runs and some even served up seven. Joandy Duran was the most successful of all the pitchers as he allowed two runs in two innings of work, but none were earned to go with four punchouts. Right from the start, it was going to be a long afternoon as the Red Sox took a 1-0 lead after one. The second inning is when things went south as the Red Sox pushed across five runs to take a 6-0 lead as Lyonell James, Juan Chacon, and Johnfrank Salazar all had RBI hits that inning to go with a pair of bases-loaded walks. An RBI single in the third, followed by a passed ball in the fifth, had the Red Sox up 8-0 before another big inning had the Cubs scratching their heads in the sixth. Sparked by an Alexis Hernandez RBI single, the Red Sox scored five runs in an inning for the second time, with Jhostynxon Garcia delivering the big three-run shot to push things to 13-0. The Red Sox build their lead to 16-0 before the Cubs finally got something going in the ninth inning. Dilan Granadillo and Jerry Torres picked up RBI singles to end the shutout bid, but that was the brunt of the excitement in a lopsided loss. Torres and Granadillo were the catalysts on offense as they combined for four of the team's six hits to go with both RBIs.
Although the final score didn't go in the Cubs favor, that doesn't tell the whole story as the Cardinals scored 10 runs across the final three frames, including six in the seventh to pick up a come from behind win. Starter Kenyi Perez and Albaro Santana were very good through five innings, as they limited the Cardinals to just three runs on four hits to go with seven strikeouts. That included a two-run first-inning double from Carlos Carmona that gave the Cardinals a quick 2-0 lead. That score would hold up until the bottom of the third when the Pedro Ramirez RBI ground out, got the Cubs on the board, and cut the deficit in half. One inning later saw the Cubs grab a brief 3-2 lead as Andrews Cruz reached on an error, which resulted in two runs coming across to score. After the Cardinals tied things up in the fifth off the Romtres Cabrera force out, they took the lead for good in the sixth, pushing across four runs to jump in front 7-3. Two of those runs came off bases-loaded walks, with the other two coming on errors as the Cubs defense did them no favors. Fortunately, the offense wasn't done making things interesting as they used a big inning of their own to keep things close. With a wild pitch bringing home the first run, Cruz singled home another run before a bases-loaded walk to Brayan Altuve had the Cubs within 7-6. That would be as close as the Cubs would get as the Cardinals used two homers, including a Cabrera grand slam, to score six times in the seventh and pull away 13-6. Starlin Mateo led the offense with two hits as they picked up six hits as a team. Cruz, Wilmer Bolivar, Anderson Suriel, and Cristian More picked up the remaining four hits for the Cubs. No. 4 prospect Cristian Hernandez was given the day off in the loss. ACL CUBS 14 – ACL DIAMONDBACKS 8
DSL RED SOX BLUE 16 – DSL CUBS BLUE 2
DSL CARDINALS RED 13 – DSL CUBS RED 6
