Cubs Minor League News: Strumpf homers, Ballesteros with 17-game hit streak, Pels win |
Dustin Riese
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- Friday, May 02 2025
At this point, the Cubs would take a 2-2 night, as wins have been tough to come by. Despite another rough 1-3 showing from the Minor Leagues, most of these games were competitive and filled with excitement, which is all you can ask for.
Every season, you have those moments where you sit and what a player could've become. This season's version of that is Jordan Wicks, as he hasn't been the same pitcher since his injury in 2024. Wicks was briefly in the Cubs' bullpen but has now returned to the minors, where he will continue to start. Thursday was an overall rough outing for the left-hander as Wicks was touched up for seven runs in just 2 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out one before handing things over to the bullpen. Four of those seven runs allowed came in the second inning as the Bisons opened up the scoring in a big way. All it took was one swing from Ali Sanchez as his three-run shot would be all the offense the Bison would need. Michael Stefanic added an RBI single later in the inning to push the lead to 4-0 as the Bison were off and running. One inning later, Buffalo continued to tee off on Wicks as former Cubs catcher Christian Bethancourt connected for his second homer of the series to open up a massive 7-0 lead. Apart from those two innings, the Bison offense was held in check, as in the eighth inning, a wild pitch was the only other run they would get. It took Iowa eight innings to get a run across, and it came from Chase Strumpf as he connected for his fourth homer of the season to make this an 8-1 game, which is how things would end. Strumpf gets us on the board late Take away the start from Wicks, and the Cubs' bullpen was outstanding as Michael Fulmer delivered 2 1/3 scoreless frames, with Gavin Hollowell adding two scoreless outings. Strumpf was responsible for two of the five hits. Final. pic.twitter.com/F2hNENn4lR
It was another rough night for the Smokies as their offense was held in check most of the night. Trailing by five in the ninth, Knoxville began to make a late-game comeback only to come up short in the end. This was one of those painful losses, as Sam Armstrong deserved a win, as you can see from his effort on the mound. The right-hander gave the Smokies six impressive innings, allowing two runs on four hits to go with four strikeouts. Typically, when the Smokies starters give up two runs or less, you tend to like their chances, but with Sam Aldegheri striking out eight in seven innings, it was tough for Knoxville to get anything going offensively. It took four innings for either side to score, and Denzer Guzman put Rocket City on top for good with an RBI double. Guzman would come into score later in the inning on a Cole Fontenelle single to open up a 2-0 lead. That score would hold until the eighth when David Calabrese unloaded for a solo shot to push the lead to 3-0 before Rocket City tacked on two more in the ninth to open up a 5-0 lead. Shut out up to this point, the Smokies took long enough to score, but once they did, things got interesting. After getting their first run on a wild pitch, Knoxville responded with a pair of RBI singles from Jordan Nwogu and Jaylen Palmer, and suddenly, this was a 5-3 game with the Smokies still threatening. Needing one more hit to tie things up, Hayden Cantrelle flew out to end the game, resulting in another loss. The Smokies start to fight back, but ultimately fall 5-3. | @zips3mincarwash
No matter what the Cubs do, they can't buy a win on the road, as Thursday saw them put forth an impressive offensive effort only to have the pitching let them down. Jefferson Rojas had a great day at the plate with two hits and four RBIs, but once again the Cubs struggled to put things away late. Going with an opener with Chase Watkins getting the start, Jaxon Wiggins took over in the third as he was initially supposed to start this game. Across his three innings, Wiggins struggled to find the zone and would allow four runs in his outing. However, with only two of those runs coming as earned runs, his ERA remains at 1.93. The Cubs gave Watkins and Wiggins some instant offense in the early innings as the Rojas sacrifice fly opened the scoring in the first before a Reggie Preciado grounder put the Cubs back in front 2-1 in the second. Tied up at 2-2 entering the fifth after Cedar Rapids picked up a second RBI groundout in the fourth, the Cubs offense started to break through as Rafael Morel's sacrifice fly to put the Cubs back in front 3-2. That was only the start of a four-run frame as Ivan Brethowr connected for a solo shot ahead of the Rojas two-run blast as the Cubs opened up a 6-2 lead. Rojas added an RBI single in the seventh to close out his night, as he was the engine that made the offense go. As good as he was, the bullpen couldn't get the job done, allowing consecutive three-run frames in the fifth and sixth innings. The fifth inning saw the Cubs self-destruct on every aspect as a bases-loaded walk led to the first run that inning while an error opened the door for two more and had Cedar Rapids within 6-5. Then came the sixth, where Nate Baez took Wiggins deep to tie things up, as this was the beginning of the end for the Cubs. Cedar Rapids would tack on two more runs courtesy of a Kyle Hess double and a wild pitch to take an 8-6 lead before winning 8-7. Jordan Nwogu sparks a rally in the 9th! pic.twitter.com/7uSzFdxqff Along with Rojas and his big game, Brethowr added two hits to push his average to .313. South Bend also saw Marino Santy come through with two scoreless innings of relief to lower his ERA to 2.92.
The lone team to come away with a win was the Pelicans, who used a trio of three-run innings to pick up the win. That included a three-run 10th inning to retake the lead after letting their late-game lead disappear. While most of the night was about the offense, you can't ignore the job Nazier Mule did on the mound as he turned in another great start. Mule struck out five across five innings and allowed just one run, as his ERA sits at 2.25. He was backed by plenty of early offense as the Pelicans jumped on Travis Smith for three runs in the third to take a 3-0 lead. Matt Halbach opened the scoring with a two-run double and scored on Cameron Sisneros' double for the third run. 2-for-2, a pair of doubles and a six-game hitting streak for Cameron Sisneros! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/1tDInT1buy It wasn't until a Tyler Rodriguez double that put the Mudcats on the board in the fifth, but with the Pelicans still on top 3-1 in the eighth, Carolina had soem serious work to do. Leave it to their offense to pick up the slack as they had a three-run inning of their own up their sleeves and used a massive Demetrio Nadal homer to take their first lead of the game, 4-3. Had the Pelicans folded at this point, no one would've blamed them, but on this night, they wouldn't be denied as they answered the big eighth inning with a massive ninth inning sparked by the Halbach single to tie things up. NOT. DONE. YET. There was also an error that allowed Anderson Suriel to reach base and scored two additional runs to give the Pelicans a 6-4 lead. To the bottom of the ninth we go! Birds lead 6-4. pic.twitter.com/71KlA2j1Ad Just when you thought that would be enough to win this game, the Mudcats came roaring back as a Braylon Payne single had the Mudcats within 6-5, only to have a sacrifice fly to tie things up and send things into extras. It was in the 10th when the Pelicans offense put the game away for good as a pair of RBI singles for Angel Cepeda, and Sisneros capped off another three-run inning, resulting in the 9-6 win. Back in front! Angel Cepeda pushes the Birds ahead in the 10th. pic.twitter.com/uI2eVRkNEI Sisneros and Halbach combined for six hits and six RBIs, but Sisneros led the way with four hits. Myrtle Beach had 14 hits in the win. 1-0 in May! 😎#MBPelicans | @CampersInnRV pic.twitter.com/A7mCsEXF8PBUFFALO BISONS 8 - IOWA CUBS 1
9-1 Buffalo pic.twitter.com/aZurp95s3a
ROCKET CITY TRASH PANDAS 5 - KNOXVILLE SMOKIES 3
Box Score: https://t.co/lKtFrtV9DC pic.twitter.com/MMKaAek5uICEDAR RAPIDS KERNELS 8 - SOUTH BEND CUBS 7
MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS 9 - CAROLINA MUDCATS 6 (F/10)
Matt Halbach ties the game in the ninth. pic.twitter.com/M5Q7xn7g3h
