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April 20 Game Notes: Iowa at Louisville

April 20, 2022 - International League (IL)
Iowa Cubs News Release


IOWA CUBS (7-5) vs. LOUISVILLE BATS (3-10)

Wednesday, April 20, 2022 - 11:05 AM ET - Louisville Slugger Field - Louisville, KY

RHP Adrian Sampson (0-1, 6.00) vs. RHP Graham Ashcraft (1-1, 1.08)

TODAY'S GAME: After taking game one of the series last night, Iowa will send Adrian Sampson to the mound looking to take a 2-0 series lead. Through two starts, Sampson is 0-1 with a 6.00 ERA this year, allowing five runs (four earned) on seven hits over six innings pitched. The right-hander has also allowed two home runs, hit a batter, walked a batter and struck out three. He tossed two innings in his first outing against Buffalo and four against Toledo in his most recent start. Opposite of Sampson will be righty Graham Ashcraft toeing the rubber for the Bats. Ashcraft is 1-1 with a 1.08 ERA in two starts this year, losing his first game to St. Paul but bouncing back for a win against Omaha last time out. The No. 8 prospect in Cincinnati's system has walked five batters compared to nine strikeouts over 8.1 innings pitched, allowing six runs (one earned) on nine hits.

RECORD BREAKDOWN: With a win today, Iowa would reach the .500 mark on the road for the second time this year, and their first since being 1-1. Iowa moved to 4-0 on the season with 10 or more hits after recording 11 hits in their victory last night. They also went to 5-0 on the year when they out-hit their opponent, winning last night's game while out-hitting Louisville by six hits, 11-5. Louisville is the first National League affiliate Iowa has played this year, moving to 1-0 against NL affiliated teams. They are 6-5 against teams with an American League affiliation. The I-Cubs are also 5-0 when Jared Young bats third in the lineup and 3-0 when John Hicks starts behind the plate.

YOUNG AGAIN: After going 3-for-20 through his first six games this season, Jared Young has now collected multi-hit games in three straight outings. Over those three games, he has gone 7-for-13 with three home runs, a double, a walk and nine RBI. The effort has boosted his season average to .303, which ranks second on the team. In last night's opener in Louisville alone, Young went 3-for-5 with two home runs and four RBI. That performance makes him the first I-Cub to log a multi-homer game since Brennen Davis hit two in his Triple-A debut on September 14, 2021. Young now leads the team in homers (5), RBI (12), and total bases (26) and is tied for the lead in hits (10) and runs scored (8). He's not only rising to the top of the team rankings, however; with his two-homer performance in the series opener, Young now ranks third in the International League in OPS (1.166) while tying for second in home runs and fourth in RBI.

MAKING HIS PRESENCE FELT: Alfonso Rivas hit a solo home run in his return to the Iowa Cubs lineup last night, his first of the year. Rivas went 1-for-4 with a solo home run in the eighth inning, marking his first home run since September 14 last year against Philadelphia. Not known for his power, Rivas hit just four home runs in 197 at-bats with Iowa last year. The infielder broke camp with Chicago as part of their Opening Day roster, making the first Opening Day Major League roster of his career. Rivas went 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI in two games with Chicago before being optioned to Triple-A. Last year with Iowa, he hit .284 (56-for-197) with 32 RBI in 58 games. In July, his only full month on the roster, Rivas led the team in hits (27), total bases (45), doubles (6), RBI (17), walks (19) and tied for the lead in home runs with all four that he hit coming in July. He reached base safely in 51 of his 58 games and recorded the longest hitting streak (12) and the longest on-base streak (26) by an I-Cubs hitter last year.

USING THE LONG BALL: Iowa hit four home runs accounting for 71% (5-of-7) of their runs in last night's 7-2 win over Louisville. Entering the game, the I-Cubs were ranked tied for 11th in the International League in home runs with 10. After their four home runs last night, they now rank eighth in the International League with 14 on the year. In each of their first two series, Iowa hit five home total home runs. After hitting four long-balls in game one of the series against Louisville, they are now just one home run shy of tying their series-high mark in their third series of the year. Two of their four home runs came on back-to-back batters, with Jared Young and Brennen Davis each taking Randy Wynne deep with solo shots in the fourth inning. It marked the first time Iowa had hit back-to-back deep flies since September 16 of last year at Omaha, when Abiatal Avelino and Davis went back-to-back.

A CLEAN DEFENSIVE GAME: The highlights of last night's game were the home runs and the pitching, but lost in the mix was Iowa's clean fielding. The I-Cubs did not commit an error for just the fifth time this season, committing at least one error in seven of their 12 games played. With 15 errors on the year, Iowa is ranked 25th in the entire Triple-A and 18th in the International League. They entered last night's game coming off a two-error performance on Saturday and have the chance today to make it two consecutive errorless games for the first time this year. Iowa is 2-2 when they don't have an error, 3-0 when committing one error and 1-0 when committing three or more errors on the season.

KEEP IT ROLLING: Donnie Dewees sent Iowa home winners on Saturday, hitting a walk-off single in the 10th inning to give Iowa a 3-2 win over the Toledo Mud Hens. The outfielder went 3-for-5 with a run scored and an RBI in that game, doubling his hit total on the season. He entered last night's game with the highest average on the team at .316 (6-for-19) and added to that with two more hits last night. Dewees is still first on the team, now hitting .348 (8-for-23) on the year. With back-to-back multi-hit games, Dewees has his first hitting streak of the year longer than one game, after having three one-game streaks entering last night.

AGAINST LOUISVILLE: Iowa took game one of their six-game set against the Bats in their first ever trip to Louisville Slugger Field. The two teams played in the American Association back in 1996, but Louisville Slugger Field didn't open until 2000. Before last year, 1996 was the last time the two teams met, and last year Louisville just came to Iowa for one six-game series. In that six-game series at Principal Park last year, the I-Cubs and Bats split the series 3-3. After last night's win, Iowa holds the all-time record over Louisville by three games at 14-11. The I-Cubs are 10-5 against Louisville at home and now 4-6 on the road entering game two of the series.

SHORT HOPS: With their win last night, Iowa has now won three games in a row, marking their longest winning streak of the season so far...last night's game was just two hours and 11 minutes long, marking their quickest game since June 27, 2019, when they played a game in two hours and 10 minutes against Omaha...Eric Stout got the victory for Iowa last night, marking the seventh different pitcher to register a win for Iowa in 2022.

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