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August 18 Game Notes: Iowa Cubs at St. Paul Saints

August 18, 2021 - International League (IL)
Iowa Cubs News Release


IOWA CUBS (39-51) @ ST. PAUL SAINTS (50-41)

Wednesday - 7:05 PM - CHS Field - St. Paul, MN

RHP Mike Hauschild (0-6, 6.14) vs. RHP Chandler Shepherd (6-5, 5.61)

TONIGHT'S GAME: Iowa and St. Paul will continue their six-game set with game two tonight after the Saints took a walk-off victory over the I-Cubs in game one. Taking the ball for Iowa will be righty Mike Hauschild, looking for his first win of the season. The righty is coming off a quality start in his last outing, but has not pitched well against the Saints, going 0-1 with an 8.53 ERA in two games. Opposite of Hauschild will be righty Chandler Shepherd toeing the rubber for St. Paul. Against Iowa, Shepherd is 1-2 in four games, including three starts. He holds a 7.36 ERA (12ER/14.2IP) while walking just one batter compared to recording 10 strikeouts. Iowa is hitting .447 against him in their four games this year.

KEEP IT ROLLING: Jared Young worked off his big game on Sunday and recorded another multi-hit effort last night, going 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI. On Sunday against Omaha, Young had his first three-hit game as a member of the I-Cubs, going 3-for-5 while also driving in three runs. He is no stranger to multi-hit games as before getting the promotion to Iowa on August 10, Young had four games this year with three or more hits with Double-A Tennessee, including two four-hit performances. The utility-man has now recorded two or more hits in two of his six games with Iowa, totaling seven hits and four RBI so far.

TURN IT AROUND: Tonight's starter, Mike Hauschild is 0-6 with a 6.41 ERA this year for Iowa, but has had some better starts than the record indicates. The righty is coming off of his third quality start of the year, allowing just two earned runs on five hits and two walks over six innings against Omaha. He is looking for his first win of the year and to turn it around against St. Paul. On the year in two starts, Hauschild is 0-1 with an 8.53 ERA. He has allowed eight runs (six earned) on nine hits, with four of those hits being long balls. He has also walked four while striking out five over his 6.1 innings of work.

IT AIN'T OVER 'TIL IT'S OVER: Both the suspended game completed yesterday and last night's scheduled game were decided in their final inning with two walk-off victories for St. Paul. The situation was familiar for both sides, as the games marked the seventh and eighth times this season that a contest between the I-Cubs and the Saints was decided in its final frame. Including yesterday's games, the Saints have now walked off the I-Cubs three times this season. The late-game antics started during the teams' first series of the season on May 15 at CHS Field, when Ryan Jeffers went deep in the bottom of the ninth to secure a Saints victory. St. Paul tacked on their second and third walk-off wins against the I-Cubs yesterday with a pair of RBI singles - the first in the bottom of the ninth of the suspended game, and the second in the bottom of the eighth of the second game, which was originally a seven-inning contest. For their part, the I-Cubs have walked off the Saints twice as well, with both victories coming in the two halves of the July 11 doubleheader at Principal Park. On top of the five combined walk-offs, the teams have also had late-game success away from home. On May 16, the day after the Saints' first walk-off against them, the I-Cubs were trailing 3-0 heading into their final frame, but scored eight runs in the top of the ninth and ended with the victory. Similarly, the I-Cubs were leading 2-1 heading into the ninth at Principal Park on May 27 before the Saints put up a three-spot to clinch another last-second win. Finally, on June 18, the only previous extra-innings contest between the two teams, Iowa put up a run in the tenth and blanked the Saints in the bottom half of the inning, boosting them to a 6-5 victory. The teams have faced one another 25 times to date, meaning that all together, nearly a third of their games have been decided in the final inning.

PLEAD THE FIFTH: Cory Abbott started yesterday's scheduled game and gave the I-Cubs four shutout innings before running into trouble in the fifth. The righty quickly put away the first two batters he faced in the inning, but then surrendered a home run, a walk, and two more hits, allowing the Saints to tie the game at three. The narrative is all too familiar for Abbott, who has struggled in the fifth inning all season. In the seven fifth innings he's completed for Iowa this year, Abbott has allowed 16 runs on 16 hits, including three home runs, and has walked six batters. All of that is good for a fifth-inning ERA of 20.57 for Iowa, more than double his overall season mark of 7.18 (50ER/62.2IP). Between Iowa and Chicago, where Abbott has pitched in the fifth twice this year, opponents are hitting .419 against him in the frame. If you take out the fifth inning and later, Abbott holds an ERA of 5.80 (33ER/49.2IP) with Iowa.

NOT YOUR TYPICAL DAY AT THE PLATE: In his last eight games, dating back to August 8 against Indianapolis, Alfonso Rivas is hitting .433 (13-for-33). Last night, he added one hit, going 1-for-4, but he also struck out twice. Rivas struck out twice in a single game just seven times over his first 44 games with the I-Cubs, and has now done so in three of his last four games. He has one double with seven runs batted in and has taken three walks over his last eight games, good for an on-base percentage of .485. Despite striking out twice in three of his last four games, he has also recorded a hit in all four of those games, while recording two hits in two of the four.

AGAINST ST. PAUL: The I-Cubs are 9-16 overall this season against St. Paul, but have played the Saints much better on the road than they have at home. Iowa is 3-9 at Principal Park, while holding a 6-7 record against St. Paul here at CHS Field. The Saints have outscored the I-Cubs by 13 this season, 118 runs to 105 runs, but Iowa leads the scoring by 14, 61-47, when the two teams play at CHS Field. Last night's loss marked Iowa's fourth one-run loss at CHS Field.

HUGE OUTS: With nobody out in the bottom of the sixth inning and runners on first and second, Scott Effross entered a tied ball game in a jam. He induced a double play and a fly out to get out of the inning with no damage done. Effross is no stranger to coming in in that type of situation, as with two more inherited runners not scoring last night, he has now only allowed three of his 11 inherited runners to score this season. He has also retired 85% (17-of-20) of the first batter he has faced when entering a game.

SHORT HOPS: Last night marked just Iowa's 12 loss this season when they out-hit their opponent, they are now 30-12 on the year...with the loss, Iowa moved to .500 at an even 8-8 in the first game of a series this season...Adrian Sampson had been with the I-Cubs since May 11 before getting his contract selected today by Chicago.

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