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August 24 Game Notes: Iowa Cubs vs. St. Paul Saints

August 24, 2022 - International League (IL)
Iowa Cubs News Release


IOWA CUBS (53-65) vs. ST. PAUL SAINTS (57-59)

Wednesday - 12:08 PM - Principal Park - Des Moines, IA

LHP Wyatt Short (2-1, 4.62) vs. RHP Jordan Balazovic (0-5, 9.26)

TODAY'S GAME: The I-Cubs and Saints will play game two of their six-game series today, with Wyatt Short taking the ball for Iowa. Short is set to make just his second start of the year for Iowa in what will be his 20th appearance of the season. The southpaw is 2-1 with a 4.62 ERA in his 19 games with Iowa this year, allowing 20 earned runs on 34 hits over 39.0 innings pitched. He has walked 23 batters compared to 33 strikeouts, allowing his opponents to hit .227 against him. Today will be his fourth game of the year against St. Paul. Opposite of Short will be righty Jordan Balazovic toeing the rubber for the Saints. Balazovic is 0-5 with a 9.26 ERA through 16 games with St. Paul this year, allowing 47 earned runs on 76 hits in 45.2 innings pitched. He has made three starts against Iowa this year, most recently on July 29, a game in which he allowed three earned runs on five hits and two walks in 2.2 innings. The righty has thrown less than three innings in eight of his 16 games this year.

DOUBLE TRIPLE: There's usually nothing unusual about Darius Hill logging a multi-hit game - he's done it a team-leading 26 times this season - but yesterday, his two hits were both triples. That made him the first I-Cubs player to have a multi-triple game since Matt Szczur on July 18, 2015. After going 6-for-17 in Indianapolis, Hill hasn't missed a step returning home. He is now hitting .343 on the year with Iowa. That not only leads the active roster, it would also lead all of Triple-A baseball by almost twenty points if Hill qualified for leaderboards. He has amassed 79 hits in 60 games as an I-Cub, helped by the many multi-hit efforts, and has gone hitless in just 14 games since joining the roster. Nearly 250 at-bats into his Triple-A career, the outfielder has struck out just 35 times, including only four multi-strikeout games. Hill's two triples also extended his current hitting streak to ten games, making him the owner of three of Iowa's six longest hitting streaks this year. With that, he has now logged a double-digit hitting streak in each of the three months he has spent in Iowa, including a career-high 12-game streak from July 15 to August 5.

NOT A BAD DEBUT: After starting the season with High-A South Bend, Alexander Canario made his Triple-A debut against St. Paul last night, going 1-for-2 with two runs scored, two walks and a strikeout. He didn't waste any time getting his first Triple-A hit out of the way, lining a single into right center field on the second pitch he saw. Canario was traded to Chicago at the deadline last year as one of the pieces for San Francisco to get Kris Bryant and the outfielder went straight to South Bend. He played 42 games with the Cubs to end the year last year and started there this year, playing in 24 games before his promotion to Double-A Tennessee on May 9. Since May 9, he has spent the entire season with the Smokies prior to last night, playing in 81 games with Tennessee. In those 81 contests, Canario hit .248 (77-for-310) with 51 runs scored, 18 doubles, 24 home runs and 61 runs batted in. That performance earned him a promotion to Iowa prior to last night's game, and the 22-year-old instantly contributed for the I-Cubs. Since the prospect rankings were updated before his promotion to Iowa, Canario was ranked as the No. 9 prospect in Chicago's system by MLB.com.

SEE YA LATER: Despite allowing the only run St. Paul scored last night, Danis Correa put up some impressive numbers in his two innings. It was just the fourth Triple-A outing of his career and his second consecutive outing throwing two innings. He allowed the one earned run on two hits last night and did not walk a batter. Over his two innings, Correa faced eight batters and retired six of them, five by way of the strikeout. It marked his season high for strikeouts in a single game and gave him two or more strikeouts in three of his four outings with Iowa.

JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED: After coming off a series in which Iowa scored three runs or less in five of the six games, they needed an offensive outburst. Against Indianapolis last series, Iowa averaged just 2.7 runs and 6.7 hits per game. On the season they hit just .205 against Indianapolis, struggling to put anything together offensively. After last night's seven runs on eight hits, Iowa is now hitting .284 against St. Paul this year, they best average against any opponent this year. Their seven runs were the most they have scored in a game since August 12 against Louisville.

KEEPING UP WITH KILIAN: Caleb Kilian picked up his team-leading fifth win of the season last night on his fourth shutout start with Iowa. He spun five innings, allowing two walks and three hits, but kept the Saints off the scoreboard. The outing continued an impressive run for Kilian, who - with the exception of his starts against Indianapolis - has been lights-out over the last two months. Even including the two rough outings, five of Kilian's last nine starts have lasted five or more innings, and seven of nine have seen him allow two or fewer runs. He has racked up 53 strikeouts over 39.1 innings since July 1 and given up just two home runs, both to Indianapolis. If you remove those two outings in Indy, the righty has gone 3-0 with a 2.16 ERA (8ER/33.1IP) over seven starts against six other teams in July and August.

SHORT'S STORY: Wyatt Short will take the mound for his second start of the year today, tying his career high for starts in a season. In six seasons of professional ball, Short has made just three starts compared to 187 relief appearances. In fact, he worked exclusively out of the bullpen until 2021, when he made his debut out of the rotation in two spot starts for Double-A Tennessee. The lefty returned to relieving with Iowa this season, but was called back to spot-starting duty on June 24 in Louisville. In that outing, he pitched four solid innings, limiting the Bats to one run on four hits and a walk. Across his three pro starts, Short has earned three no-decisions and a 2.70 ERA (3ER/10.0IP).

AGAINST ST. PAUL: Iowa and St. Paul are set to play game two of their six-game series tonight with Iowa trailing the Saints by three games now, at 8-11. Iowa's 7-1 victory last night moved them to 3-4 here at Principal Park against St. Paul this year and just 6-13 against the Saints at home all-time. Last night was their 20th all-time win against St. Paul, moving to 20-34 against the Saints through the first 54 games the two teams have played. With their six-run victory last night, Iowa cut their season scoring deficit down to 19 runs, getting outscored by St. Paul this year 124-105 through the first 19 games the two teams have played.

SHORT HOPS: Iowa's four pitchers last night struck out 13 St. Paul batters last night, combining to throw 57% of their pitches for strikes...the I-Cubs had four sacrifice plate appearances in last night's victory, the most sacrifice plate appearances in a single game all year for Iowa - their previous high was two...Jermaine Palacios broke a seven-game hitting streak against Iowa with his 0-for-3 game last night, his seven game streak was tied for the second-longest hitting streak against Iowa this year...Luis Vazquez recorded his first multi-RBI game with Iowa last night with his two-RBI double in the second inning...with their solo home run last night, St. Paul has now hit at least one home run in 15 of their 19 games against Iowa this year.

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