IL Iowa Cubs

August 6 Game Notes: Iowa Cubs vs. Toledo Mud Hens

August 6, 2023 - International League (IL)
Iowa Cubs News Release


IOWA CUBS (60-45) vs. TOLEDO MUD HENS (46-60)

Sunday, August 6 - 1:08 PM - Principal Park - Des Moines, IA

RHP Shane Greene (0-0, -.--) vs. RHP Will Vest (1-0, 9.28)

TODAY'S GAME: The I-Cubs and Mud Hens are set to close out their six-game series this afternoon at Principal Park. Iowa sends Shane Greene to the mound. Greene will be making his Cubs organizational debut today. Chicago signed the righty to a minor league contract on June 25. The long-time big leaguer has accumulated 7.021 service time with four different Major League ball clubs. This season, Greene has thrown in three games with the Arizona Complex League Cubs. Greene allowed just one earned run through 3.2 innings for a 2.25 ERA. He struck out four hitters compared to no walks. Greene's start this afternoon will be his first since May 31, 2016 when he played for the Toledo Mud Hens. The righty has made 341 appearances since that last start. Greene has faced Toledo five times in his long career. He is 1-0 with a 2.19 in 12.1 innings. Greene has also played for the Mud Hens in his career. With Toledo, he was 1-1 with a 3.35 in nine games. For the Mud Hens, Will Vest will make his first rehab start tonight. He came out of the bullpen twice this week, going 1.2 innings, allowing three runs. Bryan Sammons will piggyback with Vest. The lefty has made nine starts, 10 appearances for the Mud Hens. He is 0-3 with a 6.16 ERA on the season with 42 strikeouts compared to 21 walks. Sammons has not yet faced Iowa this season, but he threw against the I-Cubs four times in 2021. In those games, he allowed eight runs through 14.1 innings for a 5.02 ERA.

HITTING HIGGINS: Catcher P.J. Higgins had another good showing at the plate with his performance last night. In the game, Higgins went 3-for-5 with a run scored, a home run, and two RBI to lead Iowa's offense. It marked the fourth multi-hit game for Higgins in an I-Cub uniform this season and his second three-hit game since joining Iowa. Overall, on the year Higgins has been raking at the dish and he has only continued to do so since rejoining this years I-Cub squad. In 10 games with the I-Cubs this season Higgins is slashing .375/.408/.496 with three home runs and seven RBI. Earlier in the year, when he was with Reno, he had numbers of .317/.407/.473 with 15 doubles, a triple, six homers, and 46. In his professional career, Higgins has spent time at the Triple-A level over the course of four seasons (2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023) and his lowest batting average recorded at that level has been .291 with Iowa in 2019.

POSITION PITCHING: For the first time this season, the I-Cubs have used two position players as pitchers in a series. Utility man David Bote came into pitch the ninth inning with the game out of reach. It marked the first time since 2015 that Bote had pitched in a game. In his outing, the 30-year-old went 1.0 inning with three hits allowed, three earned runs, and a walk. On Thursday, Jared Young was used for a third of inning in the second game of the doubleheader. He retired the only batter he faced, getting Colt Keith to pop out to third base. That marked the second time Young came into pitch in a game this season as he did so on June 2 versus Columbus. In that outing versus the Clippers Young spun 1.1 innings with no runs allowed off one hit, two walks, hit batter, and he even recorded two strikeouts.

CROOKED NUMBERS: Through five games of the current series versus Toledo, the I-Cubs have allowed the Mud Hens to post some big numbers on the scoreboard. Last night's game didn't help the cause either as Toledo scored 19 runs on 18 hits against Iowa. The 19 runs allowed are the second-most runs Iowa has given up all year. The most runs that have been scored against Iowa are 20, which happened on July 9 versus the St. Paul Saints. The 18 hits allowed are the third-most hits given up by Iowa on the season. 21 tops the hits allowed category for the I-Cubs, which occurred on April 27 versus the Louisville Bats. Over the course of five games, Toledo has scored runs of eight, 11, nine, one, and 19 for a total of 48. That is by far the most runs Iowa was allowed through five games in a series this year. The next closest mark is 39 runs, which happened in the series versus Louisville from April 25-29. Ironically, Toledo has also scored the least number of runs scored against Iowa through five games as well. Back on May 9-13 the Mud Hens only had 13 runs cross the plate over that span.

RIGHT ON, RUCKER: The pitching for Iowa started off on a good note last night as Michael Rucker started on the bump for the I-Cubs in a bullpen day. It marked the first time Rucker had started a game since the 2019 season and the right-hander held the Mud Hens' bats in-check. Rucker's final line read of 3.0 innings, one hit, zero runs, and two strikeouts. Unfortunately for Iowa, things took a turn for the worse once his day was done. Rucker has had only brief stints so far with Iowa in 2023 but has been impressive in his outings. In two games with the I-Cubs Rucker tossed 5.1 innings, allowed just two hits for an opponent average of .111, given up one walk, recorded three strikeouts, and has yet to allow a run.

AGAINST TOLEDO: The Mud Hens secured a series victory with their 19-8 victory last night. Both Toledo and Iowa have now each snagged a series win this season with still one more to go at the end of August. Toledo leads the season series 6-5 giving Iowa the chance to tie it with a win today.

SHORT HOPS: Toledo's top two hitters in their lineup combined to go 4-for-10 with a run scored, a double, a home run and nine runs batted in last night...two of Iowa's seven pitchers used last night combined to allow 11 earned runs on eight hits and four walks in just 2.1 innings pitched...all four I-Cubs pitchers that inherited base runners allowed them to come around and score, as all eight inherited runners scored for the Mud Hens last night...last night marked just the eighth time all year Iowa has recorded 10 more hits and lost, moving to 33-8 in that scenario; the I-Cubs registered eight runs on 12 hits in defeat...there were 101 total batters in last night's game, as six of Iowa's seven pitchers used faced six or more batters.

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