MWL South Bend Cubs

Brody McCullough Deals in Cubs 5-0 Shutout

July 19, 2023 - Midwest League (MWL)
South Bend Cubs News Release


SOUTH BEND, IN - Tuesday night West Michigan shutout the Cubs in the series opener; Wednesday afternoon South Bend returned the favor with their sixth shutout win of the season.

Brody McCullough made his third start with the Cubs on Wednesday and in his first outing since the break he dealt 4.1 innings of shutout baseball, while punching out seven along the way. The 10th rounder from last year put forth his best outing in High-A, and came out with a flourish, as West Michigan went 1-for-8 with 4 K's the first time through the order.

With the right-hander making his second Four Winds Field start didn't factor in the decision, the bullpen was happy to takeover again for some extended work. Adam Laskey notched his second win a row, taking the Cubs through the sixth without allowing a run. From there it was Frankie Scalzo Jr. for two more scoreless and Sheldon Reed shut the door in the ninth.

Since the ninth inning of Friday's game, the Cubs bullpen has logged 22 innings while allowing just one earned run.

On the flip side Wilkel Hernandez was commanding the strike zone and lights out on the mound for the first few innings. The Cubs got to him in the third to draw first blood with a two-out single from Kevin Alcántara and then an RBI double to right from Moises Ballesteros after Alcántara stole second.

Alcántara extended his on-base streak to 23 games, the longest for a South Bend since Delvin Zinn reached 23 games in a row in early 2019.

Hernandez tallied seven strikeouts and didn't issue a walk across five innings.

The game stood 1-0 Cubs until they added on late with a run in the sixth and a three-spot in the seventh.

The sixth inning was rather bizarre. Ezequiel Pagan, in his first action of the series, bunted down the third base line on the first pitch of the frame against a new arm in Jordan Marks. Izaac Pacheco fielded it on the run but his throw to sailed high and wide, allowing Pagan to reach second base. A ground out to short off the bat of James Triantos advanced Pagan to third and with the infield drawn in he scored on a wild pitch to the backstop.

An inning later the Cubs sent all nine to the plate against former Oklahoma Sooner closer Trevin Michael. Kevin Made led things off with a double and moved to third on an error by Carlos Mendoza that gave the Cubs men at the corner with no outs. Felix Stevens hit one sharply to the left side of the infield that Luis Garcia really had nowhere to go with, and pocketed it, resulting in an infield single to make it 2-0. Ethan Hearn dropped down the bunt of the year down the line at third to load the bases. Pagan hit a floating liner to center to score Pertuz and two batters later Yohendrick Pinango smoked one through the right side of the infield at 112 mph to give South Bend a 5-0 cushion.

After being blanked for just the second time this season on Tuesday, four Cubs pitchers combined for South Bend's sixth shutout of the season on the mound, and their first since the no-hitter two weeks ago against Peoria.

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Midwest League Stories from July 19, 2023


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