IL Iowa Cubs

July 22 Game Notes: Iowa Cubs at Omaha Storm Chasers

Published on July 22, 2022 under International League (IL)
Iowa Cubs News Release


IOWA CUBS (40-49) @ OMAHA STORM CHASERS (45-44)

Friday - 7:05 PM - Werner Park - Papillion, NE

RHP Cam Sanders (1-5, 5.93) vs. LHP Angel Zerpa (0-0, -.--)

TONIGHT'S GAME: Iowa and Omaha are set to play game one of their four-game set tonight with Cam Sanders taking the ball for the I-Cubs. Sanders is 1-5 with a 5.93 ERA through 10 starts with Iowa this year, allowing 29 earned runs over his 44.0 innings pitched. The righty has allowed 36 hits and walked 30 batters while striking out 41. Opposite of Sanders will be lefty Angel Zerpa taking the ball for the Storm Chasers. Zerpa will be making his first start for Omaha this year after making 13 starts with Double-A Northwest Arkansas and two appearances with the Royals. He is 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA over 7.0 innings with Kansas City this year and 2-5 with a 4.36 ERA over 64.0 innings with the Naturals. The southpaw has struck out 69 batters compared to 21 walks in his 13 games at Double-A.

A GOOD DAY: Despite getting a start of just 2.2 innings on Sunday, Iowa's bullpen did a great job of keeping the offense in the game. Four relievers combined to cover the final 6.1 innings of the game, allowing just two unearned runs on five total hits. They also struck out five batters and walked just one, controlling the strike zone against the Bisons lineup. Ben Leeper, who pitched a scoreless ninth inning allowing Iowa to walk-off Buffalo in the bottom half, was credited with the win. It was his first win in nearly a year, earning his last victory on July 31, 2021, with Iowa against the Louisville Bats.

MAKING AN IMPACT: Dixon Machado has been a huge part of Iowa's success this year, finding his way among the International League leaders in batting average (.309), on-base percentage (.404) and hits (95). The shortstop has been slotted into the leadoff spot in 81% (72-of-89) of Iowa's games this year. Manager Marty Pevey gave Machado his first game off in a stretch of 12 games on Sunday, but the shortstop still found a way to make a huge impact on the game. He pinch-hit in the eighth inning a started it off with a single, later coming around to score as part of a two-run eighth inning. Then again in the ninth, with Iowa down a run, Machado stepped to the plate with the tying run on third base. He once again knocked a single to score the run and tie the game. The next batter up hit a two-run walk-off blast to send Iowa home with the victory. In his two innings on Sunday, Machado contributed with a 2-for-2 game, scoring two runs and driving in a run.

JACKSON IN ACTION: Jackson Frazier went 1-for-4 with an RBI on Sunday, extending his hitting streak to a season-high nine games. It's his longest streak since 2016, when he hit in eight straight with Double-A Akron, and the longest of his career at Triple-A or higher. It also ties with John Hicks for the third longest streak by an I-Cub this season, just one game behind Darius Hill and five shy of Dixon Machado. Frazier has hit safely in 14 of his last 15 games, boosting his season average with Iowa to .246, and reached base in all 15. After starting his I-Cubs career with a .195 average (8-for-41) over his first ten games, the outfielder has turned it on. Since the calendar flipped to July, he has gone 18-for-54 through 15 games. That has given him a .333 average and a team-leading .630 slugging percentage this month. He has also collected 18 RBI over that span, which is the most by an I-Cub this month, and accounts for over a quarter of Iowa's total run production (18-of-69) in July.

THAT'S A WRAP: Iowa wrapped up the first half of the season on Sunday with a victory, moving their record after the first 89 games of the year to 40-49. Sitting at nine games below the .500 mark put Iowa in ninth place in the International League West division, 14.0 games out of first place. Iowa went 24-23 at Principal Park and 16-26 in their road games. The second half of the season will bring six road trips and three home stands.

WALK-OFF WINNER: Iowa headed into the All-Star break on a high note with a walk-off win on Sunday against the Buffalo Bisons. The I-Cubs entered the bottom of the ninth inning down one run, trailing 4-3. They got an RBI single to tie the game and with one out, Darius Hill stepped to the plate and hit a walk-off blast to win the game 6-4. It was Iowa's first walk-off home run since April 11, 2019, when Dixon Machado hit a walk-off against New Orleans. It was Hill's first home run since his very first at-bat at the Triple-A level back on May 31.

COMEBACK KIDS: Iowa split their last series of the first half against the Buffalo Bisons, each winning three games. All three of Iowa's wins were comeback victories, capped off by a walk-off home run in Sunday's finale. The three comeback wins gave Iowa 21 on the year and Sunday's walk-off win marked their fifth of the season. Sunday was just the second time all year Iowa has won a game when they trailed after eight innings, moving to 2-35 in that category. They also earned just their fifth win of the year when trailing after seven innings and are now 5-32 when behind after seven frames.

AGAINST OMAHA: Iowa and Omaha are set to play game one of a rare four-game series tonight at Werner Park, meeting at the home of the Storm Chasers for the first time this season. So far, the two teams have played 12 games at Principal Park, with Iowa holding a 9-3 lead over Omaha. The I-Cubs have won each of the first two series between the two teams, going 5-1 in their first series and 4-2 in their most recent matchup. With their 9-3 record at Principal Park this year, Iowa moved to 318-292 overall all-time against Omaha, but enter this series with a losing record on the road against the Storm Chasers. Coming into tonight's contest, Iowa is 16 games below the .500 mark, at 141-157 on the road against Omaha.

SHORT HOPS: Iowa walked 10 times in their last series against Buffalo, accounting for the least walks in a series by the I-Cubs all season long...with their win on Sunday, Iowa moved to 7-6 in their red uniforms, the only uniforms in which Iowa holds a winning record...the I-Cubs committed one error on Sunday and won the game, moving to 15-12 with one error; they are 21-23 when committing zero errors, 3-13 with two errors and 1-1 when they commit three or more errors.

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