IL Iowa Cubs

July 30 Game Notes: Iowa Cubs at St. Paul Saints

Published on July 30, 2022 under International League (IL)
Iowa Cubs News Release


TONIGHT'S GAME: Iowa will send right-hander Anderson Espinoza to the mound set to make his first career Triple-A start tonight. The righty has made one appearance with Iowa this year, throwing four scoreless innings of relief back on July 24 against Omaha. In the outing, he earned the first save of his career, allowing just two hits, two walks and striking out two batters over the final four innings of the game. In 12 at-bats, the Storm Chasers hit just .167 against the righty. Opposite of Espinoza will be Cole Sands taking the ball for the Saints. Sands enters tonight's game with a 1-5 record and a 6.02 ERA through 12 games (11 starts) with St. Paul. He has surrendered 29 earned run on 53 hits over 43.1 innings, allowing opponents to hit .301 against him. The righty has struck out 54 batters compared to 17 walks and is set to face Iowa for second time this year. The first time Iowa saw Sands was back on May 8 at Principal Park, when he allowed four earned runs on eight hits in three innings of work.

JUST KEEP HITTING: Iowa's leadoff-man continued his impressive season in last night's game, collecting his team-leading 28th multi-hit performance of the year. Dixon Machado went 2-for-4 with a run scored, a double, home run, RBI and walk last night, growing his team-lead in multiple different categories. His two hits gave him 106 on the year, 32 more than any other I-Cubs player. He collected his 20th double of the year to grow his team-lead by six, while his walk gave him 46 on the year, 21 more than any other Iowa player. He has led off for Iowa in 82% (79-of-96) of their games and has collected at least one hit in 67 of his 85 games with an at-bat. Machado sits in third in the International League in batting average (.312), fourth in on-base percentage (.402) and third in hits (106), one of just six players in the IL with 100 or more hits.

GOT AWAY WITH IT: Iowa's pitching staff held St. Paul to just one run on one hit through the first six innings of last night's game, but it wasn't a dominant performance over the Saints lineup. Caleb Kilian walked a career-high six batters over his four innings of work, while Wyatt Short walked two in his two frames. The six walks from Kilian not only set a new career high, but also set a new season high for Iowa. Six walks allowed is the most any single pitcher has allowed for Iowa all year, with the previous high being five done four times. Despite walking six batters, he allowed just one run on one hit and struck out six batters as well, keeping Iowa ahead. Short's two walks were the only two base runners he allowed, as he used a ground out, two fly outs and two strikeouts to work around his walks and keep the Saints off the board. In all, Iowa walked 11 batters last night, one shy of their season high set back on June 29 against Columbus.

MULTI-HOMER MASTERS: Jermaine Palacios became the fifth player to collect a multi-home run game against Iowa yesterday with his twin blasts in the seventh and ninth innings. He joins David Banuelos, who did it in Wednesday's game, as the second Saint to notch a two-homer game this series. Including Banuelos and Palacios, all five players to have multi-homer games this season have been St. Paul Saints. Alex Kirilloff and Caleb Hamilton both hit two home runs against Iowa on June 5, the same game that saw Spencer Steer hit three balls out. St. Paul as a club has now hit 31 home runs against Iowa this season, which is the most by any opponent and accounts for over a quarter of all homers allowed by the I-Cubs in 2022 (31-of-108).

STAY HOT: Narciso Crook entered the All-Star break with a .252 (52-for-206) average with Iowa, while also making his Major League debut with Chicago in the first half of the season. As good as his first half was, the outfielder has had an extremely impressive start to the second half of his season, collecting at least one hit in all seven games he has played. He has also clubbed a home run in four of the seven games, including two long balls on July 23 against Omaha. His seven straight games with a hit out of the All-Star break put his hitting streak at a season-long nine games, tying his career high in 2015 with Single-A Daytona. The outfielder clubbed his team-leading 16th home run this year in the eighth inning to give Iowa the lead last night, tying him for the team lead in runs batted in as well, with 47. His home run last night gave him five home runs in his last six games including three in his last four games against St. Paul. Crook's recent hot streak moved him onto the leaderboards in the International League, placing him third in slugging percentage (.551) and sixth in OPS (.908). He is now hitting .269 (63-for-234) with 12 doubles, 16 home runs and 47 RBI in 66 games with Iowa this year.

LOOKIN' GOOD: Right-hander Dakota Mekkes has had an up-and-down year with Iowa, starting the year on the injured list. The 27-year-old was activated on May 12 and pitched in eight games, going 0-2 with a 9.64 ERA over the stretch. In those 9.1 innings, he allowed 10 earned runs on 12 hits, walking nine while striking out six. Opponents hit .324 against him with an on-base percentage of .468. After those eight games, Mekkes was placed on the developmental list on June 14. He spent three weeks working out some kinks in his mechanics and was re-activated on July 6. Last night marked his fifth game since coming off the developmental list and in that time, the righty has yet to allow a single run. With last night's scoreless inning, he has now spun 5.1 scoreless innings while allowing six hits, one walk and striking out four. Opponents are hitting .273 against the 27-year-old, but five games ties his longest scoreless streak in the last two years, dating back to when he spun five scoreless outings back on May 28 to June 12 last season. He has walked just one batter and hit one batter, throwing 62% of his 98 pitches for strikes.

AGAINST ST. PAUL: Iowa and St. Paul will play game five of their six-game set tonight, the series tied at two games apiece. Iowa has won the first and fourth games of the series, with the Saints taking the two games in between. With their victory last night, Iowa moved to 7-9 on the year against the Saints and back to an even .500 here at CHS Field, at 5-5. They moved to 13 games under .500 against St. Paul all-time, going 19-32 while being five games under here on the road at 14-19. Through the first four games of the series, the two teams have each won two games, and have both scored exactly 20 runs entering tonight's contest.

SHORT HOPS: Erick Castillo's RBI single in the second inning last night extended his hitting streak to a season-long three games dating back to July 16...three of Iowa's top four hitters in their lineup last night clubbed a solo home run...last night marked Iowa's fourth extra-inning victory of the year, going 4-7 in extra-inning contests this year...last night was just the third one-run victory for Iowa on the road this year.

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