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July 4 Game Notes: Iowa at Indianapolis

July 4, 2021 - International League (IL)
Iowa Cubs News Release


IOWA CUBS (20-30) @ INDIANAPOLIS INDIANS (27-25)

Sunday - 5:15 PM CT - Victory Field - Indianapolis, IN

RHP Adrian Sampson (3-2, 5.56) vs. RHP Luis Oviedo (0-0, -.--)

TONIGHT'S GAME: Iowa and Indianapolis play in the series finale tonight with Iowa currently holding a 3-2 lead. Adrian Sampson will toe the rubber for the I-Cubs and will face off against major league rehabber Luis Oviedo. For Sampson, it will be his second start of the series, after getting the win in the first game of the series. He tossed 5.2 innings of two-run ball, allowing five hits and one walk while striking out six. He gave up a two-run home run in the first inning, and was lights out after that. Oviedo will make his first start on major league rehab assignment with Indianapolis, after being placed on the 10-day injured list with a left quad strain on June 10. The righty was 1-1 with a 7.23 ERA in 12 relief appearances with Pittsburgh before being placed on the injured list.

SEE YA LAWLOR: Ryan Lawlor made his third appearance of the year for Iowa after starting the year in Double-A Tennessee. Lawlor gave up three runs on two hits in his first outing on June 23, but held the Storm Chasers scoreless in two innings in his second appearance against the Storm Chasers. Coming into last night's game, he had walked two and struck out just one Omaha batter over his first three innings. Last night, he struck out five of the six batters he retired over his two scoreless innings of relief. He earned the first win of his Triple-A career, moving to 1-0 on the year with his two scoreless frames. He walked two batters, but was able to work around it and really settled Iowa into a good rhythm after starter Matt Swarmer was knocked out early.

IT FINALLY HAPPENED: For the first time in eight games, Iowa finally won a game on Saturday. Their first attempt of a Saturday game was supposed to be at Principal Park against the Indians, but was postponed due to inclement weather. Since then, Iowa had gone 0-7, losing to both St. Paul and Omaha three times, while losing to Columbus once. Last night, in their first win on a Saturday, Iowa scored nine runs. Those nine runs in a single game almost outscored their total of 11 runs in their previous seven games on Saturday's this year. On their stretch of being 0-7 on Saturday's, the I-Cubs got outscored 48-11, including four games scoring just one run and getting shut out once.

GOING THE WRONG DIRECTION: Matt Swarmer entered last night's game with a 12.12 ERA, but after giving up five runs on six hits over just three innings, it moved to 12.57. Swarmer didn't take the loss for the first time this year with Iowa, but he did give up a home run. He has now given up a home run in all five of his games for the I-Cubs this year, including multiple deep fly's in three of the five games. Last night was also the third time in his five starts that he did not make it past three innings.

AVELINO LOVES FACING INDY: Abiatal Avelino came into the series against Indianapolis hitting just .083 over the last two series, or 10 games. Against St. Paul and Omaha, the infielder was just 2-for-24 at the plate, taking nine walks and striking out twice. In his four games against Indianapolis this series, he has completely turned it around, hitting .563 (9-for-16), registering multi-hit efforts in three of the four games. He has walked once, struck out twice and stolen three bases. Last night, Avelino went 4-for-5 with two runs, a triple, two runs batted in and two stolen bases, just adding to his numbers. He is the first Iowa hitter this year to register four hits in a single game, after 15 players had gotten three knocks in a game. Avelino has had success against Indy all year, dating back to the very beginning of the season. In his first series against the Indians, the first series of the year, Avelino registered two hits in three of the five games he played. Overall, he hit .368 (7-for-19) with a home run, five runs batted in, a walk and three strikeouts.

HEATING UP: Alfonso Rivas hit his first home run of the season on Friday night and followed it up with a first inning grand slam last night. Friday's home run marked just the second of his Triple-A career, as he hit one with Triple-A Las Vegas in 2019 before being traded to Chicago. Entering Friday's game, Rivas was hitting just .120 (3-for-25) with a double, two runs batted in, a walk and seven strikeouts. In his last two games, the first baseman has been seeing the ball much better, hitting .444 (4-for-9) with two runs scored, two home runs including last night's grand slam, five RBI, a walk and just two strikeouts.

PLAYERS OF THE MONTH: Today, the Chicago Cubs announced their minor league player and pitcher of the month for the month of June. Both awards went to Iowa Cubs players, as the player of the month was awarded to outfielder Michael Hermosillo and the pitcher of the month went to righty reliever Ben Leeper. Hermosillo hit .324 (24-for-74) with five doubles, four homers and 15 RBI in 22 games in June. The right-handed hitter is batting .419 (13-for-31) with four home runs vs. left-handed pitching, seeing time at all three outfield spots. Hermosillo collected hits in eight of nine games from June 9-17, batting .480 (12-for-25) with two homers and nine RBI during that stretch, including a season-high four RBI game, June 9 vs. Columbus. Leeper went 1-0 with a 1.32 ERA (2 ER/13.2 IP), with five walks, 26 strikeouts and one save in 10 outings between Double-A Tennessee and Iowa in the month of June, holding the opponent to a .089 batting average (4-for-45) and a .285 OPS.

AGAINST INDIANAPOLIS: With the 9-7 victory last night, Iowa took a 3-2 series lead over Indianapolis and has a chance to take the series. Iowa has won their three games by a total of 11 runs, taking their two extra-inning losses by one run each. They now lead Indianapolis by nine runs in the series, outscoring them 30-21. The I-Cubs brought their lead on the season series to two, at 6-4. They won three of the five games the two teams played at Principal Park, and have now won three of five at Victory Field. Iowa has outscored Indianapolis by 13, 48-35.

LOOKING FOR CONSISTENCY: Trevor Megill has gone between Chicago and Iowa a lot this season, currently in his third stretch of the season with the I-Cubs. In nine total outings with Iowa, Megill has now allowed an earned run in five of those games. He started the year with Chicago and made two appearances before being placed on the injured list. Nearly a month later, Megill came back and pitched in two games with Iowa and then was activated and optioned to Iowa for three more games. He was then recalled for two games, optioned for three games, recalled for one and now back with Iowa. Going up and down so much can make getting into a groove difficult for a pitcher, and that has been evident with Megill. The righty threw a clean eighth inning last night, but gave up two runs on two hits in the ninth before recording the final out.

SHORT HOPS: Iowa has been hit by a pitch 11 times so far in this five-game series, led by Nick Martini and Michael Hermosillo three times and Abiatal Avelino twice...Iowa has scored 50% (15-0f-30) of their runs this series with two outs...I-Cubs manager Marty Pevey is now just one win away from his 500th win with Iowa...the I-Cubs recorded just their second win of the year when allowing six or more runs last night, they are now 2-19.

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