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June 13 Game Notes: Iowa Cubs vs. Indianapolis Indians

June 13, 2023 - International League (IL)
Iowa Cubs News Release


IOWA CUBS (34-27) vs. INDIANAPOLIS INDIANS (28-33)

Tuesday - 6:38 PM - Principal Park - Des Moines, IA

RHP Nick Neidert (3-2, 4.95) vs. RHP Quinn Priester (6-3, 4.63)

TONIGHT'S GAME: Iowa and Indianapolis will kick off their six game series tonight with Nick Neidert taking the mound for Iowa. In 10 starts this season, Neidert has recorded a 3-2 record and 4.95 ERA with 37 strikeouts and 15 walks. His only career appearance against the Indians came earlier this season in Neidert's only releif appearance. He went 2.0 innings, allowing just one run on two hits. The righty struck out three. The Indians will send the Pirates' No. 3 overall prospect Quinn Priester to the mound. He has a league leading six wins on the season in his 12 starts. Priester leads the Indians with 57 strikeouts and is tied for fifth in the league in that category. The righty's 4.63 ERA is the 10th best in the International League. Priester made two starts against the I-Cubs earlier this season. He allowed just one run in 12.0 innings while striking out 11 combined. Priester earned a win in both contests.

ROW THE BOTE: Utility man David Bote has been a bright spot in the I-Cubs lineup as of late and was one of the top performers in the series against St. Paul last week. In six games against the Saints, Bote hit at a clip of .318 (7-for-22) with three runs scored, four doubles, one home run, and 7 RBI. He capped off the series against St. Paul with his best performance going 3-for-5 with two doubles, one home run, two RBI, and a run scored. The veteran's success at the plate goes further than last weeks series as well. In the month of June, he has a .355 batting average (11-for-31), seven runs scored, five doubles, two home runs, nine RBI, a .488 on-base percentage, and a .710 slugging percentage.

JUST JARED: Another player who has it going at the plate right now for Iowa is infielder Jared Young. In the month of June, Young is batting .400 (14-for-35) with seven runs scored, three doubles, two home runs, nine RBI, a .523 on-base percentage, and a .657 slugging percentage. The Canadian national currently ranks second on the team in batting average for the season with a mark of .305 and is also currently riding a seven-game hitting streak, which is his longest of the season and the longest active streak by an I-Cub. Young also leads the team in three-hit performances on the season with five. Three of those games have come in the month of June for Young as he had back-to-back three-hit games in the recent series against St. Paul.

BIGGE SMALLS: Relief pitcher Hunter Bigge made his Triple-A debut this past Sunday after being promoted to Iowa from Double-A Tennessee on June 10. The right-hander had a solid outing with 1.0 inning pitched and no runs or hits allowed to go along with a pair of strikeouts. During his time with the Tennessee Smokies to start the 2023 season he owned a record of 3-1 with a 2.28 ERA. The recently turned 25-year-old appeared in 16 games for the Smokies and over 23.2 innings of work tallied 29 strikeouts compared to 10 walks and held opponents to a batting average of just .155.

HOT AND COLD: Pitching is obviously an important part of a teams success and a shutdown bullpen is sure to help. In Iowa's recent series against St. Paul, the bullpen had its good days and had its bad days. The I-Cubs played seven games against the Saints last week and lost the series three games to four. In each of the seven the contests a reliever was credited with the win or the loss. Over the course of the series against St. Paul, relief pitchers racked up a total of 29.2 innings of work with 41 strikeouts and 22 walks. The glaring number, however, is that the bullpen also had an ERA of 8.49 over those seven games. The difference shows in the games in which Iowa won and lost. In the three games that Iowa defeated St. Paul, relief pitchers tallied a 1.80 ERA with 13 strikeouts and just four walks allowed. In the four losses that Iowa suffered, relief pitchers owned an ERA of 11.90 with 28 strikeouts and 18 walks allowed.

BRING ON BELLI: Cody Bellinger is slated to start his Major League Rehab assignment tonight with the Iowa Cubs after spending some time on the injured list with a left knee contusion. Bellinger is in his first season with the Cubs organization after spending the last six years with the Los Angeles Dodgers as he signed with the Chicago Cubs as a free agent on December 14, 2022. So far in 2023, he has played in 37 games for Chicago and slashed .271/.337/.493 with nine doubles, seven home runs, and 20 RBI to go along with nine stolen bases. Bellinger has racked up several different accolades over his career including: two All-Star selections (2017, 19), a Silver Slugger award (2019), a Gold Glove (2019), Rookie of the Year (2017), and MVP (2019). He became the 12th Dodger to garner MVP honors in 2019 and joined Jackie Robinson and Don Newcombe as the only Dodgers to earn both Rookie of the Year and MVP honors. Bellinger is also the only player in the Dodgers' franchise history to collect MVP, Gold Glove and Silver Slugger accolades in the same season (2019). The 27-year-old was named 2018 NLCS MVP after leading the Dodgers to victories with the game-winning RBI in Game 4 (walk-off single in 13th) and Game 7 (two-run home run). In 2020, he became a World Series Champion with the Dodgers and appeared in 56 games, which was tied for second most on team, hitting ten doubles and 12 home runs.

AGAINST INDIANAPOLIS: Tonight marks the seventh of 24 scheduled matchups between Indianapolis and Iowa. The season series is tied at three after the teams split their series in May. Iowa trails 41-61 against the Indians all time and 19-26 at home. The I-Cubs enter today having lost their last game versus the Indians.

SHORT HOPS: Sunday's game was Iowa's third loss on the year when having 10 or more hits, they are now 18-3 on the season with 10+ ... The I-Cubs used a season-high seven pitchers in Sunday's contest, they had previously used six pitchers nine times.

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