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June 19 Game Notes: Iowa at St. Paul

June 19, 2021 - International League (IL)
Iowa Cubs News Release


IOWA CUBS (14-24) @ ST. PAUL SAINTS (18-22)

Saturday - 7:05 PM - CHS Field - Saint Paul, MN

RHP Kohl Stewart (1-2, 3.68) vs. LHP Charlie Barnes (2-1, 3.53)

TONIGHT'S GAME: Iowa and St. Paul are set to match up in the fifth game of the six-game series, tonight at CHS Field. The I-Cubs have won three of the first four games of the series, and will look for their first series win since their third series of the year, from May 19-May 23 against Omaha. Kohl Stewart is expected to get the ball for Iowa in what will be his third start against St. Paul, and his first start for the I-Cubs since May 26 against the Saints. Stewart has been with Chicago for the past three weeks, making three starts over that span. Stewart is 0-2 with a 5.73 ERA against the Saints while walking three and striking out nine in his two games. He will face off against Charlie Barnes, also set to make his third start against Iowa. Barnes is 1-0 and has allowed just two earned runs over 11.0 innings of work in his two games against the I-Cubs.

QUITE THE COMEBACK: After falling down 1-0 after a Tomás Telis solo shot in the first last night, Iowa got a solo homer of their own from Trayce Thompson in the second inning to tie the game at one. Unfortunately for Iowa, St. Paul rattled off four straight runs to take a 5-1 lead late into the game. Tony Wolters changed the game completely when he hit a three-run shot in the seventh inning, making it a 5-4 game. Wolters would single to tie it in the ninth and Iowa would score a run in the tenth to hold on for a 6-5 win, making it a five-run comeback against St. Paul. The five-run comeback marked their biggest of the year, previously set on May 16 against the same team. In that game, Iowa was down 3-0 going into the ninth, and scored eight runs in the ninth inning to win 8-3.

SOMETHING ABOUT EXTRAS: Last night's game marked Iowa's second extra inning game of the season so far. With the win, the I-Cubs moved to 2-0 on the year in extra inning games, both going just 10 innings. The first game they won came in just their fourth game of the year, at home against Indianapolis. The pitcher and catcher got crossed up, and the catcher took a fastball to the chest thinking it was a curveball in the dirt. The ball deflected up the first base line, allowing Andrew Romine to score from third and walk-off the Indians. Last night, the I-Cubs scored the winning run from third in extra innings once again, on a wild pitch. In their two extra inning wins, Iowa has not recorded a hit in the tenth inning. They took an intentional walk, a pop out, strikeout a wild pitch and a passed ball to score a run in their first win, and last night had a sacrifice bunt, a strikeout and another wild pitch to get the win.

FINALLY GOT TWO: With last night's win, Iowa won two games in a row for the first time since May 16-21 when they won four in a row against St. Paul and Omaha. Since May 21, Iowa has lost 19 of their 24 games, including losing streaks of nine and seven. After their win on May 21, Iowa was in second place in the division and just a half of a game out of first place with a 9-5 record. Since then, they have fallen all the way to last in the division, and have spent seven days in last place, falling as low as 13.5 games out of the top spot. At their worst, Iowa fell to 12 games below .500 at 11-23 and 12-24. With three wins in their last four games, the I-Cubs are still 13.5 games out of first, but are now in sixth place in the division.

NOT USED TO SEEING IT: One disappointing part about last night's win for Iowa was seeing Dakota Mekkes come into the game in the third inning and struggle. Mekkes has been lights out for the most part this year, bringing a 1.47 ERA with Iowa into last night's game. The last time the big righty threw was back on June 12, when he threw two scoreless frames against Columbus. The time off showed as Mekkes didn't have his typical control, throwing just 55% (21-of-38) of his pitches for strikes. Mekkes allowed two earned runs to score in his 1.1 innings, allowing two hits, two walks and also throwing two wild pitches. His 1.1 innings tied the shortest outing of the season for Mekkes, a mark he has now hit three times this year. The two earned runs allowed also broke a streak of 11.2 scoreless innings of work over a five game period.

WHAT AN ENDING: After Iowa got a run in the top of the inning, Trevor Megill came in in the bottom of the tenth looking to close out the game for Iowa. With a runner starting on second, there isn't much room for error, and Megill pushed it to the limits in last night's game. He surrendered a single and then a walk, loading the bases full of Saints with no outs. Megill proceeded to strike out the next two batters and induce a weak infield pop-out to end the game. He flirted with danger, but tight-roped out of it, stranding the tying run on third and the winning run on second.

GOOD TIME FOR THE FIRST: With two outs in the seventh inning and two runners on base, Tony Wolters stepped up to the plate with Iowa trailing 5-1. The catcher got Iowa right back in the game, hitting his first homer of the season to bring the score to 5-4. For Wolters, it was his first home run in over two years, his last came on May 22, 2019, in the big leagues against the Pittsburgh Pirates. With Iowa down to their last out in the ninth, Wolters came back up with a runner on third. This time, he didn't hit it out of the park, but delivered an infield single to bring in the tying run and allow the I-Cubs the chance to come back up in extras and get the win.

KEEP THEM IN CHECK: Mike Hauschild made his first start for Iowa last night, and his first in at the Triple-A level since 2019 when he played in 10 games with the Memphis Redbirds. Hauschild went just 2.2 innings in his start last night, but did his job, limiting St. Paul to just one run on four hits. The righty walked one batter and struck out three, with the lone run coming on a solo shot from Tomás Telis in the first inning. Despite the short outing, Hauschild kept Iowa right in the game, allowing them to come back and win it later on when the offense got going.

AGAINST ST. PAUL: Iowa is coming off back-to-back wins against the Saints after beating them 12-2 Thursday night and 6-5 in extras last night. They now lead the series three games to one, and have a chance to win their first series since taking three of five from Omaha back on May 19-23. The I-Cubs are now 6-10 against St. Paul this year, and 6-4 at CHS Field.

A WEIRD INNING: Ryan Meisinger entered last night's game in the fifth inning, with Iowa trailing 3-1. It took Meisinger just five pitches to get out of the inning, but he allowed two runs in the process. JT Riddle led off the inning with a solo home run on the first pitch of his at-bat, the following two hitters grounded out and popped out before Damek Tomscha came to the plate. Tomscha also hit a solo home run off of Meisinger on the first pitch of his at-bat, followed by another ground out to end the inning. All five players that came to the plate had a result on the first pitch of their at-bat, resulting in a five pitch, two-run inning.

SHORT HOPS: Kohl Stewart is set to make his first start since May 26 against St. Paul, after three starts for the Chicago Cubs, in which he went 1-1 with a 5.68 ERA...last night marked Iowa's third comeback win of the season, and just their second when trailing after eight innings...Iowa was 1-20 when trailing after eight innings coming into last night's game.

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