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June 2 Game Notes: Iowa vs. St. Paul

June 2, 2022 - International League (IL)
Iowa Cubs News Release


IOWA CUBS (24-25) VS. ST. PAUL SAINTS (21-28)

Thursday - 12:08 - Principal Park - Des Moines, IA

RHP Cam Sanders (0-1, 3.65) vs. RHP Mario Sanchez (3-1, 3.99)

TODAY'S GAME: After two blowout victories for each team in the first two games, Iowa and St. Paul will fight for the series lead today. Cam Sanders will take the ball for the I-Cubs, set to make his fourth start at Triple-A. The righty is 0-1 with a 3.65 ERA through three starts, allowing five earned runs on nine hits over 12.1 innings pitched. In his first start on May 14 against Omaha, he spun 5.2 innings of one-run ball, striking out nine. Since then, he has allowed two earned runs over four innings to Columbus and two earned runs over 2.2 innings to Memphis. Opposite of Sanders with be right-hander Mario Sanchez going for the Saints. Sanchez is 3-1 with a 3.99 ERA through eight games this year, set to make his fifth start of the year. The 27-year-old has allowed just 13 earned runs on 22 hits over 29.1 innings, walking nine compared to 22 strikeouts over that span. His second win of the year came against Iowa in a relief appearance, throwing 3.1 innings of two-run ball. Today will mark his third consecutive start after pitching in relief for three straight games prior to his first start of his current stretch.

THE FIRST ONE: Brendon Little allowed his first run of the season yesterday, ending his scoreless innings streak at 11.0 innings. He cruised through his first inning with two groundouts and a line out yesterday and then struck out the leadoff hitter in the eighth inning before running into trouble. With one out in the eighth inning, St. Paul got two base hits against Little, pushing him out of the game. Erich Uelmen relieved Little and allowed Little's run from second to score, the first run on Little's line this season. In all, the 25-year-old has thrown 11.0 innings, allowing just the one run on five hits. He has walked eight and struck out 10, with opposing hitters hitting just .139 against him. After walking at least one batter in each of his first six outings, Little did not walk a batter yesterday for the second consecutive game.

ALMOST EVERYBODY: Iowa's offense pumped out a season-high 13 runs on 13 hits in yesterday's win over St. Paul. They did that with all but one player in the starting lineup record at least one hit, including four different players register multi-hit games. Narciso Crook (3), Dixon Machado (2), Jared Young (2) and Tyler Payne (2) all had multiple hits, combining for 69% (9-of-13) of Iowa's total hits as a team. It marked Crook's first three-hit game of the year, kept Machado and Young in a tie for the team lead each with 13 multi-hit games, and was Payne's sixth multi-hit effort in just his 16th game this year. The offense was clicking on all cylinders, getting a hit from everybody except their leadoff man, Darius Hill, who went 0-for-5. The outfielder, in his second game at Triple-A, went 0-for-2 in the first inning, making two of Iowa's three outs in their six-run frame.

RIDE THE HOT HAND: Narciso Crook recorded his first three-hit game of the season yesterday, going 3-for-5 with two runs scored, a home run and five runs batted in. His five-RBI game is the first by an I-Cubs player this season, while a player has had four runs batted in six times for Iowa. Crook is riding his longest hitting streak of the season at three games, including a two-hit game on Thursday against Memphis and a 1-for-3 effort on Saturday against the Redbirds. Over the three-game stretch, the outfielder is hitting .462 (6-for-13) with a double and a home run, driving in seven runs.

FEELING THE PAYNE: Not only did Tyler Payne collect his sixth multi-hit effort of the season in yesterday's game, he also caught nine innings behind the plate, which boosted him into second on the team in that category. Payne has now caught 114.1 innings for Iowa this season, putting him just above P.J. Higgins (112.0) and behind John Hicks (157.0). With Payne behind the plate, Iowa's pitching staff has earned a 3.07 ERA, which is the best by any I-Cubs catcher this season. The backstop has allowed just one passed ball, and he is the only catcher to hold a winning record behind the plate, at 7-6. On top of the work he has put in behind the plate, Payne has been productive in the box, too. His six multi-hit games rank fourth on the active roster, but he has racked them up in only 16 games played, while all three of the players ahead of him have played more than twice that many. The productivity has given Payne the team lead in average (.340) and puts him third in OPS (.810) behind only Robel Garcia (1.013) and Jared Young (.838).

A NEW APPROACH: Catcher John Hicks took his first walk of the season in his fifth game of the year on April 14 against Toledo. He then played in 21 more games until he took another free pass, taking a walk in Saturday's game against Memphis. The walk on Saturday marked just his second walk of the season in 107 plate appearances, walking in under two percent of the time he stepped up to the plate. He took another walk in game one of the series on Tuesday and two more yesterday, more than doubling his season total entering the series. The 32-year-old now has five walks in 116 plate appearances, walking in just over four percent of his plate appearances. This isn't something new for Hicks, as he took just four walks in 52 games with Triple-A Toledo in 2017 and 16 walks in 64 games with Triple-A Round Rock last year. He now has the same amount of doubles and home runs as he does walks, all sitting at five entering today's game.

AGAINST ST. PAUL: Iowa and St. Paul are set to meet for game three of the series today after trading off 13-3 victories. St. Paul took game one here at Principal Park by a score of 13-3 and the I-Cubs followed with a 13-3 victory of their own yesterday to tie the series at one game apiece. The two teams haven't played a very close game this year, with their closest game in the first series at St. Paul being a three-run game. Three of the six games they played were decided by seven runs, and now the first two of this series have been 10-run games. After winning by 10 yesterday, Iowa now trails St. Paul in the season scoring by just two runs, at 47-45. With the victory, the I-Cubs moved to 4-10 against the Saints at Principal Park and 16-27 all-time.

SHORT HOPS: Greg Deichmann is Iowa's first player aside from Robel Garcia to hit a three-run home run this season; Garcia has two three-run shots...outfielder's Narciso Crook and Greg Deichmann are each on three-game hitting streaks, a season long for each player, respectively...after their win yesterday, Iowa moved to 5-0 in Wednesday home games this year...Dixon Machado is now tied eighth in the International League with 29 walks this season, he also leads the team with eight multi-walk games...today is Robel Garcia's first time not in the starting lineup in 24 games over 28 days, May 4 was the infielders' last day off.

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