Sports stats



IL Iowa Cubs

June 22 Game Notes: Iowa vs. Omaha

June 22, 2021 - International League (IL)
Iowa Cubs News Release


IOWA CUBS (14-25) vs. OMAHA STORM CHASERS (29-12)

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

RHP Matt Swarmer (0-3, 11.12) vs. RHP Jakob Junis (0-1, 1.69)

TONIGHT'S GAME: Iowa and Omaha are set to face off for the 12th time this year tonight. Iowa will send out righty Matt Swarmer for his fourth start of the year for Iowa. The righty is coming off of his best start of the year, when he spun six innings of one-run ball, allowing just four hits to St. Paul while striking out three. The I-Cubs hitters will face Jakob Junis for the first time this season, as Junis has spent the majority of his season in the major leagues with Kansas City. With the Royals, Junis went 2-3 with a 5.19 ERA in 15 games, five of those being starts. He threw 34.2 innings, allowing 20 earned runs on 39 hits, six home runs, 11 walks and 35 strikeouts. The righty was 0-2 in save opportunities and his opponents hit .287 against him. WIth Omaha, he has made just two starts and is 0-1 with a 1.69 ERA. He has spun 5.1 innings allowing one earned run on five hits at the Triple-A level. Junis has not walked or hit a batter and has struck out nine in his two games against St. Paul and Louisville.

KEEP IT GOING: In his last start, Matt Swarmer was the best he has been all year with Iowa, allowing just one run on four hits through six innings of work against the St. Paul Saints. He didn't walk a batter and struck out three in his quality start. With the start, he cut his ERA nearly in half, from 21.94 to 11.12. The reason his ERA was so high, is due in large part to the long ball. In his first two starts against Omaha and Columbus, Swarmer went just 2.2 innings in each start, allowing a total of 13 runs on 15 hits. Five of those 15 hits were home runs, accounting for 10 of the 13 runs he surrendered. Adding to that, the one run he gave up to St. Paul came on a solo home run. Now 79% of the runs Swarmer has given up have come off the long ball, so if he can keep the ball in the park, he should give the I-Cubs a good chance to win the game tonight.

THE SERIES THAT CHANGED THE TIDE: Iowa and Omaha met for a six-game series here at Principal Park back on May 18-23. The May 18 game was postponed due to rain, but Iowa took the first three games of the series from May 19-21. On May 21, a 9-8 victory for the I-Cubs, they moved just a half game out of first place with a record of 9-5 while Omaha fell to third place, two games out of the top-spot with an 8-7 record. Since that game, the two teams went in completely different directions. Iowa lost their next nine games, won one game, and lost another seven, falling to 10-21 on the season, good for last place in the division and 12.5 games behind first-place Omaha. The Storm Chasers won nine straight games after May 21, lost one, and have now won 12 of their last 16, bringing their record to 29-12. Omaha has the best record in all of Triple-A, and leads the Triple-A East Midwest division by six games over second-place Indianapolis. Iowa has gone 4-4 over their last eight games, moving to 14-25, 14.0 games back in the sixth spot of the division.

WATCH IT FLY: One big difference between Omaha and Iowa this year has been the ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark. On the season, the Storm Chasers have 83 total home runs compared to Iowa's 35 home runs. Omaha has four players who have hit 10 or more home runs - Gabriel Cancel (10), Ryan O'Hearn (12), Emmanuel Rivera (13) and Ryan McBroom (14). McBroom leads the Triple-A East in home runs, followed by Rivera in second place, O'Harn tied for third and Cancel tied for fifth. The most home runs any Iowa hitter has is seven, held by Trayce Thompson. Just against Iowa alone, the Storm Chasers have hit 26 home runs, nine shy of Iowa's season mark. 15 of Iowa's 35 home runs on the season have come against Omaha pitching.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS: In Iowa's last game on Sunday, they played four innings against the St. Paul Saints at CHS Field before the weather came in. The rain caused the game to be suspended after four innings and the two teams will finish the five innings on August 17 when they meet for the final time up at St. Paul. Due to the game being suspended, none of the stats from that game will count until the game is officially finished. Dee Gordon was 1-for-3 with an RBI single that would've extended his hitting streak to four games, Trayce Thompson tripled and scored a run, Vance Vizcaino had a two-out RBI double and Ian Miller registered an RBI single. On the pitching side, Joe Biagini made his second start of the series, tossing two innings of one-run ball. The righty allowed just four hits and didn't walk a batter, while striking out one.

LEAGUE LEADERS: Omaha owns the best record in the entire Triple-A at 29-12. Their winning record is largely due to their offense exploding every day they come to the field. Since May 21, Omaha has scored six or more runs in 16 of their 27 games, going 21-6 over that span. They have players that lead the Triple-A East in batting average (Olivares, .370), home runs (McBroom, 14), RBI (Rivera, 37) and total bases (Rivera, 98). They also have someone in the top three of every major offensive category besides doubles, triples, walks and stolen bases. Comparatively, Iowa doesn't have one player listed in any of the offensive league leaders categories for the Triple-A East.

AGAINST OMAHA: The I-Cubs have faced the Storm Chasers 11 times this year and trail in the season series by three games, holding a 4-7 record. Iowa is 3-2 when facing Omaha at Principal Park, but when the two teams met at Werner Park in the first series of June, Iowa dropped five of the six games. They have currently lost four straight against the first place Storm Chasers.

NOT GOING TO HAPPEN: Ben Leeper kept his hitless innings streak going on Saturday night, with another shutout inning against St. Paul. Leeper joined Iowa's roster on June 8 and has made five appearances for the I-Cubs since then. In those five appearances, he has totaled 6.2 innings, allowing just one earned run. The reliever has yet to give up a hit, but has hit one batter and walked three, while striking out 11. Leeper came from Double-A Tennessee, where he had a 1-2 record with a 1.26 ERA in 10 games. He threw 14.1 innings with the Smokies, allowing nine five runs, just two earned, on nine hits. He walked four, hit one and struck out 22 before getting the promotion to Iowa. Leeper was signed to a minor league contract on July 21, 2020, after playing college baseball at Oklahoma State University. He had another solid outing on Saturday, throwing a scoreless inning while walking one batter and striking out two. With the performance, Leeper lowered his ERA with the I-Cubs to 1.35.

SHORT HOPS: Omaha has the worst run differential (+51) of any first-place team in all of Triple-A, the Durham Bulls have the best, at +94...Iowa is 7-15 at home this year compared to 7-10 on the road, but three of their seven home victories have come against Omaha.

Check out the Iowa Cubs Statistics



International League Stories from June 22, 2021


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Iowa Cubs Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central