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May 16 Game Notes: Iowa Cubs vs. Indianapolis Indians

May 16, 2023 - International League (IL)
Iowa Cubs News Release


IOWA CUBS (22-14) @ INDIANAPOLIS INDIANS (18-20)

Tuesday - 5:35 PM CT - Victory Field - Indianapolis, IN

RHP Ben Brown (1-0, 0.84) vs. RHP Quinn Priester (3-3, 5.40)

TONIGHT'S GAME: Iowa and Indianapolis are set to play game one of their six-game series tonight, starting the series off with a matchup between two top prospects. Taking the ball for Iowa tonight will be Chicago's No. 6 ranked prospect, Ben Brown. It will be Brown's third start of the season with Iowa after his promotion from Tennessee on April 29. Through his first two starts, the right-hander is 1-0 with a 0.84 ERA, allowing just one earned run on five hits and five walks. He has struck out 17 batters in his 10.2 innings, including a season-high 10 in his last start on May 10. Opposite of Brown will be Quinn Priester toeing the rubber for Indianapolis, Pittsburgh's No. 4 ranked prospect and top pitching prospect. The 22-year-old is set to make his eighth start of the season, entering tonight's game with a 3-3 record and a 5.40 ERA through his first seven starts. He has surrendered 19 earned runs on 32 hits and 11 walks while striking out 33 over his 31.2 innings pitched. Over his last two starts, the young righty is 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA, allowing just two earned runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out eight over his 12.0 innings.

ERRORS IN THE EIGHTH: In Iowa's series finale versus Toledo on Sunday, the game was knotted up at two runs apiece in the top of the eighth inning. The momentum flipped in the Mud Hens favor after a pair of errors by Edwin Ríos on the first two batters of the inning. Ríos first committed a fielding error followed by a throwing error to put runners on second and third with no outs. The next two Mud Hens then recorded an RBI single and a three-run home run to put Toledo out in front, 6-2, which went on to be the final score. Errors have been a bit of a struggle at times for Iowa this season as they have now totaled 28 on the season. The 28 errors committed by the I-Cubs has them tied for 10th in the International League. Iowa has also had streaks of six games (April 20-April 26) and five games (April 7-April 11) where they have committed an error, which rank as the third and fourth longest error streaks in the International League this season.

THE PROFESSOR LOOKS PROMISING: 2016 World Series champion Kyle Hendricks produced another solid start in his most recent outing during his rehab assignment with Iowa. This past Sunday, Hendricks tossed 5.0 innings, allowing two earned runs, six hits, one home run, and two walks to go along with four strikeouts. This comes on the heels of his best outing of 2023 one week ago versus Toledo where he spun five scoreless innings, struck out four, gave up just two hits, did not allow a walk and earned his first win of the year. In his four rehab starts, Hendricks has amassed a record of 1-1 with a 7.53 ERA, 14 strikeouts, and six walks.

SUPER SERGIO: The I-Cubs shortstop, Sergio Alcántara, has quietly had one of the best seasons in Triple-A through the first month and a half of the season. He continued his good start in Iowa's most recent game this past Sunday versus Toledo with a multi-hit performance. Alcántara has put up impressive hitting numbers with a batting average of .323, five home runs, 22 RBI, a .404 on-base percentage and a .552 slugging percentage. While those numbers may not be in the very top of the International League, they do rank high among the current members of the I-Cubs roster. Alcántara currently leads the I-Cubs in batting average, OPS (.956), hits (31), and runs scored (24). He ranks second in home runs, RBI, OBP, slugging, walks (15), and extra-base hits (11).

ROSTER SHAKE-UP: Iowa had some roster moves on their off day yesterday, losing relievers Nick Burdi and Jeremiah Estrada to Chicago. Burdi had his contract selected yesterday and has yet to pitch for Chicago entering Tuesday's matchup against Houston. The 30-year-old last pitched in the big leagues with Pittsburgh in 2020. Through his first 11 games with Iowa, he allowed four earned runs on 11 hits and five walks while striking out 19, good for a 3.38 ERA. He earned four saves, second on the I-Cubs and tied for fourth in the International League. Estrada has been recalled twice this year, pitching in eight games for Iowa and now four games with Chicago. In his eight games with the I-Cubs, the righty allowed just one earned run on six hits and four walks while striking out 12 in his 9.1 innings. With Chicago, he has spun 5.1 scoreless innings, allowing three hits and four walks while striking out nine. With both relievers going up, Iowa added starter Javier Assad from Chicago, having made three starts for Iowa already this year.

MAGNIFICENT MIGUEL: After spending a week up in the big leagues with Chicago, Miguel Amaya was optioned to Iowa on May 10. The 24-year-old had a slow start after making his Triple-A debut as he went 0-for-6 with four strikeouts in his first two games with the I-Cubs. However, Amaya made a massive improvement in his third game, going 4-for-4 at the dish with two doubles, one RBI, and one run scored. With his four hits, Amaya accounted for nearly all of Iowa's offensive production on Sunday as the I-Cubs totaled nine hits in the game. The Panama native also drove in one of the two runs Iowa scored on Sunday and scored the other run off a David Bote sacrifice fly. It was just the third time this season where an I-Cub recorded four hits in a game. Amaya joins Christopher Morel and Darius Hill as the other I-Cubs to have a four-hit contest. Morel and Hill had their four-hit games on the same day, April 27, in the absolute slugfest between Iowa and Louisville where the two teams combined for 42 hits and the I-Cubs won by a score of 18-16.

AGAINST INDIANAPOLIS: Iowa and Indianapolis will play game one of their six-game series tonight, matching up for the first time this year. Tonight marks the first of 24 scheduled games between the two teams this year, with 12 games coming at home and 12 on the road for each respective team. The I-Cubs haven't fared well all-time against Indianapolis, entering this six-game series sitting at 20 games below the .500 mark, at 38-58. They are 19-26 all-time at home, going 19-32 on the road against the Indians. Dating back to August of last year, the last time the two teams played, Iowa enters tonight's game with a three-game losing streak.

SHORT HOPS: Tonight's game is the first of a 12-game road trip for Iowa, as they will play six here at Victory Field against Indianapolis and then head to Nashville to play six games against the Sounds before returning to Principal Park...if Iowa plays tonight it will be their first road Tuesday game of the year, as each of their first three (St. Paul, Buffalo and Columbus) have been postponed due to inclement weather...Iowa had a five-game errorless streak up until their two back-to-back costly errors in Sunday's loss to Toledo... Bailey Horn allowed two runs on Sunday, the first two runs he has allowed in his Triple-A career, raising his ERA to 1.42 through five games.

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