PCL1 Iowa Cubs

Nelson Continues Power Surge in Cubs' Win

Published on June 11, 2013 under Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Iowa Cubs News Release


Oklahoma City, OK - Brad Nelson recorded his second straight two-homer game to help lead the Iowa Cubs (29-34) to a 7-6 win over the Oklahoma City RedHawks (33-27) at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark tonight. The Cubs have won four straight games overall and improve to 9-8 in series openers on the year. The Cubs lead the season series 7-2 over the RedHawks.

The Cubs scored first when Nelson hit the first pitch he saw from RedHawks' starter Philip Humber over the wall in dead center field to lead off the top of the second inning. The Cubs added two more runs later in the frame when Logan Watkins lined a single that glanced off Humber on its way to center with the bases loaded, extending the Cubs' lead to 3-0. The inning could've been bigger as two batters later, Brian Bogusevic hit a fly ball down the right field line that was caught by Andy Simunic laying out on the warning track to end the inning.

The RedHawks answered with two runs in the bottom of the second on a solo homer by Marc Krauss off Cubs' starter Yoanner Negrin and a two-out, broken bat single by Jose Martinez. The RedHawks took the lead on a two-run homer by Jonathan Villar in the third inning and added one more in the fifth, but not before some controversy.

Robbie Grossman led off the home half of the fifth with a triple. After a lineout, Negrin hit Brett Wallace with a pitch on the right ankle. Humber had hit Nelson with a breaking ball in the third inning and threw a slider behind Watkins in the fourth, so home plate umpire Kellen Levy warned both benches after Wallace was hit. Cubs' manager Marty Pevey came out to protest and the discussion escalated before Pevey was ejected. First base umpire Shaun Lampe also ejected Cubs' catcher Steve Clevenger in the dugout during the exchange. Clevenger, who is with the Cubs on a Major League rehab assignment and was not in the lineup tonight, has been ejected in each of the last two games.

When the dust settled, Negrin struck out Brandon Laird for the second out of the inning and got ahead of Jake Elmore at 0-2. On the third pitch, Wallace took off for second base and got in ahead of the throw as Grossman raced home to complete the double steal, extending the RedHawks' lead to 5-3.

The Cubs came right back in the top of the fifth. WIth one out, Nelson belted his second homer of the night into the RedHawks' bullpen in left-center. Nelson also had two home runs in yesterday's game and has three multi-homer games on the year. Nelson leads the team and has moved into the top five in the league with 12 home runs on the season.

With two outs in the fifth, Junior Lake and Ian Stewart rapped out back-to-back doubles to tie the score and chase Humber from the game. Darnell McDonald greeted reliever Eric Berger with a third straight double down the right field line and the Cubs were back on top at 6-5.

Negrin got through five innings and turned the game over to Casey Coleman in relief. Coleman worked three shutout innings and extended his scoreless streak to 18.1 innings over his last eight games.

The Cubs added a valuable insurance run in the top of the eighth. With one out, Luis Flores walked against Jason Stoffell so the RedHawks brought in lefty Alex Sogard to face Watkins. Watkins popped out, but a wild pitch advanced Flores to second base before Dave Sappelt grounded a single into center. Flores raced home and slid in just ahead of the throw from Grossman to extend the Cubs' lead to 7-5.

The Cubs turned to Brian Schlitter for the save in the bottom of the ninth. Wallace led off with a single, but Schlitter struck out Laird and got Elmore on a high chopper back to the mound as Wallace went to second. Down to their final out, Krauss kept the RedHawks alive with an RBI single to center that narrowed the Cubs' lead to 7-6. The RedHawks put Che-Hsuan Lin in to pinch-run for Krauss as the potential tying run. On the first pitch to Villar, Lin took off for second base, but Flores made a perfect peg to cut him down for the final out of the game.

Negrin (1-2) earned his first triple-A win and Schlitter picked up his second save. Humber (0-2) suffered the loss.

The Cubs and RedHawks continue this series tomorrow morning at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark with the first pitch scheduled for 11:05 AM. RH Guillermo Moscoso (2-3, 4.75) will start for the Cubs against RH Asher Wojciechowski (2-2, 3.23) for the RedHawks. The game will be broadcast live on AM 940, and streamed at iowacubs.com, with the pre-game show starting at 10:45 AM.

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