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Pitching Stays Hot as Sox Post Third Shutout of Series

June 24, 2018 - Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Colorado Springs Sky Sox News Release


DES MOINES, Iowa - The Sky Sox closed out their series victory nicely Sunday afternoon with a 2-0 shutout over the Iowa Cubs to win the series four games to one. Three of the four victories came by way of shutout for the Sky Sox.

As has been the case throughout most of this series, strong pitching from both squads was the story of game five on Sunday afternoon. After yesterday's doubleheader saw a total of eight combined runs scored by both Colorado Springs and Iowa, today proved to be equally low scoring.

Both starting pitchers had strong games in this series finale. Zach Davies, who is currently down on MLB rehab, threw 4.1 scoreless innings for Colorado Springs, giving up just three hits and one walk with four strikeouts. Southpaw Kyle Ryan had nearly as good of a start for Iowa, allowing just one run on three hits with no walks and three strikeouts through five innings of work.

After two scoreless innings kicked off game five, the Sky Sox were the first to score in the top of the third. In the first at-bat of the inning, Quintin Berry hit a homer to left field for his first dinger of the season and the first run of the day. Berry has just come off the disabled list, after spending a good chunk of the season there thus far. Davies then reached on a Cubs throwing error, but a strikeout and a double play later and the inning was over.

After another two scoreless innings bookended the one-run third inning, the Sky Sox struck again in the sixth inning. Zach Hedges came into the game for Iowa to relieve Ryan on the mound, and gave up a double to the first batter he faced in the form of Brett Phillips. Phillips moved up to third on a groundout, scoring one batter later on a Nate Orf fielder's choice that saw both runners safe as the Cubs committed their second error of the afternoon on the play. Hedges got out of the inning without any more trouble, leaving the Sky Sox with a 2-0 lead. While the Cubs posted two errors today, the Sky Sox have gone the entire five-game series in Iowa without a single error.

The Cubs drew a pair of walks in the bottom of the seventh- one intentional and one unintentional- but couldn't amount any more offense than that in the half-inning. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Mark Zagunis drew yet another walk for Iowa to lead off the inning, advancing to second on a wild pitch. However, the next three batters were all retired, and the leadoff walk was left stranded on second as the game headed into the final inning of both the afternoon and the five-game series.

Orf led off the ninth inning with a single, moving up to second on an Andres Blanco one-out four-pitch walk. Both runners were stranded, however, after Hedges recorded a strikeout and a flyout to send it to the bottom of the ninth. Hedges finished the day with one run allowed on two hits with two walks and three strikeouts through four innings of relief, as he and starter Ryan proved to be Iowa's only pitchers in today's contest.

Mike Zagurski then came into the game for the Sky Sox on the mound in the ninth, after throwing a three-up-three-down save yesterday for his second save of the season. For the second time in as many days, Zagurski recorded a three-up-three-down save to secure the win and give the Sky Sox a 4-1 series victory over the Iowa Cubs.

The Sky Sox enter into the first game of a four-game homestand against the Memphis Redbirds tomorrow with a 6:40 p.m. MT scheduled first pitch at Security Service Field in Colorado Springs. For all information on Sky Sox, follow along on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and visit the team's website at www.skysox.com.

NOTES

Zagurski Zaves: Mike Zagurski collected his second save in as many days after recording the save in the series finale on Sunday afternoon. In game two of a doubleheader on Saturday, Zagurski recorded a three-up-three-down save for his second save of the season.

Doubling Up on Shutouts: The Sky Sox posted their sixth shutout of the season Sunday afternoon in a 2-0 victory over the Cubs. On Saturday, in game two of a doubleheader, they posted their fifth shutout of the season with a 2-0 victory over the Cubs. Colorado Springs had just posted their fourth shutout Thursday evening against the Iowa Cubs with a 5-0 victory. The last shutout for the Colorado Springs squad before that came on May 24 in Nashville when they blanked the Sounds 4-0. In one series, Colorado Springs doubled their total number of shutouts from three to six after blanking Iowa thrice.

Clean Baseball: While the Cubs posted two errors on Sunday afternoon alone, the Sky Sox went the entire five-game series in Iowa without posting a single error.

Out in Front: The only time Iowa led in the entire five-game series was when they had the walkoff walk in the bottom of the ninth inning in game two on Friday night.

Running Away With It: With the four stolen bases during game one of Saturday's doubleheader, the Sky Sox (at that time) had amassed 106 stolen bases, which was the 7th most stolen bases in a single season, with nearly half of the season remaining. The team record for most stolen bases in a season is 169 stolen bases, during the 2009 season. During that season, Eric Young, Jr. had 58 stolen bases, with Mike McCoy adding 40 (1st and 3rd all-time in a single season in the individual SB category).

Doubleheader History: Saturday's scheduled split day/night doubleheader marks only the second time that the current era Sky Sox (since 1988) has played a split day/night doubleheader. This is the first time that the spot day/night doubleheader was scheduled on the original schedule to start the season. The only other instance where the Sky Sox played a split day/night doubleheader was on June 14th, 2003 at Zephyr Field (now The Shrine on Airline in Metairie) against New Orleans. This was scheduled after the April 8th, 2003 game was rained out during the first Sky Sox visit to New Orleans that season. Both games were scheduled nine-inning games. In Game One, Jason Lane went 3-for-5 with a RBI for the Z's, as the Zephyrs beat the Sky Sox, 2-1 in 11 innings (T-3:17, A-3,273). In Game Two, Gabe Kapler went 1-for-2 with 2 SB for the Sky Sox, but Zephyrs pitcher threw a four-hit nine-inning shutout, striking out nine, as the Zephyrs blanked the Sky Sox, 9-0 (T-2:24, A-7,812). Last year, the Sky Sox tried to play a split day/night doubleheader at home on August 10th against Round Rock, after consecutive rainouts on August 8th and 9th. The Sky Sox had won the first game, 4-2. However, more rain arrived between games, and the evening game was once again postponed. During a previous baseball era back in the 1950's in the Single-A Western League, the Colorado Springs and Des Moines teams played a split day/night doubleheader in Colorado Springs. On July 21st, 1957 at Memorial Park in Colorado Springs, the Single-A Sky Sox beat the Des Moines Demons, 4-3 in the afternoon game, and 15-9 in the evening game. Normally doubleheaders back then had one game nine innings and one game seven innings, but in this doubleheader, both games were nine innings. Des Moines was a Single-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs then, while Colorado Springs was affiliated with the Chicago White Sox.

Extended: Outfielder Tyrone Taylor extended his hit streak to eight games Saturday morning with a hit in game one of the doubleheader. Over the eight games, he was 12-for-34 with seven runs, two doubles, three home runs, and seven RBI. His hit streak came to an end after going 0-for-3 in game two of the doubleheader.

Blanks: After posting their fourth shutout of the season against Iowa Thursday night, the Sky Sox opened game two with five more shutout innings before allowing their first run of the series in the sixth frame, for 14 shutout innings against the Cubs to start this series.

Out-Hit W: The win in game one over the Cubs marked just the 10th time for the Sky Sox out of 28 times this season when they were out-hit by opponents and walked away with the victory.

This Week's Preview: The Sky Sox return home tomorrow on Monday, June 25 and will host the Memphis Redbirds, St. Louis Cardinals top affiliate, for four games at Security Service Field before going back on the road.

NEXT GAME: Monday, June 25 vs. Memphis Redbirds - 6:40 p.m. MT @ Security Service Field

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COS TOP PERFORMERS

- Paolo Espino (W, 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 SO)

- Brett Phillips (2-for-4, 2B, 1 R)

- Quintin Berry (1-for-3, HR, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 SB)

IOWA TOP PERFORMERS

- Kyle Ryan (5.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 3 SO)

- Zach Hedges (4.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 3 SO)

- David Bote (1-for-4)

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