MWL South Bend Cubs

Ruoff Mortgage Homestand Preview: August 17-22 vs QC

August 17, 2021 - Midwest League (MWL)
South Bend Cubs News Release


Quad Cities River Bandits

Affiliation: Royals

South Bend vs QC

This Season: 3-8

Last Season: 1-2

Since becoming a Cubs affiliate: 9-16

The South Bend Cubs (40-49) are back in town this week for a seven-game series against the Quad Cities River Bandits (59-29), the high-a affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. South Bend is coming off a 3-3 series split on the road in Fort Wayne and Quad Cities is fresh of their own series split at home vs. Beloit.

Quad Cities has won four-straight games against South Bend and in the final 31 games of the year for the Cubs they will face the River Bandits 13 more times.

The River Bandits come in with a potent offense that ranks first in the league in batting average (.263), first in OBP (.350) and second in HRs (113). Also traveling with the team is a pitching staff that enters this week second in batting average against (.229) and fourth in ERA (4.14).

Players to watch on Quad Cities

Anthony Veneziano, RHP: Veneziano is scheduled to be the series-opening starter tonight, and given these two teams are playing seven times in six days he will probably make another start on Sunday. His start today will be his 18th of the year, tying him for the third most starts in the High-A Central. So far in the HAC in 2021 among qualified starters no pitcher has more strikeouts (104) than Veneziano and he is among the league lead in batting average against (.231, 5th) and ERA (4.38, 10th). The 10th round pick from 2019 had arguably the best start of his pro career the last time he faced South Bend, finishing up with six shutout innings, allowing just three hits and two walks, while striking out 10.

Nick Loftin, INF: Loftin enters as the Royals number eight prospect according to MLB Pipeline; the highest rated played on the River Bandits roster. The last time we saw Loftin he accomplished the best offensive performance we've seen in a Cubs game this year. On August 1 in the series finale at Modern Woodmen Park, Loftin tallied five hits and in his last at-bat of the game he launched a two-run walk-off homer in the ninth to give QC a 14-12 win and give Loftin the cycle. He enters this series hitting .270, with seven homers and 39 RBIs and he's been a key cog in the first-place River Bandits lineup all season long.

Michael Massey, INF: Massey was a fourth round pick out of the University of Illinois in the 2019 MLB First-Year Player Draft. After spending his whole first year in rookie-ball, Massey has been in high-a for all of 2021 and has absolutely flourished. If we were talking about a HAC MVP Massey would need to be in the conversation. Among the league-leaders he is currently T-2nd in hits (90), T-2nd in doubles (23), T-2nd in XBH (39), 3rd in total bases (160), 4th in runs scored (61), 4th in RBIs (61), 5th in SLG (.508), T-5th HRs (15), 9th in batting average (.286) and 9th in OPS (.855). I didn't want to list all of those but I figured if you want the true sense of how elite Massey's bat has been this year, you need the full scope.

Players to watch on South Bend

Yonathan Perlaza, OF: The on-base kid. Perlaza has been aboard in every single game he has played for over a month. His on-base streak is up to 21 games and over that stretch is batting .338, getting on-base at a .419 clip and has on OPS of 1.029. In those 21 games Perlaza has 25 hits and has drawn 10 walks, all while striking out just 16 times. Lately he's been bouncing around the order but in the series finale on the road in Fort Wayne he found himself bumped all the way up to the two-spot. If you want a great random stat here's one courtesy of Greg Huss of Cubs insider: "Cubs minor leaguers to have at least 10 homers, at least 10 doubles, strike out less than 30%, and walk more than 10%: Brennen Davis, Michael Hermosillo, Yonathan Perlaza." Now that's some pretty good company.

Joe Nahas, RHP: Whatever is asked of Joe Nahas lately, he is delivering. The right-hander has seen some stints in the starting rotation and in the bullpen and is pitching his very best of late. Last week Nahas was crowned the High-A Central Pitcher of the Week for his performance in the Cubs no-hitter last Thursday. That night Nahas took over in the third inning and wound up tossing six no-hit innings in relief, walking just one and striking out six. So far this season Nahas is 2-1 with a 3.63 ERA in nine appearances (five starts) south South Bend. He's also still just 21 years old. Nahas started the season in Myrtle Beach where he was 2-1 with a 2.70 ERA also in nine appearances, though just one start.

Max Bain, RHP: Bain was placed on the Development List in late July after his start on the road in Wisconsin and didn't get to face QC the last series the Cubs played in Davenport, Iowa. Since then Bain has re-entered the rotation and has been stellar. Now pitching exclusively from the stretch and relying on a fastball, curveball, changeup mix he has dominated hitters across two outing to the tune of 9.2 scoreless frames. He picked up his third win on Wednesday when he threw six scoreless innings at Fort Wayne in the Cubs 5-1 victory. His stint on the Development List seems to really be paying dividends in August.

Schedule

Tuesday, August 17 through Friday, August 20 - 7:05 p.m. ET first pitch.

Saturday, August 21 - Doubleheader: Game 1: 5 p.m. ET.

Game 2: 30 minutes after conclusion of game 1.

Sunday, August 22 - 2:05 ET first pitch.

You can listen to every game of the series on the flagship station of the South Bend Cubs, 960 AM WSBT. Every game can also be viewed on MiLB.TV. Plus this week Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday's game can be watched locally on MyMichiana and Thursday and Sunday's game can be viewed on Marquee Sports Network.

Check out the South Bend Cubs Statistics



Midwest League Stories from August 17, 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.

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