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MWL South Bend Cubs

Ruoff Mortgage Homestand Preview: August 31 - September 5 vs Lake County

August 31, 2021 - Midwest League (MWL)
South Bend Cubs News Release


Lake County Captains

Affiliation: Indians

South Bend vs Lake County

This Season: 2-4

Last Season: 2-0

Since becoming a Cubs affiliate: 52-32

The South Bend Cubs (46-55) return home to Four winds Field for their final home series of the 2021 season as they ready to take on the Lake County Captains (54-48).

The Captains split the first four games of their series at home at Classic Park vs. the Loons last week but dropped the final two games and lost the series, 4-2. Lake County now sits one game behind Great Lakes in the High-A Central East Division and two games behind Cedar Rapids for the final playoff spot.

South Bend meanwhile is coming of a 4-2 series victory on the road against the high-a affiliate of the Saint Louis Cardinals, the Peoria Chiefs. So far this season the Cubs are 28-25 when playing in front of their home crowd.

Players to watch on Lake County

Jose Tena, SS: The Indians number 12 prospect was signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2017 and is just 20 years old. Tena is the nephew of 16-year big-leaguer Juan Uribe and is known for having incredible bat-to-ball skills. In his rookie season the lefty stroke of his produced a batting average of .313; the following season he hit .325; this year he sits sixth in the High-A Central with a .285 batting average. He's also third in hits (98), fourth in XBHs (37), fourth in total bases (165), sixth in slugging percentage (.480) and tied for eighth in doubles (21). In 2019 the big weakness for Tena was his lack of walk as he drew walks in just 3% of his plate appearances, and in 2021 it's still a problem for the free-swinger. But despite not being known for his power, the kid from the DR enters this series with the most homers of anyone on either side, 14.

Xzavion Curry, RHP: When the Cubs last played the Captains in early July, Curry was not listed as a top 30 Indians prospect on MLB Pipeline. In their most recent update he snuck in as #30. And his 2021 season, his first in pro baseball, shows exactly why he is deserving. The seventh round pick from 2019 started the season in low-a and went out and in his first five outings went 3-0 with a 1.07 ERA; enough to get promoted to Lake County. Since joining the Captains its been more of the same with Curry making 11 starts and going 5-1 with a 2.62 ERA. Opponents in the HAC are batting just .202 off the former Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket and amazingly he has 70 strikeouts in 58.1 innings with LC and has somehow walked just nine batters. Curry will pitch on Thursday night.

Daniel Espino, RHP: With the promotion of George Valera last week, Espino is now the highest rated Indians prospect on the Captains roster, coming into this week number five on MLB Pipeline. The Indians selected Espino, who is now 20 years old, with the 24th overall pick in the 2019 MLB Draft. He was said to have the most electric prep arm in the draft and became the first high-schooler the Indians promoted to short-season ball back in 2019 since Francisco Lindor in 2011. His four-seamer sits in the mid-to-upper 90s with arm-side run to it and his two-seamer exhibits heavy sink. Since being called up from low-a Lynchburg he is 1-5 with a 4.64 ERA in seven starts. Espino is expected to start on Saturday.

Players to watch on South Bend

Bryce Windham, UTIL: Windham is no doubt one of the most versatile defenders in the entire Cubs farm system. He can play virtually anywhere on the diamond except pitcher and first base and I'm pretty sure he'd do just fine if he actually was assigned first base for a game. Since he returned off the IL in early August, the kid from Monroe, Mich. Has been on a tear and certainly on paper appears to deserve more playing time. In his 11 games this month he's batting .400, getting on base at a .489 clip and slugging .675. That's an eye-catching 1.164 OPS. One of the crazier stats over this stretch though is that he's made 47 trips up to the plate in August and has struck out once. Talk about a guy who is seeing the ball well.

Burl Carraway, LHP: The second-rounder from last year's 2020 MLB Draft had a slow start to his rookie season, dealing with control issues. And maybe it has flown under the radar somehow but he is cooking on the rubber the last month. Since July 28, Carraway has made eight relief appearances and logged 10 innings. In those 10 frames he has allowed just two base hits and a single earned run. He has walked 10 over that time frame but opponents are hitting just .067 off the lefty and you can't argue with a 0.90 ERA in a time frame now spanning over a month. The one certain is that Carraway is pitching his best baseball right now in the final third of the season, and when you're a rookie all you want to see is development throughout the year.

Yohendrick Pinango, OF: This week will be the first home series at Four Winds Field for the 19-year-old who was just promoted from low-a Myrtle Beach at the onset of last week's series at Peoria. Pinango is a spray hitter with gap-to-gap power who in his first series picked up at least one hit in every game and reached base at least twice in five of the six ballgames. Last week he went 9-for-23 with three doubles, three walks and three runs scored. Pinango's rookie season came in the Dominican Summer League in 2019 and he went out and led the league in hits (86) and finished fourth in batting average (.358). He is certainly someone to keep an eye on the final three weeks of the season.

Schedule

Tuesday - Sunday (August 31 - September 5) every game is at 7:05 p.m. ET.

You can listen to every game of the series on the flagship station of the South Bend Cubs, 960 AM WSBT. Tuesday and Friday viewers can find the Cubs on My Michiana and on Sunday South Bend will be live on Marquee Sports Network.

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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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