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September 22 Game Notes: Iowa at St. Paul

September 22, 2021 - International League (IL)
Iowa Cubs News Release


IOWA CUBS (50-70) @ ST. PAUL SAINTS (61-59)

Wednesday - 7:05 PM - CHS Field - St. Paul, MN

RHP Cory Abbott (4-6, 6.18) vs. RHP Derek Law (1-0, 2.66)

TONIGHT'S GAME: Tonight's game marks the start of the Final Stretch for Iowa and St. Paul, as they will meet for a five-game set at CHS Field. Cory Abbott will take the ball for Iowa for his sixth start against St. Paul, looking for his second win against the Saints, and fourth win in a row. In his last three outings, the righty has spun three quality starts, earning wins in each of them. He has combined to throw 18.0 innings, allowing four earned runs on 11 total hits. Over that span, he has walked seven batters compared to 23 strikeouts. He will face off against Derek Law, who will be making just his second start of the year in his 16th game with St. Paul. With the Saints, Law is 1-0 with a 2.66 ERA, including four games against Iowa in which he is 0-0 with a 5.06 ERA.

BULLPEN BLUES: Sunday's game was a bullpen game for the I-Cubs, and the relievers weren't quite up to the task, as they surrendered ten runs - seven of them earned - in their eight innings of work. Omaha's offensive success continued the trend of a rough month for the I-Cubs bullpen, who have combined for an ERA of 9.39 (64ER/61.1IP) so far in September. The 64 earned runs they've allowed are already the most the bullpen has given up in a month this year, and the I-Cubs still have seven games left in September. In addition, they've combined for 18 home runs, which ties August for most in a single month this season. Of the 12 pitchers who have made at least one relief outing this month, only four of them have an ERA under 7.00 - and two of those are Bryan Serra, a position player, and Jason Adam, who has pitched in just one game since returning to Iowa from the ACL Cubs. The remaining two are Dakota Mekkes, who holds a 4.26 ERA (3ER/6.1IP) in four relief appearances and one spot start in September, and Brendon Little, who leads the bullpen with a 3.52 mark (3ER/7.2IP) this month.

POWER HOUR: Tyler Ladendorf hit his fourth home run of the month on Sunday at Werner Park as part of his third multi-hit game of the series against Omaha. Ladendorf, who missed more than a month this summer with an injury, went 0-for-his-first-11 after being activated from the injured list on August 24. Since September 1, however, he has batted at a .304 clip (14-for-46), which is second on the active roster (min. 10 ABs) behind the red-hot Brennen Davis (.417). The 27 total bases he has collected so far this month lead the active roster, and the 14 hits he has used to get them are tied with Abiatal Avelino for most on the active roster as well. In addition to the average, Ladendorf has turned up the power, too. His homer on Sunday was his third of the series in Omaha, which he started with just four on the season. That means while he took 41 games to hit his first three home runs, Ladendorf hit his next four in just 13 games in September.

NOT A BAD START: Brennen Davis, the Chicago Cubs 2018 second round selection, has climbed through three levels of Chicago's system this year, spending the bulk of the season with Double-A Tennessee. Davis began the year with Advanced-A South Bend, playing just eight games there before being promoted to Tennessee. In 76 games with the Smokies, he hit .252 (67-for-266) with 20 doubles and 13 home runs before getting assigned to Iowa on September 14. In his first six-game series at the Triple-A level, Davis showed why he is the No. 14 prospect in all of baseball, hitting .417 (10-for-24) with six runs scored, a double, three home runs and six runs driven in. He also walked three times compared to four strikeouts, giving him an on-base percentage of .481 to go along with his .417 batting average. The Cubs No. 1 prospect went 1-for-4 on Sunday against Omaha, only reaching base safely once for the first time in his Triple-A career, after reaching base safely at least twice in each of his first five games with the I-Cubs. Davis has multi-hit efforts in four of his six games with Iowa, and at least one hit in each of his first six games. By collecting a hit in each of his first six games with the team, he is now tied with Trent Giambrone for the longest such streak for an I-Cubs player this season.

A LITTLE BIT OF PROGRESS: Brendon Little threw 1.2 scoreless innings on Sunday against Omaha, the only pitcher for Iowa to not allow a run. For Little, it has been an up-and-down adjustment to Triple-A in his first 10 games with Iowa, but the lefty has struck out one or more batters in eight of those, and two or more batters in five of the 10 games. Over those 10 games, he has thrown 13.2 innings, going 0-1 with two saves and a 3.29 ERA. He has surrendered five earned runs on 17 hits while walking seven and striking out 16. On Sunday, Little stranded the two runners he inherited, marking the first time all year with Iowa that he didn't allow his inherited runners to score.

ONE-TWO-THREE: After spending June and July bouncing back and forth between Triple-A and the Majors, Cory Abbott has now been on Iowa's roster for almost two months straight, and the consistency has seemed to do him some good. At the time of his last call-up, Abbott had a Triple-A ERA of 7.21 (39ER/48.2IP). Since then, he's earned a 4.97 mark (23ER/41.2IP) in eight consecutive starts for the I-Cubs. He's been especially effective this month; in three starts in September, Abbott has gone 3-0 with three quality starts and an ERA of just 2.00 (4ER/18.0IP). He has limited opponents to a .175 average since the calendar turned, which is second on the team behind Dakota Mekkes (.130) this month (min. two innings pitched). Abbott's 23 strikeouts so far this month are second on the team behind Matt Swarmer (24), but have helped him to first place in all of Triple-A baseball this season with 125 overall.

STAY HOT: Levi Jordan had his best series as an I-Cub this past week in Omaha, going 7-for-12 at Werner Park with a double, a triple, a home run, four walks, four RBI, three runs scored, a stolen base, and only one strikeout in 17 plate appearances. The performance helped Jordan to a .265 September average, which ranks fourth on the active roster this month. It also continued Jordan's success against Omaha; the infielder has hit .333 (13-for-39) against the Storm Chasers in 14 games this season, including a .355 mark (11-for-31) in 11 contests at Werner Park. His average against Omaha is third on the active roster, trailing only Brennen Davis (.417) and Johneshwy Fargas (.357). The extra-base pop and patience at the plate have also combined to give Jordan a 1.053 OPS in his matchups with Omaha, which is second on the active roster behind only Davis (1.315).

OUT OF ROTATION: When Dakota Mekkes started on Sunday, it ended a 19-game stretch where Iowa had used just five different starting pitchers. Beginning on August 28, the I-Cubs started Cory Abbott, Matt Swarmer, Joe Biagini, Luis Lugo, and Ryan Kellogg in that order for three complete rotations, and then made it 80 percent of the way through a fourth before Kellogg was scratched. With that, the team came just one game shy of completing four consecutive trips through the same five-man rotation for the first time all season. They'd previously completed two trips through the same rotation just once, from August 6 to August 17, and never more than that. The rhythm seemed to work out for the I-Cubs, as the five starters went 5-7, but gave the team eight quality starts and combined for an ERA of 3.99 (44ER/99.1IP) during that 19-game stretch.

AGAINST ST. PAUL: The I-Cubs and Saints are set to face off for five games to start the Final Stretch of their season, the final five games between the two teams this year. In their first 30 games, St. Paul has handled Iowa, holding a 19-11 record against them, going 9-3 at Principal Park and 10-8 at CHS Field. The I-Cubs will look to build on their success on the road against St. Paul, where eight of their 11 wins have come in the season series. The Saints are out-scoring Iowa 150-133 over those first 30 games, due in large part to the long ball. So far this season in games between the two teams, St. Paul has hit 41 home runs compared to Iowa's 18 deep flies.

SHORT HOPS: In Sunday's series finale against Omaha, Iowa went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on-base...with all of Chicago's minor league affiliates season's ending, Iowa added four players to their roster heading into the Final Stretch.

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