IL Iowa Cubs

September 26 Game Notes: Iowa at St. Paul

September 26, 2021 - International League (IL)
Iowa Cubs News Release


IOWA CUBS (51-73) @ ST. PAUL SAINTS (64-60)

Sunday - 12:05 PM - CHS Field - St. Paul, MN

RHP Dakota Mekkes (0-2, 4.21) vs. LHP Andrew Albers (6-4, 3.86)

TODAY'S GAME: Iowa will look to book-end the five-game series with wins, after losing the middle three games to St. Paul. Taking the ball for Iowa will be Dakota Mekkes, set to make his second career start. The righty is 0-0 with a 3.97 ERA in six games against St. Paul this year, allowing five earned runs on eight hits over 11.1 innings. He has surrendered one home run while striking out twice the amount of batters he has walked, 12 to six. Iowa's lineup will face Andrew Albers, who is 6-4 with a 3.86 ERA in 16 games with St. Paul this year. The southpaw has owned Iowa, going 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA in four starts. Albers has allowed just four earned runs on 20 hits over 24.0 innings pitched, walking four compared to 24 strikeouts.

MAKE IT TWO: Dakota Mekkes is set to make the second start of his professional career today, after making his first last Sunday against the Omaha Storm Chasers. Mekkes went 2.0 innings, allowing one run on one hit while striking out two. The righty surrendered a leadoff solo home run, but after that locked down, facing the minimum for the rest of the way, striking out one third of the batters he retired. In his last six games, he has an ERA of 3.86, allowing three earned runs over his seven innings pitched. Over that stretch since August 15, he has struggled with control a little bit, walking five batters compared to seven strikeouts. He has also hit one batter and allowed one home run, but his opponents are hitting just .120 against him over that span. Mekkes will look to give Iowa some length today, after their bullpen picked up 5.2 innings in last night's loss.

GET IT GOING: Outfielder Johneshwy Fargas provided a spark to Iowa's lineup last night, going 2-for-3 with a run scored, a double and a walk. The speedy outfielder also stole a base, and was on third base in the top of the ninth when the final out was made. Although it may not show in the box score, Fargas played a huge role in Iowa's offensive production last night and they need more aggressive play like he showed to continue to pressure St. Paul into mistakes. In 20 games with Iowa, he has stolen five bases while getting caught just once. Fargas has three doubles, a triple and two home runs with the I-Cubs, hitting .246 on the year.

NOT OUT OF THE ORDINARY: Ian Miller recorded another multi-hit game last night, his 25th multi-hit game of the year for Iowa. With 25 multi-hit games this year, he sits in second on the team behind only Abiatal Avelino, who has 31. It was the outfielder's 20th game with two hits this season, but just his second in the month of September. His last two-hit game came back on September 17 against Omaha. Despite struggling to the tune of a .186 average in the month of September, Miller has been one of the more reliable bats for Iowa's lineup, hitting .264 on the season.

SLOW THEM DOWN: St. Paul's lineup showed extreme balance last night, with all nine batters reaching base safely at least once. The top seven in their order each recorded one hit, while the bottom two batters each drew a free pass to get on base. Despite only recording seven hits, the Saints drew four walks and were hit by pitches twice, putting traffic on the base paths. This traffic forced Iowa's pitching staff into difficult, high leverage situations, in which St. Paul was able to come through in just enough to get the win. The I-Cubs will need to attack the Saints lineup tomorrow in order to cut down on the traffic on the bases and earn a victory.

BREAK OUT OF IT: Iowa's player of the game last night, catcher Erick Castillo, went 2-for-4 with a run scored out of the nine-hole. Castillo was coming in on a four-game hitless streak, with his last hits coming back on September 16 against Omaha, when he went 2-for-3. He has had one streak of five hitless games with Iowa this year back on August 24-September 1, but in three of those games he just had one at-bat. Hopefully last night's success catapults the catcher into a bit of a rhythm at the plate, giving Iowa's offense a more balanced attack.

(ALMOST) SAVING THE DAY: Iowa's bullpen got thrown into a difficult situation in last night's loss, after starter Luis Lugo made it through just 2.1 innings. Lugo allowed four runs on five hits, three walks and two hit batters in his 2.1 innings, putting Iowa in an early 4-1 deficit. All the bullpen did with the deficit was hold the Saints to just two more hits the rest of the game, allowing the I-Cubs offense to get back into it. Even though Iowa eventually still lost 4-3, the job the bullpen did going into today's bullpen game will hopefully provide some positive momentum. As a group, they allowed just one free pass while striking out five, throwing 65% (49-of-75) of their pitches for strikes, facing just two batters over the minimum in their 5.2 innings.

THIS IS IT: Today's game will mark Iowa's final road game of the 2021 season, with just five home games left after today's contest. They have been much better on the road than at home this season, entering the game with a 30-34 record on the road compared to going 21-39 at Principal Park. As a team, Iowa has hit nine average points better on the road (.248) than they have at home (.239) and have an ERA over a run better on the road (4.34) than at home (5.47).

AGAINST ST. PAUL: Iowa and St. Paul are set to play the fifth and final game of their five-game series today, with St. Paul having already won the series. The I-Cubs won the first game of the Final Stretch between the two teams, but have now dropped the last three games, officially losing the series after last night's one-run loss. Today will mark the 35th game the two teams have played this year, with the Saints leading the season series over the I-Cubs 22 to 12. Through their first 34 games, St. Paul has hit 45 runs as a team compared to just 19 long balls hit by the I-Cubs against Saints pitching. With their three wins this series, the Saints have moved to 13-9 against Iowa when the two teams meet at CHS Field.

A LITTLE SOMETHING COOKING: Entering Sunday's game against Omaha, Brendon Little had allowed all seven runners that he inherited to score. In that game against the Storm Chasers, the southpaw got out of a jam, stranding the two runners he inherited for the first time all year with Iowa. On Thursday night, Little inherited a bases-loaded jam and recorded back-to-back swinging strikeouts to keep the I-Cubs in the game. The lefty looked dominant in his 1.2 innings, allowing just one hit while striking out four batters, lowering his ERA to 2.93. In his last two outings, he has thrown 3.1 innings, allowing two hits while striking out seven. The multi-strikeout game marked his sixth game out of 11 at the Triple-A level in which he has two or more strikeouts. He has at least one strikeout in nine of those 11 contests.

SHORT HOPS: Christopher Morel led off the fourth inning with a double last night, extending his hitting streak to three games...for the second consecutive night, Iowa out-hit St. Paul, but lost the game, moving to 41-16 on the season when they record more hits than their opponent...Iowa lost by just one run last night to move to 6-13 in one-run games on the road; they went 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position, leaving six men on-base.

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