Toyota Road Report: August 12-17
MWL South Bend Cubs

Toyota Road Report: August 12-17

Published on August 11, 2025 under Midwest League (MWL)
South Bend Cubs News Release


It's officially time for what is slated as the most important road trip yet for the South Bend Cubs here in 2025. Following a successful 12-game homestand that featured eight wins combined over Quad Cities and Fort Wayne, the South Bend Cubs sit just 2.0 games back of the final playoff spot in the Midwest League West Division. The team they're trying to catch? The Beloit Sky Carp. This week in Beloit, it's the Cubs and the Sky Carp for six games with first place on the line!

South Bend is in search of a little revenge over the Sky Carp as well. The last time the Cubs were at ABC Supply Stadium was opening weekend back in April. Beloit swept South Bend in three games, and did so again in the first series after the All-Star Break at Four Winds Field in July. Since that point, the Cubs have climbed the ladder after being knocked down, with the most recent series win against the Fort Wayne TinCaps; Taking five of six games in the last series.

This surely won't be easy. But the Cubs are without a doubt playing their best baseball of the season. It all starts with what has happened in the revitalization of the pitching staff. Pitching coach George Thanopoulos, and assistant Jose Zapata have done a remarkable job game planning, and the Cubs staff has executed on the mound, seemingly giving South Bend a chance to win every night. Over the last 30 days, South Bend pitchers have posted a combined team ERA of 2.40. That's the fourth lowest Team ERA in Minor League Baseball in that stretch, and there are two rookie ball teams ahead of the Cubs. The only full-season affiliate that has a lower team ERA than South Bend in the last month is the Birmingham Barons at 1.97.

Of note as well, within the last 30 days, there are zero Major League Baseball teams who have come up with a team ERA lower than 3.00. So what the Cubs are doing is pretty special.

We'll get into what South Bend has done at the plate a little bit later, but Cubs pitchers are going to have to be on their game this weekend, considering what the Beloit pitching staff did to South Bend in that July series after the All-Star Break. South Bend scored one run in that short three-game series. Beloit shutout South Bend 1-0 in two of the games, and the lone run of the weekend was from a Carter Trice solo homer. The Sky Carp staff has also been brilliant lately. Their team ERA of the last 30 days is 2.57. Beloit pitchers have 233 strikeouts in the last 24 games played.

As mentioned, Beloit pitched the ball extremely well in the last series that the Cubs and Sky Carp played from July 18-20. It included 1-0 shutouts on in both the opener and the finale. The starting pitchers threw exclusively shutout action. Sky Carp righty Nick Brink tossed 5.1 shutout innings in the first game, Will Schomberg threw 5.0 scoreless in the Saturday contest, and Brandon White ended the series with 7.0 shutout in the finale.

What was not seen in the boxscore from that July 20 game on the Sunday was the play that Brock Vradenburg made to preserve the shutout in the 8th inning that afternoon. South Bend had the bases loaded, and on a sinking Reggie Preciado line drive hit to first, Vradenburg made a supreme diving catch, and stepped on first base to end the rally chance. If that ball was hit inches towards the foul line, the Cubs probably clear the bases and win that game.

The good news out of that is Vradenburg is no longer with the Sky Carp, and is now a member of the Philadelphia Phillies organization.

Beloit has lost some players since that mid-July series, including infielder Yiddi Cappe, who was a mainstay in their lineup the last couple of years. But with losing Cappe, they gained the newest Miami Marlins first-round pick; Former Oregon State infielder Aiva Arquette. Drafted 7th overall last month by Miami, Arquette has exactly one base hit in each of his first five pro games. He made his pro debut on August 5 against Quad Cities, and takes the five-game hit streak to begin his career into this series versus the Cubs. He has balanced out the hit total, but he is batting .227 in five games.

It will need to be an all hands on deck series for the Cubs, but South Bend is taking the momentum of eight wins on the homestand with them on the road.

Players to watch on South Bend...

Ariel Armas, C: The man himself, and baseball's hottest hitter to start the month of August. Oh, and he's also your Midwest League Player of the Week! Ariel Armas had himself a series against the Fort Wayne TinCaps, going 14/20 at the plate with 11 RBI in six games. He also caught four of those games. Heading into Sunday's game at Fort Wayne, Armas was batting .640 in the month of August at 16/25. That was the best August batting average by any qualified player in all of baseball, Major or Minor Leagues. The next closest to Armas' dominance was Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who started August 14/31. It's amazing what Armas has done in terms of adjustments in the last few weeks. Per South Bend hitting coach Nate Spears, it was a small swing adjustment made that helped Armas succeed during spring training, where he had one of the better springs among all Cubs minor league players. It has clearly reset his season, with Armas batting .189 at the start of the Fort Wayne series. Going into Sunday's game, the season average was at .232. He's getting it done at the plate, and behind it as well. With 40 caught stealing's on the season, including one on Sunday against his former college teammate Jack Costello, Armas leads all High-A catchers in total caught stealing's, and that's also good enough for a tie for third in all of baseball. If he is anywhere as close to effective in Beloit as he was in Fort Wayne, you could be talking another player of the week contention for the 2024 Cubs 5th-round pick.

Yenrri Rojas, RHP: You would never guess he's just 21-years-old by how commanding he has been on the mound for the South Bend Cubs, but Yenrri Rojas has entered the Midwest League and straight up dominated. Sunday's performance against Fort Wayne earned Rojas his first Midwest League win, with five innings of shutout baseball, three hits allowed, zero walks, and six strikeouts. That was Rojas' third official Midwest League start, after debuting with six innings of one-run baseball against Beloit on July 20. He threw the cancelled Sunday game in Dayton last road trip, pitching two perfect innings, sadly those don't officially count. But then he came out last Sunday versus Quad Cities and also posted five shutout frames. Rojas' sinking fastball paired with a dynamic changeup is lethal to lefties. But he can also mix in a slider to be effective against righties. Not sure if we've seen a guy this young come into the Midwest League and dominate like this midseason since Luis Devers. And remember, he was your Cubs 2022 Minor League Pitcher of the Year. Rojas is on Devers pace, and has been brilliant. He'll get the start on Sunday in Beloit.

Leonel Espinoza, OF: With the promotion of Carter Trice to Double-A Knoxville, the South Bend Cubs lost quite a bit of firepower in their lineup with his 14 home runs, but also lost their usual lead-off man. Enter, Leonel Espinoza. The speedy outfielder has come in and filled the gap of Trice but has been scorching hot as well at the plate. Espinoza picked up a single and a walk with a run on Sunday, and in six games with the Cubs, is on a five-game hitting streak. Espinoza is 8/23 with South Bend to begin his first stretch at High-A, and was a huge part of both Friday and Saturday's victories, picking up two hits in each game. Espinoza has also looked flawless in center field to this point, as Trice was South Bend's everyday man in CF leading into his promotion, but Espinoza was super impressive getting to the deep gaps at Four Winds Field and making it look easy. Paired with Cubs 2025 5th-round pick Kade Snell, it's a new look South Bend outfield, but the Cubs have plenty of options, where Edgar Alvarez can play both corner spots, and Rafael Morel is your swiss army knife and can play anywhere. Espinoza so far has given the Cubs plenty of help in that lead-off spot, and him starting innings with energy at the top of the lineup is going to be needed for potential success in Beloit.

Schedule and Probables...

Tuesday, August 12 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Connor Schultz vs RHP Karson Milbrandt

Wednesday, August 13 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Erian Rodriguez vs RHP Noble Meyer

Thursday, August 14 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Kevin Valdez vs. RHP Luke Lashutka

Friday, August 15 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Kenten Egbert vs. RHP Nick Brink

Saturday, August 16 - 7:35 PM ET: LHP Evan Aschenbeck vs. RHP Eliazar Dishmey

Sunday, August 17 - 2:05 PM ET: RHP Yenrri Rojas vs. RHP Brandon White

Check out the South Bend Cubs Statistics

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Midwest League Stories from August 11, 2025


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