Cubs Minor League News: South Bend, Smokies, and Pelicans add wins

Patrick Gorski - USA Today Sports

Dustin Riese · Senior Writer · 12 hours ago

When you look at the Cubs Minor League System on Thursday night, you can break it down into two different levels. On the full-season side of things, you saw the Cubs organization come one run away from a clean sweep as they combined to go 3-1.

The Rookie Leagues didn't have nearly the same type of success, going winless on the day for a 0-3 mark. That comes out to an overall mark of 3-4, which isn't what you want to see, but the play from the full-season squads is what is going to be talked about much more.

SAINT PAUL SAINTS 2 - IOWA CUBS 1

The lone full-season team to take the loss came in AAA Iowa, where the Cubs fell to the Saints 2-1. This was an especially painful loss for Chris Kachmar, who continues to impress since his promotion. The right-hander gave the Cubs five innings of two-run, five-strikeout baseball as his ERA in Iowa is 2.70.

Those types of starts tend to result in wins, but on this day, it wasn't enough as Marco Raya struck out seven across six innings to secure his first win of the season. An early game homer victimized Kachmar as Edouard Julien took him deep in the first for the game's first run.

Iowa responded in the fourth with a homer of their own as Owen Caissie keeps on homering with his 19th blast of the season to pull the Cubs back to 1-1. An inning later, Will Holland came through with the game-winning RBI as his sacrifice fly put the Saints on top 2-1 before winning by that score.

KNOXVILLE SMOKIES 4 - MONTGOMERY BISCUITS 3

Not only did the Smokies score first, but they also scored last as Knoxville rallied for two runs over the final two innings to walk off the Biscuits. Although he earned a no-decision, Tyler Schlaffer was excellent on the mound, as his ERA is 1.64 since arriving in AA.

The right-hander has been on quite a run over the past month, and with five innings of one-run baseball to go with four strikeouts, that run continued. Schlaffer was backed by a pair of first-inning runs that gave the Smokies the lead as the BJ Murray Jr single and Ethan Hearn double made this a 2-0 game. Those would be the only runs until late, but given how Schlaffer was pitching, those runs almost held up.

Entering the seventh trailing 2-1, the Biscuits offense started to put some good bats together against the Smokies pen, resulting in a game-tying Tatem Levins single. There was also a passed ball in that inning, leading to another run as the Smokies were suddenly behind 3-2.

Despite trailing late in the game, Knoxville wasn't about to let this one get away as Felix Stevens brought things back to even with his eighth-inning sacrifice fly before the big blow of the game came in the ninth. It also came from the team's hottest hitter, Pedro Ramirez, as he uncorked a walk-off homer in the ninth to lift the Smokies to a 4-3 win.

SOUTH BEND CUBS 12 - WISCONSIN TIMBER RATTLERS 3

Anytime the Cubs can beat the Brewers, it's a good day, even if it is only on the Minor League front. Three games into this week's series, it has been all Cubs as they have taken all three games up to this point, including a 12-3 blowout win on Thursday.

On a day that saw Brandon Birdsell back on the mound, the Cubs offense was quiet early on before exploding for 12 runs over the final five frames. Pair that with Birdsell, who lasted five innings and allowed two runs before Kenten Egbert took over, and this was the perfect scenario for the Cubs, who continue to play well in the second half.

Both of the runs charged to Birdsell came on one swing, with Hedbert Perez taking him deep in the fourth to break a scoreless tie and put Wisconsin in front 2-0. It was a lead that didn't last long as the Cubs responded with three runs in the fifth to grab the lead and never looked back.

Jefferson Rojas put the Cubs on the board with a single before a two-run Cristian Hernandez double made this a 3-2 game. South Bend continued to keep the pressure on in the sixth as Drew Bowser's homer not only extended the lead but proved to be the game-winning hit with the Cubs up 4-2.

Wisconsin managed to get one run back in the bottom of the sixth on the Luiyin Alastre single, but at 4-3, they were unable to tack on any additional runs. The same can't be said about the Cubs and their offense as Rojas left the building in the seventh to make this a 5-3 game before the Miguel Pabon single in the eighth pushed the Cubs' lead to 7-3.

That was only the start for their offense as they added five more runs in the ninth to open up a massive 12-3 lead. Cameron Sisneros started the huge inning with a two-run shot while the bases were loaded, and a triple from Ivan Brethowr led to the final three runs in the Cubs' 12-3 win.

MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS 7 - KANNAPOLIS CANNONBALLERS 3

Like South Bend, Myrtle Beach has been one of the hottest teams in the Cubs system, and a big reason for that has been their improved pitching. While the offense did score seven times, it was the pitching that once again set the tone in the 7-3 win.

Yenrri Rojas benefited from another big offensive day as he improved to 3-2 on the mound. Rojas struck out five in five innings, allowing two runs as his ERA is down to 2.63. Both of the runs charged to Rojas came in the second inning, and they came after Leonel Espinoza put the Pelicans on top with a first-inning sacrifice fly.

George Wolkow tied things up with an RBI groundout as part of that second inning, with Jordan Sprinkle adding a sacrifice fly to make this a 2-1 game. The Pelicans didn't need much time to tie things up, with Alexey Lumpuy tying the game with a homer in the third. The fourth inning saw Christian Olivo's double prove to be the game-winner, as the Pelicans took a 4-2 lead.

Speaking of Lumpuy, the outfielder had a night to remember as he not only scored on an error in the fifth but added the game-winning run on a ninth-inning RBI single as he came away with not only four hits but hit for the Cycle in the win. Espinoza added a second sacrifice fly later in the game to close out the scoring, with the Pelicans picking up a 7-3 win.