Iowa Can't Quiet Tacoma Bats, Falls 12-3

TACOMA, WA - The Iowa Cubs (25-42) dropped a 12-3 decision to the Tacoma Rainiers (36-34), Sunday at Cheney Stadium to fall to 0-2 in the series.

For the second-straight game, Iowa got on the board first by way of a first-inning home run. Mike Freeman launched his fifth homer of the season with a solo shot to right. Tacoma quickly evened the scored on an Andrew Aplin homer to lock the game 1-1 after one frame.
Tacoma got going offensively, posting a big four-run second inning, aided by two Iowa errors. The Rainiers batted around in the frame, getting RBI from Seth Mejias-Brean, Aplin and Daniel Vogelbach.
The Rainiers tacked on a run in the third to extend their lead to 6-1 before Iowa could fight back. With two down in the fourth, Taylor Davis punched a single and Stephen Bruno made the most of the base runner with his first home run of the season to cut the deficit to 3-6.
It was all Rainiers from there as the home team posted two runs in the sixth, three in the seventh and one in the eighth as they put together their highest run total since April 22.  
Entering the game with a 2.91 ERA through his last eight starts, Alec Mills (3-6) exited after just 2.1 innings - his shortest start of the season - after allowing a season-high six earned runs. Brad Markey took the ball in the third and gave the I-Cubs a strong 3.1 innings, giving up two runs - one earned - on three hits and a walk while fanning two. Cory Mazzoni was responsible for three earned runs through one inning, and Justin Hancock gave up one over one inning of work.
The I-Cubs were limited to six hits but boosted the effort with six walks. Lindsey Caughel (2-2) claimed the win for the Rainiers with 2.0 scoreless frames out of the bullpen.
Iowa and Tacoma play game three of the set tomorrow at 8:05 p.m. CT. Follow the action on www.iowacubs.com, AM 940, or MiLB.TV.