July 30 Game Notes: Iowa vs. Louisville

IOWA CUBS (31-41) vs. LOUISVILLE BATS (28-46)

Friday, July 30, 2021 • 7:08 PM • Principal Park • Des Moines, IA

RHP Mike Hauschild (0-3, 6.37) vs. RHP Lucas Sims (0-0, 0.00)

TONIGHT’S GAME: Iowa will take on Louisville for game four tonight with a 2-1 series lead in hand. The I-Cubs completed their fifth shutout of the season last night, with four pitchers combining to allow just six hits and one walk. They’ll try to keep the momentum going tonight with righty Mike Hauschild, who will make his eighth start for Iowa but just his third at Principal Park. Hauschild has gone 0-3 for the I-Cubs so far and pitched to a 6.37 ERA (21ER/29.2IP), but has also recorded two quality starts this season. He’ll face off with opener Lucas Sims, who is with the Bats on a Major League rehab assignment, and then Michael Mariot. Mariot has been reliable for Louisville through eight starts this season, completing at least five innings in all but one and earning an ERA of 3.77 (18ER/43IP) along the way.

BECOMING A HABIT: Iowa’s pitching staff shutout the Louisville Bats last night in their 2-0 win. For the I-Cubs, it marked their third shutout in the month of July, after shutting out St. Paul on July 11 at home in a seven-inning no-hitter and shutting out Toledo on July 15. Three shutouts marks a season high in a month, after recording just one in each May and June. Iowa is now 5-5 in games where there is a shutout, throwing five and getting five thrown against them.

FIRST OF MANY: Justin Steele made his fourth start for Iowa last night after being activated from the injured list and optioned to Iowa on July 8. In his four starts, the lefty has allowed a total of seven hits and just one earned run, good for an ERA of 0.57 (1ER/15.2IP) and an opponents batting average of .103. He earned the first win of his Triple-A career last night, tossing five scoreless innings of four-hit ball. Steele struck out five batters and didn’t allow a free pass, the only bump in the road as a starter so far. Coming into last night, he had walked two or more batters in each of his first three starts, allowing more walks than hits in every start. With yesterday’s win, Iowa has now won all four games Steele has started this season.

ORGANIZATIONAL DEBUT: Chicago recently traded Andrew Chafin to the Oakland Athletics, netting a return of two prospects, including Greg Deichmann. Deichmann, 26, is a left-handed hitting outfielder that slotted into the No. 15 ranked prospect in the Cubs’ organization by MLB.com as soon as he was acquired. He was hitting .300 (63-for-210) in 60 games with Triple-A Las Vegas before being traded, and grew up in Metairie, Louisiana, just blocks away from new teammate, infielder Trent Giambrone. In his first game in the Cubs system last night, he went 1-for-4 with a run scored and a strikeout hitting out of the leadoff-spot. Despite having a strikeout on the books, it was an impressive at-bat in which Deichmann saw 11 pitches, including seven foul balls. In his four at-bats, Deichmann saw a total of 23 pitches, allowing the rest of the lineup to see what the pitcher had.

WATCH OUT: In a two-run game last night heading into the ninth inning, Iowa manager Marty Pevey called on Ben Leeper to complete the shutout and earn Iowa their second win of the series. Leeper did just that, throwing 10 of his 15 total pitches for strikes. He did allow a two-out single, but quickly retired the final batter to end the game. Leeper struck out one, marking his 29th strikeout of the season with Iowa. His scoreless inning lowered his ERA with the team to 1.53 (3ER/17.2IP) and marked his second save with the I-Cubs.

A TALE OF TWO NIGHTS: On Wednesday night, a 17-5 Louisville win, Iowa’s pitching staff allowed 17 earned runs on 17 hits while walking seven batters. They allowed a seven-run inning and a six-run inning, while four Bats’ hitters registered multi-hit games. Four of the five pitchers allowed multiple earned runs to score, while two of the five walked three batters and gave up at least one home run. Fast forward to last night, and four I-Cubs pitchers combined to throw a six-hit shutout of Louisville. They walked just one batter combined, while striking out eight in a 2-0 victory. Wednesday’s loss bumped the starters ERA on the season from 5.35 to 5.48 and the bullpen from 3.67 to 3.90. Those numbers will take a while to bring back down, but nine scoreless frames on Thursday is definitely a good start.

TWO FOR THREE: Three batters recorded multi-hit games last night for Iowa; Abiatal Avelino (18), Johneshwy Fargas (1) and Andrew Romine (14) each went 2-for-4. Avelino re-took the team lead, registering his 18th multi-hit game and first since July 22 against Columbus. It was his seventh of the month, one behind the eight he recorded in the month of May. In his first start with Iowa, Fargas went 2-for-4 with a strikeout, showing off his speed with one of the hits being an infield single. Lastly, Romine got two more hits, raising his batting average to .311 on the season with Iowa. He now has multi-hit efforts in four of the last five games he has played in. With six hits, the three batters tallied two-thirds of Iowa’s hits last night, matching Louisville’s total as a team.

AGAINST LOUISVILLE: With the 2-0 victory last night, Iowa recaptured the series lead, going up two games to one against Louisville. Iowa notched their ninth win at home all-time against the Bats, taking nine of the 12 games played at home between the two teams. They now lead the all-time series 12-9, and are back on a winning streak against Louisville after Wednesday night’s loss snapped a five-game winning streak. The I-Cubs are being outscored by nine, 19-10, but hold the series lead. Their two wins have been by a combined three runs, and they lost by 12 in game two of the series.

SHORT HOPS: One night after Louisville hit nine extra-base hits on their own and the two teams combined for 12, the Bats and I-Cubs combined for just one last night, a one-out double in the top of the eighth inning from Chris Okey...Johneshwy Fargas became the third I-Cub to steal two bases in a game last night, joining Dee Gordon and Abiatal Avelino, who has done it twice.