Marquez leads Pitcher of the Week winners

Brailyn Marquez brought the heat, and Lake County hitters could not catch up. Now, he has the first weekly award of his career to show for his dominance.

The fourth-ranked Cubs prospect was named Midwest League Pitcher of the Week from July 22-28 after striking out a career-high 14 batters over six shutout innings and picking up the win against the Captains last Thursday.

Marquez improved to 4-4 on the season and outdid his previous high in K's (eight) by a big margin. The left-hander fanned the first six hitters he faced and then went out with a bang -- whiffing the final eight to complete his dominant outing. He allowed just one hit, a one-out single by Jose Fermin in the fourth inning, and did not walk a batter.

• View the Offensive Players of the Week winners »

His pitching coach knew something extraordinary was in store right from the start.

"First inning, I think he threw 11 pitches, one out of the zone, all fastballs," Jamie Vermilyea told MiLB.com after the outing. "He was up to 101 (mph), I think, like eight times in the first inning. I was like, 'They really don't have a chance. Something special is coming.'"

The six innings matched his longest start of the season, the other coming on July 3 against West Michigan. Signed by the Cubs as a free agent in 2015, the 20-year-old gave up six hits and two earned runs while striking out six and walking one against the Whitecaps.

He was efficient in his most recent start, throwing 53 of 71 pitches for strikes. That low pitch count came as a surprise to Vermilyea.

"That's definitely one of the things that jumped out," he said. "With 14 strikeouts, you're going to expect to see 90-plus pitches. He was just aggressive. The few misses that he had were effect, and he set up his next pitches and he used those misses to his advantage and got right back in the zone. He just had overpowering stuff. He could throw whatever up there and he was going to have success with it."

Selected as a Midwest League All-Star last month, Marquez holds a 3.91 ERA over 71 1/3 frames this season. The 6-foot-4 left-hander ranks eighth in the circuit with 94 strikeouts while holding opponents to a .243 average in 16 starts.

Below is the complete list of Minor League Pitchers of the Week for July 22-28:

League	Player	Team	MLB	Stats
International	Randy Dobnak	Rochester	MIN	2-0, 1.46 ERA, 2 G, 2 GS, 12 1/3 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 HBP, 3 BB, 10 K
Pacific Coast	Dustin May	Oklahoma City	LAD	2-0, 0.75 ERA, 2 G, 2 GS, 12 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 10 K
Eastern	Daniel McGrath	Portland	BOS	0-0, 0.00 ERA, 1 G, 1 GS, 8 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
Southern	Josh Fleming	Montgomery	TB	2-0, 0.50 ERA, 2 G, 2 GS, 2 CG, 1 SHO, 18 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 12 K
Texas	Brady Singer	Northwest Arkansas	KC	1-0, 1.46 ERA, 2 G, 2 GS, 12 1/3 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 HBP, 3 BB, 12 K
California	Bryce Conley	Stockton	OAK	1-0, 0.00 ERA, 1 G, 1 GS, 6 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 6 K
Carolina	Jojanse Torres	Fayetteville	HOU	1-0, 0.00 ERA, 1 G, 1 GS, 1 SHO, 7 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K
Florida State	Trevor Stephan	Tampa	NYY	1-0, 0.00 ERA, 1 G, 1 GS, 1 SHO, 7 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K
Midwest	Brailyn Marquez	South Bend	CHC	1-0, 0.00 ERA, 1 G, 1 GS, 6 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 14 K
South Atlantic	Nick Bush	Asheville	COL	1-0, 0.00 ERA, 1 G, 1 GS, 1 SHO, 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K
New York-Penn	Jack O'Loughlin	Connecticut	DET	1-0, 0.00 ERA, 2 G, 2 GS, 10 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 8 BB, 6 K
Northwest	Luke Chevalier	Boise	COL	0-0, 0.00 ERA, 2 G, 2 GS, 8 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 HBP, 2 BB, 6 K
Appalachian	Jol Concepcion	Bluefield	TOR	1-0, 0.00 ERA, 1 G, 1 GS, 6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 8 K
Pioneer	Avery Weems	Great Falls	CWS	1-0, 0.00 ERA, 1 G, 1 GS, 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K