Game Noets for Sunday, August 19

Iowa Cubs (70-58) vs.

Memphis Redbirds (51-77)

Game # 129 - Home Game # 66

 

 

 

TODAY'S GAME: The Cubs and the Memphis Redbirds play game two of a four-game series.  The Cubs trail the Nashville Sounds by 7.5 games for first place in the PCL American Northern Division.  Iowa starts left-hander Les Walrond against Memphis right-hander Mike Parisi.  

 

TODAY'S STARTER:  Les Walrond will make his 22^nd start for Iowa this afternoon.  In his 21 starts, the Cubs are 14-7. He has received 6.43 runs per game of support (135 R/21 G).  Walrond is 0-2 with a 6.57 ERA in two starts against Memphis this year.  The Cubs have won 10 of the 13 games Walrond has started in Des Moines. Before leaving with a strained hamstring in the second inning of his start on July 8th, he had thrown at least five innings in every one of his previous outings in 2007.  Walrond was named Iowa's 2006 Pitcher of the Year (10-5, 3.98 ERA in 31 games, 20 starts). He was promoted to Chicago August 25 and made two starts and eight relief appearances for Chicago in 2006. 

 

CUBS VS. REDBIRDS: The Cubs are 2-7 against Memphis in 2007, going 1-3 in Memphis and 1-4 in Des Moines.  The Cubs were 11-5 against Memphis in 2006 (6-1 in Des Moines and 5-4 in Memphis).  The Iowa Cubs are 61-59 all-time against Memphis (39-22 in Des Moines and 22-37 in Memphis).  

 

FIRST TIME: Geovany Soto is the first Iowa catcher to hit 20 home runs since Iowa began its affiliation with Chicago in 1981.  Soto has played 66 games at catcher and 17 at first base.  Alan Zinter hit 23 home runs in 1998 while playing 66 games at first base and 39 as a catcher.

 

DIVISION WOES: The Cubs have a winning record against every division (37-23 vs. American South, 9-7 vs. Pacific North and 11-5 vs. Pacific South) except their own, where the Cubs are 13-23 vs. the American North.  Iowa is 8-9 at home against the American North, and 5-14 on the road. 

 

HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE: Iowa is 14-8 at home since July 1 and 3-0-2 in those five series.  The Cubs are 39-26 at Principal Park for a .600 winning percentage, fifth best in the league behind Nashville (.677), Omaha (.641), Salt Lake (.625) and Fresno (.608). 

 

PACKED HOUSE: Iowa's season attendance total of 519,600 is already the fourth-best in franchise history.  The Cubs are just 26,955 attendees away from setting a new record, eclipsing the 546,554 fans who set a record in 2006. 

 

LEADER: Geovany Soto leads the league with a .357 batting average and .640 slugging percentage.  The only Cub to lead the league in batting average was Roosevelt Brown (.346, 2001).  Two Cubs, Karl Rhodes (.602, 1993) and Micah Franklin (.655, 1998) have led their league in slugging.  If the season ended today, Soto's .357 batting average would be third all-time in Iowa Cubs' history behind Derrick White (.363, 1998) and one point behind Roosevelt Brown (.358, 1998).  Soto enters play today one off the league lead in RBI.  The last Cub to lead the league in RBI was Eddie Zambrano with 115 in 1993. 

 

SCOREBOARD WATCHING: The Nashville Sounds have a magic number to clinch the PCL American Northern Division of nine with 17 games to play, while the Cubs have 16 contests remaining. 

 

STREAKERS: Matt Craig rides a 14 game hit streak over which time he is 21-54 (.389) with five doubles, a triple, two home runs, 11 runs scored and 15 RBI.... Geovany Soto has reached base safely in 19 straight games.  Over his 19 game on-base streak, he's 32-73 (.438) with nine doubles, a triple, five home runs, 28 RBI and 17 runs scored...Carlos Rojas has hit safely in seven straight games and 12 of his last 13.  In his last seven games, Rojas is hitting .346 (9 H/26 AB) with a double and two RBI.    

 

ON THIS DATE: In 2006, Eric Patterson homered off R.A. Dickey, then of Oklahoma, for his first Iowa hit....In 1981 Larry Pashnick of Evansville no-hit the Iowa Oaks in their first year as a Cubs affiliate.

 

CUBS RECORDS: The 2007 Iowa Cubs lead the league in both runs scored and home runs.  The last time Iowa led the league in either category was the record setting 1998 season in which Iowa bashed 216 home runs, setting what was then a modern minor league record.  The 2007 Iowa Cubs are on pace to set a new club record for runs in a season, averaging 5.86 runs per game (749/127) on pace for 843 runs. The 1998 team scored 835 runs, averaging 5.80 runs per game.  

 

LONGBALL PRODUCTION:  The Cubs have hit 156 home runs this season (82 solo) which have accounted for 266 runs (2.08 runs per game on 1.22 homers per game). In 2006, the Cubs hit 120 homers (76 solo) which accounted for 185 runs (1.28 runs per game on .83 home runs per game). The Cubs have homered in 87 of their 128 games.  The Cubs are 31-16 when they go deep at home and 22-18 when homering on the road.

 

UPCOMING PROBABLE STARTERS

Date	Time	Opponent	Cubs Starter	Opponent Starter
Sunday, August 19	1:05 p.m.	Memphis	LH Les Walrond (9-4, 5.05)	RH Mike Parisi (7-10, 5.12)
Monday, August 20	7:05 p.m.	Memphis	RH Kevin Hart (3-1, 3.68)	RH Mike Smith (10-12, 4.79)
Tuesday,  August 21	12:05 p.m.	Memphis	RH Sean Gallagher (3-1, 2.05)	LH Randy Keisler (8-9, 4.53)
Wednesday, August 22	7:00 p.m.	@ New Orleans	LH J.R. Mathes (10-7, 5.19)	RH Philip Humber (10-9, 4.66)
Thursday, August 23	7:00 p.m.	@ New Orleans	RH Juan Mateo (2-3, 4.26)	RH Mike Pelfrey (3-6, 4.16)
Friday, August 24	7:00 p.m.	@ New Orleans	LH Les Walronds	LH Jason Vargas

 

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