Game Notes for Thursday, June 7

Iowa Cubs (35-23) vs.

New Orleans Zephyrs (30-30)

Game # 61 Home Game # 25

 

 

TONIGHT'S GAME: The Cubs open a 12-game home stand tonight as the New Orleans Zephyrs visit Des Moines. The Cubs are coming off a 6-2 road trip to Portland and Tacoma (3-1 in each city). The Cubs will send southpaw Les Walrond to the hill tonight. Walrond will face Zephyrs left-hander Adam Bostick. The Cubs lead the American Northern Division, 2.5 games ahead of Nashville, while the Zephyrs lead the American South division by a game and a half over Albuquerque.   

 

TONIGHT'S STARTER: Les Walrond makes his 12th start for Iowa. The Cubs are 8-3 in games started by Walrond, as he has received 5.64 runs per game of support.  The Cubs have won all five games Walrond has started in Des Moines (he is 4-0) and they have won the last six games he has started overall. He has thrown at least five innings in every one of his outings in 2007, and has thrown six innings in eight of his 11 starts.  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. ZEPHYRS: The Cubs lead the season series 4-0. Since the clubs joined the PCL in 1998, the Cubs lead the all-time series 58-54.  The Cubs are 33-23 against the Zephyrs in Des Moines, but just 25-31 in games in New Orleans.  Dating back to 1993, when the Zephyrs relocated to New Orleans from Denver, the Cubs are 124-105 against the Zephyrs (67-48 in Des Moines and 57-57 in New Orleans).

 

ROSTER MOVE: The Cubs have promoted infielder Alberto Garcia to Iowa from class-A Daytona, where he was hitting .232 (26-112) with three home runs and 14 RBI in 37 games.

 

CONGRATULATIONS: Ronny Cedeno has left the Cubs for a couple of days for the birth of his second child.

 

DO IT AGAIN: Micah Hoffpauir and Ronny Cedeno have homered in back to back games for Iowa. Eric Patterson homered in three straight games May 11-13.

 

FIRST PLACE FACTS: The Cubs are 23-8 in their last 31 games. The Cubs, who have won six of their last seven games, and nine of their last 11, have been alone in first place for 28 days (since May 11^th). The Cubs have held a two and half game lead over Nashville for each of the last nine days.

 

BIG FLY GUY: Tony Richie has homered three times in his last 27 at bats. Prior to those three homers, Richie had gone 405 at-bats without a home run (last one was June 23, 2005 for class-A Daytona). He homered twice for Iowa in a span of 12 at bats from May 10-June 2. Richie's career high in longballs (four) came in 257 at bats for Daytona in 2005. He has three homers in 27 at bats for Iowa this year.

 

FRANCHISE HISTORY: On June 6, 1990, Jeff Small had six hits to tie the franchise record for most hits in a game, set by Tony LaRussa on June 18, 1976. 

 

KEEP RUNNING HIM OUT THERE: Jim Henderson has picked up the win in all three games in which he has appeared since his promotion from double-A Tennessee on May 26. Henderson has notched all three wins by pitching a total of just four innings.

 

BOMB SQUAD: The Cubs launched a season-high five homers Monday and added three more Tuesday. In all, they hit 10 in the four games in Tacoma.

 

MR. CONSISTENCY: Jeremy Reed's fourth inning single off Carmen Pignatiello Monday marked just the second time in 17 appearances that the first batter Pignatiello faced reached base. The only other time was a May 6 single by New Orleans' Andy Tracy.

 

LONGBALL PRODUCTION: The Cubs have homered in five straight games. In the first three games of that streak, the three homers accounted for a total of four runs. The Cubs homered eight times in the last two days, which accounted for 12 runs. The Cubs have hit 56 home runs this season (31 solo) which have accounted for 96 runs (1.66 runs per game on .97 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).

 

 

UPCOMING PROBABLE STARTERS (times CT)                   

Date	Time	Opponent	Cubs Starter	Opponent Starter
Friday, June 8	7:05 p.m.	New Orleans	LH Neal Cotts (0-0, 1.54)	RH Brian Lawrence (1-2, 3.71)
Saturday, June 9	7:05 p.m.	New Orleans	RH John Webb (1-2, 5.75)	RH Mike Pelfrey (1-1, 2.66)
Sunday, June 10	1:05 p.m.	New Orleans	LH Ryan O'Malley (3-4, 6.88)	RH Phil Humber (6-4, 4.46)
Monday, June 11	7:05 p.m.	Omaha	LH J.R. Mathes (5-3, 5.46)	RH Matt Wright (3-2, 3.38)
Tuesday, June 12	7:05 p.m.	Omaha	LH Les Walrond	RH Ben Hendrickson