Comeback Cubs Hammer Back at Chiefs Late to Win 6-3

South Bend, IN – The Comeback Cubs theme for the South Bend Cubs at home is starting to become a familiar tale. That’s after South Bend handed the Peoria Chiefs another late inning rally for their second straight comeback win. The claw back into the game was set up by shutdown bullpen pitching, solid base running, and some powerful swings at the plate. South Bend’s 6-3 victory now gives them back-to-back wins over Peoria to open their six-game series.

The first ‘Education Day’ at Four Winds Field this year saw a loud and rowdy crowd of 4658 pack the stands. Many of those thousands were school kids on field trips. They got plenty to cheer about.

Right-hander Kohl Franklin started things for the Cubs, and worked through two innings while giving up an earned run. The hard thrower from the right side walked two and struck out a pair as well. Down 2-0 heading to the bottom of the 2nd inning, Alexander Canario stepped up to the plate with his consecutive game on base streak coming in at 18. Last night, he got the number to 18 by barreling a home run off the batter’s eye in center field. Today, he crushed a drive just to the right of the left field foul pole for a solo shot.

Canario has now homered in four straight games, and his on base streak now has hit 19 straight. The South Bend home runs continued an inning later, as Bradlee Beesley rifled his second home run within a week into the left field home run porch. The Cubs had taken a 3-2 lead.

Out of the bullpen, Joe Nahas brought what the team called a “bulldog mentality” today. Nahas, who usually works many innings of long relief, changed nothing about that approach on Wednesday as he tossed six innings of one-run baseball with two walks and seven strikeouts. He sent the side down in order every inning from the 5th through the 8th. That included punching out the side, all swinging in inning number 5.

Nahas earned his first and well-deserved victory as once again, the Cubs poured it on offensively in the bottom of the 8th; They all came off one swing. Who was the swing from? None other than first baseman Matt Mervis. Canario and Mervis have been trading places nearly every day for the team lead in home runs.

Against right-hander Nick Trogrlic-Iverson, Mervis swatted another deep home run over the right-center field wall to give the Cubs a 6-3 lead. He is now hitting .299 with five homers and 20 RBI on the season. He also brought his hitting streak to 10 games.

In the 9th, Jeremiah Estrada cruised in a 1-2-3 inning with one strikeout. The crowd stuck around towards the end, and the kids went home happy seeing a South Bend Cubs victory.

With that win, the Cubs are back to one-game under .500 and will host the Chiefs again Thursday evening at 7:05 PM. Flame-throwing righty Daniel Palencia is expected to take the ball for the Cubs.