Cubs Load Bases in 9th, but Fall to Timber Rattlers 5-2

Appleton, WI - The first-place South Bend Cubs saw their West Division lead slightly dwindle on Thursday night after falling to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers at Fox Cities Stadium by a final of 5-2.

With the Rattlers winning, they are now just four games back of first place. The Beloit Sky Carp also beat West Michigan, so Beloit is three games behind the pace set by South Bend. The Sky Carp will visit Four Winds Field next week for a key six-game series.

Thursday in Appleton began well for South Bend with righty Luis Devers on the mound. For Devers in six Midwest League games, he had posted a 0.34 ERA. Devers worked the first three innings with no runs allowed, as did his adversary Carlos Rodriguez. The young 20-year-old Rodriguez was making his second High-A start.

However, it was the Cubs striking first. In the bottom of the 4th inning, Luis Verdugo extended his consecutive games on-base streak to 18 straight ballgames. He was quickly brought home and raced around the base-paths thanks to an RBI triple by Pablo Aliendo. It was 1-0 Cubs heading to the bottom of the 4th.

The Timber Rattlers immediately answered against Devers when Jose Acosta smacked an RBI sacrifice fly to tie at 1-1. Devers finished he evening with five innings of one run ball in the books. Now in just over 30 High-A innings, he has only allowed a combined two runs.

The first and only man out of the bullpen for South Bend was righty Jarod Wright. Wisconsin plated at least one run in each of Wright’s three innings to take their eventual game winning lead.

Joe Gray Jr. raced home in the bottom of the 6th on a wild pitch. Then in the 7th, two sacrifice flies by Jackson Chourio and Zavier Warren pushed home a pair of runs. Lastly in the 8th, Antonio Piñero rifled a double off the left field wall for a 5-1 Wisconsin lead.

Down to their final three outs, the Cubs surely made it interesting in the 9th with the first two batters of the inning, Jordan Nwogu and Pablo Aliendo, each walking. That then brought along a Timber Rattler pitching change. Closer James Meeker entered the game looking for his 10th save of the year.

In Meeker’s first sequence, Kevin Made dribbled a soft ground ball back to the mound for an infield single, loading the bases. With the bags juiced, Jonathan Sierra cracked a single into right-center to bring home the Cubs’ second run.

After the hit, Meeker calmed down to get a force groundout for out number-one. A pair of strikeouts ended the game, and Wisconsin escaped to win the game 5-2.

With the loss, the Cubs are 7-8 on the season against Wisconsin, and have dropped two of the first three this series. They will have the opportunity to tie things up Friday night at 7:40 PM EST for game four of the six-game set. Right-hander Kohl Franklin is the expected starter for South Bend.