Ruoff Mortgage Homestand Preview: July 29-August 3

As the calendar turns to August, the South Bend Cubs enter their longest and most important homestand of the season to date. Their 12-game stretch at Four Winds Field begins on Tuesday, July 29, with six games against the Quad Cities River Bandits (High-A, Royals) and continues on August 5 with six more against the Fort Wayne TinCaps (High-A, Padres). With Quad Cities leading the Midwest League West division and three games ahead of South Bend in the second-half standings, the Cubs could benefit massively from a series win in the upcoming week.

Bring it Home: Last week, the Cubs won their fourth consecutive weeklong road series, taking three of five games from the bottom-feeding Dayton Dragons at Day Air Ballpark. Sunday’s game was cancelled due to weather, although the Cubs led at the time on a Drew Bowser grand slam.

In Dayton, the bullpen played a significant role for the Cubs, who came from behind to claim each of the week’s first two games. South Bend relievers posted a staff-wide earned run average of 2.20, getting standout efforts from arms like Evan Taylor (3 hitless innings on Tuesday) and Johzan Oquendo (8-out hitless save on Saturday). Since July 6, Cubs pitching as a whole has allowed more than four runs in a game just once, a testament to the club’s consistency on the mound.

Interestingly, while the Cubs have gone 8-3 away from home during that 15-game stretch of prolific pitching, they’ve lost three of their four home games. And even as they’ve gone 17-9 in road games since June 10, the Cubs have failed to replicate that success at Four Winds Field, going 3-9 there during the same timeframe. The Cubs, who haven’t won a home series since early April, are due for better results in the 574, and there’s no better week than this one to find those results.

Last Shot at the Bandits: Since they play an extra out-of-division series against nearby Fort Wayne, the Cubs only face one of their in-division opponents in 12 games rather than 18. This year, that team is Quad Cities. The Cubs visited Modern Woodmen Ballpark in Davenport right after Memorial Day and won’t see the River Bandits again after this week.

In the late-May series, the Cubs hung right with the River Bandits, who led the West division at the time. A couple of walk-off losses in 10 innings kept South Bend from a series win, but the visitors still captured games on Thursday (8-6) and Saturday (4-1). Shortstop Cristian Hernandez enjoyed a productive week, driving in six runs, while infielder Reginald Preciado swatted the Cubs’ only home run of the series. South Bend’s starting pitching also fared well, getting commendable outings from current members of the pitching staff like Evan Aschenbeck, Erian Rodriguez, and Kenten Egbert.

The River Bandits, who lost the first-half division title to Cedar Rapids on a tiebreaker, lean on their arms. No team in the Midwest League has more shutouts and fewer earned runs allowed than Quad Cities, which currently carries four of the Royals’ top 14 pitching prospects. Every River Bandit with at least seven starts this season also has an earned run average below 4.00, with Drew Beam and Felix Arronde, their top two strikeout men, leading the bunch.

Offensively, the River Bandits do minimal slugging, bottoming out the Midwest League with 40 home runs. They also just lost 13-home run hitter Carson Roccaforte to Double-A Northwest Arkansas. Roccaforte’s 33 stolen bases have also helped Quad Cities rank third in the league for stealing, so the River Bandits have a large void to fill in that area as well. They do have top Royals prospect Blake Mitchell, a former eighth overall pick, back from injury, though.

South Bend’s players to watch…

Edgar Alvarez, LF/3B/1B: Make it three months of a .278/.380/.416 slash line since an 0-for-24 start for Alvarez. The big lefty remains one of the Cubs’ most consistent hitters and enters the Quad Cities with a 19-game on-base streak. If he can get to 23, he’d pass Jefferson Rojas for South Bend’s longest individual on-base streak of 2025. Coming off a 6-for-15 Dayton series in which he posted four hits on Tuesday, Alvarez has a good chance at reaching that high watermark.

Kenten Egbert, RHP: Egbert, who grew up only about 15 miles north of Day Air Ballpark, made his return to Southwest Ohio for the first time as a Cub last week. And after spending the previous month in the bullpen, he got another shot in the rotation as Evan Aschenbeck had his turn skipped. Pitching with the series tied at two games apiece on Saturday, Egbert set the Cubs up for a series win with his second quality start of the season. He conceded only a single run across six innings, capturing his first road victory as a High-A pitcher.

Carter Trice, OF/1B: A 3-for-18 series usually doesn’t provide much to write home about – unless you’re Carter Trice. All three of Trice’s hits in Dayton flew over the fence, bringing him within one swing of tying the South Bend Cubs single-season home run record. In last week’s series, the slugger achieved his second multi-home run game of the year on Thursday before going to the opposite field for his 14th long ball of 2025 on Saturday. Against left-handing pitching, Trice now leads the Midwest League in home runs (7) and OPS (1.162).

Top prospects in the series…

South Bend: SS/2B Cristian Hernandez (Cubs No. 11), LHP Drew Gray (Cubs No. 27)

Quad Cities: C Blake Mitchell (Royals No. 1, MLB No. 27), RHP Drew Beam (Royals No. 8), 3B/SS Austin Charles (Royals No. 14), RHP Felix Arronde (Royals No. 16), SS Daniel Vazquez (Royals No. 17), RHP Luinder Avila (Royals No. 18), RHP L.P. Langevin (Royals No. 27)

Schedule and probables…

Tuesday, July 29 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Connor Schultz vs. RHP Luinder Avila

Wednesday, July 30 - 12:05 PM ET: RHP Erian Rodriguez vs. TBA

Thursday, July 31 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Kevin Valdez vs. RHP Felix Arronde

Friday, August 1 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Brooks Caple vs. RHP Drew Beam

Saturday, August 2 - 7:05 PM ET: LHP Evan Aschenbeck vs. LHP Mason Miller

Sunday, August 3 - 2:05 PM ET: RHP Yenrri Rojas vs. RHP Emmanuel Reyes