Hens' eight-game home win streak falls to the I-Cubs

TOLEDO, OH - After back-to-back walk-off wins, the Toledo Mud Hens hit a mid-series lull against the Iowa Cubs Thursday night. With struggles offensively throughout the Toledo lineup and the hot bats of the I-Cubs, the Hens fell 12-0.

With Keider Montero joining the Detroit Tigers in Colorado for game two of their doubleheader against the Rockies, the Mud Hens looked to their bullpen Thursday night. PJ Poulin would get the nod to start on the mound.

After two scoreless innings from Poulin, Colin Fields would make his Toledo debut. Fields joins the Mud Hens by way of a call up from the West Michigan Whitecaps. The righty struggled with his command early, leading to a walk and back-to-back singles to put Iowa up 1-0 early. Fields’s teammates would bail him out though as a double play ended the inning.

Field’s debut would be cut short though as things really fell apart for him in the fourth inning. A Kevin Alcantara walk and a catcher’s interference call put two runners on for the Cubs. James Triantos then got the scoring started with an RBI double to left field. Veteran Reese McGuire followed the 22-year-old’s lead as he put Iowa up 3-0 with an RBI of his own.

The bleeding didn’t stop there though. With runners on the corners, Matt Shaw hit a double into right field which scored Triantos and put runners on second and third. Fields would earn his first two outs of the inning following that, but after walking Carlos Perez in four pitches he was replaced by Brendan White.

White would inherit a bases-loaded situation, but Iowa continued to execute with runners in scoring position. Ben Cowles made it 5-0 with an RBI single, which brought Alcantara back to the plate. The crooked number only got worse when Alcantara hit a bases-clearing double to give the I-Cubs an 8-0 lead.

Making his first appearance since returning from Detroit, Tyler Owens would take the mound in the sixth inning. Flipping between his splitter, slider, and fastball kept batters guessing, but didn’t prevent solid contact.

Cowles would extend the Iowa lead to 9-0 with an RBI double that put runners on second and third. Perez then scored from third on an Alcantara groundout, before Greg Allen made it 11-0 with a ground ball that trickled into center field.

Things only got worse when Triantos hit a grounder to third-baseman Hao-Yu Lee who tried to make a throw to first, but was credited with a throwing error. The errant throw led to Triantos running into Bligh Madris and led to a stoppage in play as the Cubs went up 12-0. Madris would continue to play, but Owens would be pulled for Matt Gage to close out the sixth.

Gage and Riley Unroe would close things out without giving up any more runs, but the Mud Hens’ offense still struggled to find any runs. Iowa officially secured their first win of the series, as Toledo fell 12-0.

The Toledo Mud Hens will look to get back on track with a game Friday night at 7:35 p.m.

Notables:

• PJ Poulin (2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K)
• Ryan Kreidler (0-1, 3 B)
• Riley Unroe (2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K / 1-4)