Here’s hoping Clark does not take lessons from Iowa’s Famous Chicken. As a first base coach, the Famous Chicken simply did not work out for the I-Cubs last night.
On the other hand, the Famous Chicken makes a nice scapegoat… can a chicken be a scapegoat?… for a pretty bad bunt attempt by Alcantara and a resulting TOOTBLAN from Szczur:
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Fortunately (for the chicken) we have plenty of other games to talk about as well.
Scores From Yesterday
Iowa – Despite the fowl-up at first base [Brett: I see what you did there!], Iowa hatched enough runs [And there!] in the eighth to beat the Redbirds 4-1.
Tennessee – The Smokies let this one slip away in the middle innings. They lost 9-2.
Myrtle Beach – Another strong pitching performance turned into another Myrtle Beach win. The final was 1-0.
South Bend – The Cubs converted a big fourth inning into a 10-6 win.
Eugene – Eugene was shutout at home 4-0.
Arizona – The Cubs found just enough offense in this 2-1 win.
Performances of Note
[Iowa] Tsuyoshi Wada pitched 6 innings in this rehab start, allowing a run on 5 hits and striking out 5.
[Iowa] Following Wada there appeared two possible second half bullpen reinforcements for the Cubs. First, Rafael Soriano struck out 3 and allowed a hit in one inning of work, and then Carl Edwards pitched one hitless inning while giving up 2 walks.
[Iowa] Mike Olt doubled twice and finished 2 for 4. Christian Villanueva (now hitting .261/.324/.447 for Iowa) doubled and also finished 2 for 4.
[Iowa] Junior Lake also had 2 hits, and one of them was his 5th homer. Lake’s Iowa line now reads .305/.396/.454.
[Tennessee] Ivan Pineyro and Zach Cates both struggled on the mound in this one, but Starling Peralta pitched 1.2 hitless innings to finish the game.
[Tennessee]Bijan Rademacher and Bryant Flete both doubled for the Smokies.
[Myrtle Beach] Jonathan Martinez is not discussed as being among the upper tiers of Cubs’ pitching prospects, but he pitched one of the better games of the season in this one. Martinez scattered 4 hits over 7 shutout innings while striking out 4.
[Myrtle Beach] The Pelican’s lone run was scored by Jeimer Candelario (1 for 4). Trey Martin (1 for 4) doubled for the only extra base hit.
[South Bend] Jake Stinnett allowed a run on 5 hits and 4 walks over 5 innings in this one. Alex Santana, pitching in relief, struck out 3 over 2 innings and allowed nothing but a walk.
[South Bend] Yasiel Balaguert doubled and homered (his 7th) as part of his 4 for 5 day. David Bote finished with 3 hits, including his 3rd homer.
[South Bend] Gleyber Torres also had 3 hits.
[Eugene] Kyle Twomey struck out 2 in his 2 inning start, and allowed just one hit in the process.
[Eugene] Pedro Araujo later struck out 4 over the final 2 innings without giving up a thing.
[Eugene] Ian Happ was held to just one hit, a double, in this one. He did walk, though.
[Eugene] Ho-young Son finished 1 for 3 and stole his 2nd base of the season.
[Arizona] Dylan Cease allowed 2 hits and 2 walks in 2 innings to start this game. He struck out one. Trey McNutt, on rehab assignment, allowed a solo home run and nothing else in his one inning of work. He also struck out one.
[Arizona] Robert Garcia finished this game a perfect 4 for 4. He also stole his 5th base of the season.
[Arizona] Alex Bautista hit his first homer of the year.
Other News
Even though the Smokies lost, the good news is that they drew nine walks. The Cubs have consistently been one of the more successful farm systems in terms of drawing walks this season, a likely result of their dual emphasis on drafting players who have the ability to recognize a strike and coaching them to take advantage of that trait.
One possible side effect to look out for in the aftermath of the Kyle Schwarber repromotion: will the Cubs eventually promote Tennessee catcher  Willson Contreras? Contreras has been one of the best breakout prospect stories of the year for the Cubs, and there really aren’t any catching prospects left in Iowa now that Schwarber will be in the majors. The Cubs might take advantage of the opportunity to challenge Contreras against Triple A pitching. For the immediate future, though, it’s Cael Brockmeyer getting the bump to AAA.
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