The baseball gold medal match in the 2015 Pan Am games was on Sunday, and between them the United States and Canadian teams had four Cubs’ prospects on their rosters. Dan Vogelbach (who is now injured), Jesse Hodges, and Jasvir Rakkar did not get into the game, but Albert Almora did.
Canada ultimately won the gold in extra innings thanks in part to a bizarre international baseball rule that has teams start the inning with runners on first and second when the game gets to extras, but mostly due to some truly awful defense by the Americans on the final play. The video, from a quality of baseball displayed standpoint, is just ugly. Unless you were rooting for Canada, then you probably find it hilarious.
Unfortunately, definitive stats from the Pan Am games are a little hard to come by (you can compile them manually from the box scores, but I’m not sure there are stats available for all players otherwise), but there were some lists of the best players in various areas released after the end of the tournament. Albert Almora, who was the regular left fielder for the Americans, is recognized as the second best left fielder in the competition based on some rather dubious metrics for ranking outfield defense.
Still, we know Almora’s glove is awesome and this just confirms it. So … yay. Now he heads back to Tennessee to see if he can unlock some awesomeness in his bat.
Scores From Yesterday
Iowa – Iowa moved to nine games over .500 with this 7-1 win.
Tennessee – The Smokies were rained out.
Myrtle Beach – The Pelicans have not lost in a week. They won this one 4-1.
South Bend – Despite eight hits, South Bend was shutout 4-0.
Eugene – Eugene was also shutout. Their final was 8-0.
Arizona – Arizona gave up two late runs as they lost 5-4.
Performances of Note
[Iowa] Drake Britton struck out 6 and allowed a run on 6 hits over 7 innings of work in this one. Armando Rivero struck out one in a flawless inning of relief.
[Iowa] Matt Szczur doubled and finished 2 for 5. He also stole his 17th base. Christian Villanueva also doubled.
[Iowa] Rubi Silva hit another homer, his 9th, as part of his 2 hit game. It was Silva’s third straight game with a home run and raised his July SLG to .581.
[Iowa] Mike Olt, Junior Lake, and Taylor Davis also finished with 2 hits each.
[Myrtle Beach] Brad Markey scattered 3 hits (including a solo homer) over 6 innings in this start. He struck out 2.
[Myrtle Beach] Victor Caratini doubled and finished 2 for 2 with a walk. His was the only multi-hit game.
[Myrtle Beach] Other doubles were provided by Mark Zagunis, Jeimer Candelario, and Daniel Lockhart.
[Myrtle Beach] Chesny Young finished 1 for 4.
[South Bend] Gleyber Torres doubled and finished 2 for 3. He also made an incredible play, if you missed it.
[South Bend] Jeffrey Baez had just a single in this one, but he also stole 2 bases and now has 17 for the year.
[South Bend] Alex Santana allowed just one hit while recording the final 5 outs. He also walked one.
[Eugene] Justin Steele had a rough game. Over 5 innings he allowed 8 runs (5 earned) on 10 hits and 3 walks. He did not strike out anyone.
[Eugene] On the good side, Trey Masek pitched 2 innings of hitless relief.
[Eugene] A Justin Marra double was the only extra base hit for the Emeralds. Ricardo Marcano (2 for 3) had the only multi-hit game.
[Eugene] Carlos Sepulveda, Michael Foster, and Jose Paniagua all finished with 2 hits. Paniagua doubled for one of his.
[Eugene] Jesus Camargo struck out 4 in his 4 innings on the mound, but he also gave up 3 runs on 2 hits and a walk.
Other News
With his base hit, Chesny Young pushed his consecutive on base streak to 39 games.
I expected Jen-Ho Tseng to pitch yesterday. He didn’t. The good news is that he should be on the mound tonight, and this game will also be on MiLB.tv. If you are curious in seeing his recently very successful stuff in action, then fire up the video stream at 7:05 PM ET.
Ian Happ did not double in yesterday’s game. That’s because he didn’t play. So far nothing has appeared on the league transaction wire about him being promoted, but that is certainly a possibility. It is also possible he was just due for a day off.