Cubs’ Minor League Daily: Only In The Minors

You know you’re in the minors when you are left stranded on the side of the Interstate for nearly six hours because a bus broke down.

You know you’re in the low minors when it is not the first time this season that something like this has happened.

That was exactly the situation for the Boise Hawks on Friday. The charter bus carrying the Hawks to Spokane went ka-put in the wee hours of the morning. Six hours later the relief bus arrived. And once again, the Voice of the Hawks Mike Stafford provided us with a fantastic first hand account of the inaction. That had to be a surreal scene for any motorists driving past. How often do you see a broken bus on a Interstate shoulder with a bunch of teenage guys lounging on the bank beside it?

I have to give the Hawks a lot of credit here. Many people would have gotten very annoyed and frustrated and probably made the mess worse than it was. From what I can tell from Stafford’s fine write up and from the numerous Tweets on the subject by Boise players, the Hawks mostly shrugged it off, kept their sense of humor, and handled it about as well as anyone could expect.

Despite the late hours and the long delay, the Hawks still had a game to play Friday evening. I strongly suspect they were little tired when that game started, but they may have been a little more motivated as well. When was the last time you heard of a major league team being stranded by a broken bus?

Scores From Yesterday

Iowa – Iowa got enough hits, but those hits only resulted in one run. The Cubs lost 4-1.
Tennessee – The Smokies game was postponed. They will make it up as part of a doubleheader on Saturday.
Daytona – Daytona had their chances, but they still lost 6-2.
Peoria – Peoria could not hold on to an early lead in this 4-2 loss.
Boise – Boise gave up three in the ninth as they lost 6-5.
Arizona – Again the Cubs had to sweat out an opponent’s ninth inning rally, but again they picked up the win. The final was 7-5.

Performances of the Day

  • [Iowa] Ryan Rowland-Smith struck out six in his six inning start. He allowed a run on two hits while walking three.
  • [Iowa] Esmailin Caridad struck out two in two hitless innings. Caridad has not given up a run since July 20.
  • [Iowa] Josh Vitters doubled as part of his 3 for 4 night.
  • [Daytona] The Cubs faced Toronto’s Brandon Morrow on a rehab assignment in this game, and they tagged him for five hits over three innings.
  • [Daytona] Among those hitting off Morrow was 2B/CF prospect Rubi Silva. Both of Silva’s hits were against the rehabbing major leaguer.
  • [Daytona] Kyle Hendricks made his Cubs debut in this game. He allowed two hits in a scoreless inning of relief.
  • [Daytona[ John Andreoli stole his 42nd base of the season. At this rate he could steal 60 by the end of the season.
  • [Peoria] Yao-Lin Wang struck out six in 5.1 innings of work. He did walk three, but it wasn’t a bad start for the former closer.
  • [Peoria] Javier Baez hit his 12th home run and stole his 20th base in this game. He also factored in two double plays.
  • [Boise] Hayden Simpson gave up three runs while striking out six over 4.1 innings.
  • [Boise] The Hawks got big hits from three different hitters in this game. Rock Shoulders hit his sixth home run and Dong-Yub Kim hit his fifth. Gioskar Amaya contributed his ninth triple.
  • [Arizona] Dillon Maples and Paul Blackburn combined to pitch the first five innings of this game. Combined, they gave up no runs on two hits.
  • [Arizona] Albert Almora, Jacob Rogers and Ben Carhart all doubled as part of their multi-hit efforts. Shawon Dunston also had two hits.
  • Other Minor League Notes

  • Dylan Heuer, a talented photographer and a Iowa Cubs fan, brought his camera along to last night’s Triple A game and the results can be seen on his website. He got some very good pictures of of a number of Cubs, including some great shots of Josh Vitters and Brett Jackson swinging. Do yourself a favor and check his work out.
  • written by

    Luke Blaize is the Minor League Editor at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @ltblaize.

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