Cubs Minor League Daily: The Most Exciting Play

kane county cougars logoIn the fifth inning of yesterday’s game in Kane County, Trey Martin led off with a strikeout.
That brought Jacob Hannemann to the plate; he walked.
While the next hitter, Carlos Penalver, was batting, Hannemann stole second base.
He then advanced to third on a wild pitch.
And then, with Penalver still at the plate, Hannemann stole home. Penalver then walked.

Why do I bring this up? For me the most exciting play in baseball, possibly in all of sports, is the straight steal of home. And despite all of the baseball I have watched and listened to over the past two decades, I still have yet to be watching or listening to a game when a steal of home happens live. I have seen and listened to several replays (and each replay many, many times), but the actual live event still eludes me. (On this one, reports from those watching indicate that the ball got away from the catcher on the pitch, but Hannemann was running anyway, so it was a steal of home.)

Scores From Yesterday

Iowa – Iowa had the day off.
Tennessee – The Smokies got back to .500 on the year with this 4-2 win.
Daytona – Just about everything went right for the Cubs in this 7-0 win.
Kane County – The Cougars came up short in this 3-2 loss.
Boise Hawks – Boise picked up the elusive road win in this 8-4 final.
Arizona – Arizona had the day off.

Performances of Note

  • [Tennessee] Anthony Giansanti launched his second homer in the ninth inning to finish 1 for 3 with a walk.
  • [Tennessee] Christian Villanueva, the DH in this game, finished 2 for 4.
  • [Tennessee] Matt Loosen pitched 6 innings (and needed only 87 pitches to do it) of one run ball, allowing 5 hit and a walk while striking out 5. The lone run came on a solo homer.
  • [Daytona] Jose Rosario opened the shutout with 6 scoreless. He allowed just 3 hits and struck out 4, although he did give up 4 walks.
  • [Daytona] Austin Kirk walked 3 more in his 2 innings of relief. He also allowed one hit and struck out 3. Zack Godley tallied a hit and a walk to finish the game.
  • [Daytona] Dan Vogelbach had a very nice day at the plate. In addition to his 7th homer, he finished 3 for 4 with a double.
  • [Daytona] Rock Shoulders also homered (his 5th), as did Chadd Krist (his second).
  • [Daytona] Gioskar Amaya had two hits while Albert Almora extended his hitting streak to 7 games.
  • [Kane County] Tyler Skulina allowed a run on 5 hits and a walk over 5 innings while striking out 5.
  • [Kane County] Corbin Hoffner walked one, but that was all he allowed through 2.2 scoreless frames of relief.
  • [Kane County] Kyle Schwarber finished 2 for 4 with his second Kane County home run. He also stole a base, his first. And he threw out a couple runners trying to steal while playing catcher.
  • [Kane County] Jacob Hannemann, David Bote, and Jeimer Candelario all reached twice on a single and a walk. Hannemann also stole two bases (including home) and now has 23 on the season.
  • [Boise] Tyler Ihrig struck out 5 over 7 innings while allowing 3 runs on 5 hits for the Hawks.
  • [Boise] Jeffrey Baez and Kevin Brown both homered. It was the second for Baez and the first for Brown.
  • [Boise] Mark Malave finished 2 for 4. He and Brown had the only multi-hit games.
  • Other News

  • Baseball America wrote some nice things about Kris Bryant on the occasion of him catching Joey Gallo for the overall lead in minor league home runs. In the true spirit of the sparkle, they even referenced (and embedded) some Frank Sinatra.
  • Baseball America also named Javier Baez and Albert Almora as two of the five players who showed some red flags at the plate in the first half. Nothing new in those tidbits, but nothing inaccurate either.
  • And finally Baseball America runs down some of the alternate jerseys available to be seen in the minors. Including this…masterpiece?
  • 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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