Cubs Minor League Daily: Baseball Strangeness and Dexter Fowler’s Rehab

It was an odd sort of a day in the minors yesterday. A slugfest broke out in Colorado Springs (nothing odd about that), but despite ample offense all the balls stayed in the yard. Tennessee and Eugene were both involved in doubleheader sweeps, although that was only a good thing in the case of Eugene. Even the Dominican League teams were swept up in the strangeness as both by almost identical scores (12 to 3 and 11 to 4) while collecting six hits in each game.

The nice thing about the minors, though, is that even on the strangest of day you can generally find something good, and in this case that would be the performance turned by Eugene’s pitching staff. A road doubleheader sweep is nice, but doing it in shutout fashion is impressive stuff.

Triple A: Iowa Cubs
Colorado Springs 15, Iowa 5
Twenty total runs, in Colorado Springs no less, and not a single homer.

• Pierce Johnson: 2.2 IP, 5 R, 5 H, 5 BB, 3 K, 1 HBP. He did not have his control as he threw 82 pitches.
• Vimael Machin: 0.1 IP, 2 H, 1 BB. Machin is an infielder the Cubs drafted last year. Now he has a 0.00 ERA.
• John Andreoli: 1 for 4, 2B, BB
• Juan Perez: 2 for 5
• Mark Zagunis: 1 for 4, BB
• Tim Federowicz: 3 for 4

Double A: Tennessee Smokies
Jackson 12, Tennessee 9. This was the completion of Thursday’s game.
Jackson 2, Tennessee 1 in eight innings.
The Smokies had plenty of extra base hits in Game One; a few more in Game Two would have helped.

• Paul Blackburn: 3 IP, 8 R (5 ER), 9 H, 1 K
• Chesny Young: 2 for 4
• Ian Happ: 2 for 4, 2B
• Victor Caratini: 1 for 4, 2B
• Billy McKinney: 2 for 4, 2B
• Ben Carhart: 1 for 4, 2B
• Bijan Rademacher: 2 for 4
• Carlos Penalver: 1 for 3, 2B
• Daniel Lockhart: 2 for 3, HR
• Game Two
• Clayton Richard: 4.2 IP, 1 R, 3 H, 4 K
• David Garner: 1.1 IP, 2 H, 3 K
• Chesny Young: 2 for 4, 2B

High A: Myrtle Beach Pelicans
Wilmington 1, Myrtle Beach 0
This was just a classic pitcher’s duel.

• Erick Leal: 6 IP, 1 R, 3 H, 6 K. The only run was a solo homer.
• Pedro Araujo: 1 IP, 2 K
• Charcer Burks: 1 for 3, 2B, BB, SB
• Andrew Ely: 1 for 2, 2 BB, SB

Low A: South Bend Cubs
Bowling Green 5, South Bend 3 in ten innings.
The Cubs had plenty of opportunities to tack on more runs, but couldn’t quite manage it.

• Kyle Miller: 6 IP, 3 R, 8 H, 3 BB, 2 K
• John Williamson: 2 IP, 1 H, 2 K
• Carlos Sepulveda: 3 for 5
• Eddy Martinez: 3 for 5
• Jesse Hodges: 2 for 4, BB
• Tyler Alamo: 2 for 5
• Dexter Fowler: 0 for 2, 2 BB

Short Season A: Eugene Emeralds
Eugene 5, Everett 0
Eugene 11, Everett 0
Four pitchers combined for these fourteen total shutout innings on the road.

• Jose Paulino: 6 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 4 K
• Mark Malave: 1 IP, 1 K
• Matt Rose: 1 for 3, HR, BB
• Wladimir Galindo: 1 for 1, HR, 2 BB
• Kevonte Mitchell: 1 for 3, 2B
• Game Two
• Manuel Rondon: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 K
• Enrique De Los Rio: 2 IP, 1 K
• Robert Garcia: 1 for 3, BB
• Yeiler Peguero: 2 for 3
• Matt Rose: 3 for 4, HR
• Jose Paniagua: 3 for 4, 2B
• Chris Pieters: 1 for 4, 2B

Rookie: Arizona Cubs
Cubs 6, Athletics 3
Cubs’ hitters struck out just three times in this one.

• Pablo Ochoa: 3.2 IP, 2 R, 5 H, 1 BB, 1 K
• Tanner Griggs: 1 IP, 1 H, 3 K
• Luis Aquino: 2 IP, 1 H, 1 K
• Luis Ayala: 2 for 5, 2B, SB
• Zach Short: 1 for 4, BB, SB
• Gustavo Polanco: 4 for 5, 2B, SB
• Sam Tidaback: 2 for 4, 2B
• Jhonny Bethencourt: 1 for 3, 3B, BB

Other Notes

• Dexter Fowler began his rehab assignment by serving as the DH in South Bend last night. The fact that he started at DH and was batting at the bottom of the order implies that the Cubs are intending to take easy on his rehab, at least at first. The Cubs will need him healthy and playing his best in October; taking it easy a couple more days in July probably won’t hurt anything. The tentative plan was to have him play in the outfield today. We’ll see if that goes forward.
• Eddy Martinez has an eight game hitting streak that includes seven hits in his last three games.