NEWSLETTER
The big league Cubs did not win yesterday, but the Triple-A Iowa Cubs were ready and waiting last night to give us a little winning fun.
After a game that saw the Iowa bats shut down for eight scoreless innings, things finally got cooking in the bottom of the 9th thanks to a Jared Young single and a subsequent defensive biff. With two on base and down two runs, Brennen Davis nearly won it himself with a shot to center. It went off the wall for a double to keep the line moving for Greg Deichmann, who singled to tie it, and thus set up the walk-off.
Trent Giambrone got the winning RBI, and Davis scored the winning run:
Also, here’s Giant Trombone driving Brennen in for the actual walk off. pic.twitter.com/HHfY9KtlDm
— Brad (@ballskwok) April 14, 2022
As an aside, nice to see Davis have a big night after a slower start at Iowa. Incredibly, despite his 11 Ks in 30 PAs, he’s got his line up to .217/.400/.391 (133 wRC+). The enormous walk rate (23.3%) tells me pitchers are simply not attacking him, and perhaps initially he was adjusting to a new approach from them. All small sample stuff (just eight games), of course, so the numbers aren’t really my focus – just that it’s nice to see a big game from the Cubs’ top prospect.
Oh, and credit to the Iowa pitching in the game, of course. The only runs given up came against the starter, Adrian Sampson, who allowed just one (unearned) over his four innings, and then against reliever Cayne Ueckert (a solo homer), who struck out two and got a groundout. In the middle, each of Stephen Gonsalves and Erich Uelmen went two scoreless.
Uelmen remains one to watch for some point this season – he’s not on the 40-man, but his bullpen conversion last year between Double and Triple-A saw the stuff tick up, and then he looked pretty good in Spring Training. He’s now up to 5.1 IP on the year with a whopping 10 Ks. He has struck out half of the batters he’s faced.
