September 1 Game Notes: Iowa Cubs at Columbus Clippers
September 1, 2022 – International League (IL) – Iowa Cubs News Release
IOWA CUBS (57-68) @ COLUMBUS CLIPPERS (72-51)
Thursday – 5:15 PM CT – Huntington Park – Columbus, OH
RHP Adbert Alzolay (0-0, 4.50) vs. RHP Hunter Gaddis (1-2, 4.76)
TONIGHT’S GAME: After each team threw a shutout to start the series, Adbert Alzolay will take the ball for Iowa against Hunter Gaddis getting the nod for the Clippers in game three of their six-game series tonight. Alzolay is scheduled to make his second start on Major League rehab for Iowa, coming off of a two-inning performance back on Saturday. In that game against St. Paul, the right-hander allowed one earned run on one hit and two walks while striking out six. He struck out all six batters he retired, holding the Saints to a batting average of .143 against him. The one run that scored was on a balk with runners on first and third base in Alzolay’s first inning. Gaddis is set to make his sixth start with Columbus, going 1-2 with a 4.76 ERA through his first five starts. In those starts, he has allowed 12 total earned runs on 15 hits and 12 walks over 22.2 innings, striking out 27 batters over that span. Opponents are hitting just .185 against the right-hander, who is set to face Iowa for the first time this year and the first time in his career.
CONTACT IS KING: In game one of the series on Tuesday night, Iowa struck out 16 times in their 4-0 win, falling just one strikeout shy of their season-high 17 set back on May 8 at St. Paul. In their game on Tuesday, just two of Iowa’s starters didn’t strike out, while the other seven all had multi-strikeout games. It didn’t get much better in last night’s 7-0 shutout loss, striking out 12 more times as a team. Once again, seven of Iowa’s nine starters struck out at least once, with five of the seven recording multi-strikeout games. Iowa’s season-high for strikeouts in a single six-game series is 64 done back on May 3-8 against St. Paul. Through the first two games of their current series, Iowa has already struck out 28 times, good for 44% of their series high on the year with four games left to play.
JUST FOUR MORE: After going 1-for-4 with a walk in the series opener on Tuesday, Darius Hill now has 82 hits this year with Iowa in his 65 games played. His 82 hits put him tied for second on the active roster with Jared Young who has played 33 more games than Hill (98) and just four hits away from team-lead in 24 less games than Narciso Crook (88). Hill started the year with Double-A Tennessee and knocked 57 hits in 44 games for the Smokies before getting called up to Iowa, giving him 139 hits over the two levels this year. His 139 hits is tied for third among all minor league players for hits in the 2022 season, just five behind the leader Deyvison De Los Santos who recorded 104 hits in Single-A and has 40 in High-A in the Arizona Diamondbacks system.
JUST KEEP HITTING: With his 1-for-3 game in the loss last night, Matt Mervis extended his hitting streak to 10 games. He is now just three shy of tying his career-high 13-game hitting streak set this year back on April 20-May 7 with High-A South Bend. Over his current 10-game streak, the first basemen is hitting .389 (14-for-36) with seven runs scored, three doubles, three home runs, six runs batted in and four walks compared to just five strikeouts. Mash Mervis has played across three levels in Chicago’s system this year, starting the year with High-A South Bend for 27 games before playing 53 games with Double-A Tennessee. Entering tonight’s contest, he has played 32 games now with Iowa in just over a month since getting promoted to Triple-A. Mervis was ranked as Chicago’s No. 21 prospect by MLB.com in their recent updated prospect rankings due to the special season he is having. The 24-year-old ranks sixth across all minor leaguers with 100 runs batted in, tied for third with 36 doubles, third with 65 extra-base hits and is fifth with 252 total bases. His 27 home runs across the three levels puts him at six behind the leader who has 33.
NEW ROLE, NO PROBLEM: With Iowa down 7-0 entering the fourth inning last night, Hayden Wesneski came into the game for the I-Cubs. It marked his first relief appearance of the season after starting his first 23 games between Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Iowa. It was also just his second relief appearance since 2019, when he made all 18 of his appearances in relief in Rookie ball for the Pulaski Yankees. Since then, he had started 47 of his last 48 games entering last night’s contest. The new role didn’t prove a problem for the 24-year-old, as he spun five innings of scoreless relief, keeping the Clippers offense quiet through their final at-bats. Wesneski allowed just one hit and one walk while striking out three, using seven groundouts compared to just one fly out to mow through Columbus’ order. He needed just 56 pitches to get through his five innings of work, throwing 73% (41-of-56) of those pitches for strikes.
ON THE PATH TO FULL HEALTH: Adbert Alzolay is scheduled to make his second start on Major League rehab for the I-Cubs tonight after allowing one earned run on one hit and two walks over two innings pitched back on August 27 against St. Paul. He struck out all six batters he retired in the outing, throwing 31 of his 50 pitches for strikes. The right-hander struggled to start the game, allowing a leadoff single followed by a stolen base, a walk, a stolen base and a balk to plate one run before recording a single out. He walked the next batter as well, but then struck out each of the next three batters to end the inning. The rust seemed to be gone in the second, striking out the side in order to end his night. Alzolay was placed on the 60-day injured list back on March 18 prior to his start against the Saints had pitched in just one game with the ACL Cubs on August 22. His last game with Chicago came back on October 1, 2021, when he threw two innings of scoreless relief against the St. Louis Cardinals.
AGAINST COLUMBUS: Iowa and Columbus are scheduled to play game three of their six-game set tonight, with the series tied at one game apiece entering tonight’s contest. Each team has recorded a shutout through the first two games, with Iowa taking game one by a score of 4-0 followed by a 7-0 victory for Columbus in last night’s game. With last night’s loss, Iowa dropped to 5-9 against Columbus this year, going 4-8 in the first 12 games played at Principal Park between the two teams and now 1-1 here at Huntington Park. Iowa has been better against the Clippers here at Huntington Park over the last two years, holding an even 4-4 record here while going just 5-13 overall at home, good for an all-time record of 9-17 against Columbus. After losing by seven runs last night, Iowa has now been outscored by Columbus by 26 runs through their first 14 games played this year, at 92-66.
SHORT HOPS: Iowa has scored just four runs through their first 18 innings against Columbus, striking out 28 times while going 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position and leaving 16 men on-base…with the loss last night, Iowa finished the month of August one game below the .500 mark, at 13-14…the last time Iowa was shutout was back on August 6 against Toledo in a 6-0 loss, they came back the next day and scored six runs; they have scored five or more runs in the game following their shutout in five out of the eight times they have been shutout this year.
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