July 26 Game Notes: Iowa Cubs vs. Indianapolis Indians

IOWA CUBS (43-56) vs. INDIANAPOLIS INDIANS (43-52)

Friday, July 26 • 7:08 PM CT • Principal Park • Des Moines, IA

RHP Brandon Birdsell (0-2, 6.10) vs. RHP Jake Woodford (0-2, 2.37)

TONIGHT’S GAME: The Iowa Cubs and Indianapolis Indians play the fourth of a six-game series tonight...the two clubs have played 15 games this season with Indianapolis winning 10 of those games...right-hander Brandon Birdsell is scheduled to make his 18th appearance (17th start) of the season and his third with Iowa...right-hander Jake Woodford is slated to make seventh start with Indianapolis and his 17th of the season after making 10 starts with Charlotte and two with the White Sox.

THURSDAY NIGHT: The I-Cubs dropped last night’s game by a 7-2 score vs. Indianapolis at Principal Park...Moises Ballesteros led Iowa on offense as he went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI... Jack Reinheimer drove in the I-Cubs other run with a single in the third inning... Iowa’s starting pitcher Riley Thompson suffered the loss as he worked 3.0 innings and allowed four runs on six hits with one strikeout...Zac Leigh pitched a scoreless frame in relief and Hunter Bigge worked 1.2 scoreless innings.

BIRDSELL ON THE MOUND: Tonight’s starter Brandon Birdsell is scheduled to make his third start at the Triple-A level... the Cubs’ No. 20 prospect (MiLB.com) went 4-4 with a 3.63 ERA (30 ER in 74.1 IP) and 65 strikeouts in 15 appearances (14 starts) with Double-A Tennessee before joining Iowa on July 10...in his last start on July 20 at Memphis, Birdsell pitched 6.0 innings and allowed just two runs and struck out four in a losing decision.

STARTING OFF HOT: Iowa Cubs outfielder, and Cubs’ No. 3 prospect, Owen Caissie hit a leadoff home run on Tuesday, despite the loss...it marked the fourth leadoff homer by an I-Cub this season and first since Miles Mastrobuoni on June 13 at Columbus.

HOME SWEET HOME: Iowa returns to Principal Park for the first time since July 6 vs. Omaha...the I-Cubs are 24-23 at home this season vs. 19-32 on the road...Iowa has lost the first two games of the current series vs. Indianapolis but have still won and have won six of their last nine games at Principal Park dating back to June 27 vs. St. Paul.

MAKE IT A DOUBLE: Iowa turned four double plays in last night’s loss to Indianapolis (Hager-Reinheimer-R. Thompson, Reinheimer-Pertuz-Hager [2x] and Pertuz-Reinheimer-Hager)...the four double plays marked a season high for the I-Cubs and their most since they also turned four on June 13, 2023 vs. Columbus.

VS. INDIANAPOLIS: Iowa and Indianapolis are facing off for their third series of the season following May 21-26 in Des Moines and June 18-23 at Victory Field...the Indians have won 10 of the 15 contests played between the two ball clubs this season, including seven of the last nine.

McWILLIAMS STRIKEOUTS: Iowa Cubs reliever Sam McWilliams has struck out 81 batters across 55.0 innings this season and despite being a primarily reliever, he ranks tied for 11th in the International League in punchouts...among pitchers who have worked at least 50.0 innings this season, his 13.25 K/9 ranks second in the IL and his 32.8% strikeout percentage is fourth-best in the league.

WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY: Iowa surrendered 13 runs in Tuesday’s night loss and 14 runs in Wednesday’s loss to total 27 runs in the first two games of the series...marks the most runs the I-Cubs have given up over a two-game span since they allowed 28 runs (16, 12) from June 29-30, 2022 vs. Columbus.

ALL THE SMALL THINGS: Iowa snapped their one-run game streak Tuesday night at five games...they have posted a 21-14 in such games this season to give them 34 on the season...the 34 one-run games this season which are the most such games in the International League ahead of the Omaha Storm Chasers who are 19-12.

BALLY GOES DEEP: Cubs No. 5 prospect Moises Ballesteros hit his fourth home run as an I-Cub on Sunday and 13th overall...from July 11-19, Bally homered in back-to-back games for the first time this season and the fourth time in his career with the last coming on Aug. 13-15, 2023 with Advanced-A South Bend...he is batting .292 (28-for-96) in 24 games with Iowa and has tallied nine multi-hit efforts.