Baez and Harris Homer, Plus Mathews Dazzles in 5-2 Chiefs Win

PEORIA, IL - Quinn Mathews delivered a virtuoso performance on the hill last night, tossing six shutout innings, walking just one batter, striking out eight, and allowing just three hits. Mathews became a top-100 prospect last week per Baseball America and absolutely looked the part as he went at least six innings for an eighth straight start.

You could certainly make the case that was the most dominant outing against he Cubs all year, and it helped propel the Chiefs to a 5-2 win on Tuesday night.

The game truly didn’t feature much on the offensive side of things. Peoria stranded a small village on-base, leaving 12 aboard and going just 1-for-11 with men in scoring position. But the long ball powered them to what at least seemed like a comfortable lead.

Joshua Baez stepped up for the first time with two outs in the second. Dakota Harris was standing at third after he doubled earlier in the inning off Cubs starter Sam Armstrong. Baez got a 2-2 fastball and belted his team-leading seventh homer of the season out towards left-center.

Harris took his turn in the sixth, going after the first pitch of the frame from Tyler Santana, and rocketing a solo blast down the line in left field.

Mathews gave way to the bullpen with the home team leading 3-0.

Entering the eighth the Cubs had mustered just three hits still, but all of a sudden then sparked to life. Rafael Morel and Ed Howard started the frame with back-to-back singles, with Ed’s shooting through the hole on the right side of the infield. That brought up Brett Batemen, who in his return to the lineup off the Injured List, had picked up two of the Cubs first three hits. He bounced one over to Harris at second base, he bobbled it, knocked it down, picked it back up and panicked. He airmailed a throw to first and Morel scored from second on the double error. Pedro Ramirez hit a deep sac-fly to bring in Howard from third.

Now it was just a one-run game at 3-2.

But Osvaldo Perez came back and got the next two batters.

Then the Chiefs came up and put the game to rest, responding with two runs of their own. Baez started the inning with a line drive single to left and then Zach Levenson smoked a triple into the alley in left. Alex Iadisernia made it 5-2 with a sac-fly of his own and Peoria got those runs right back.

Now if the Cubs want to continue their series win streak and win a fourth consecutively, they’ll have to do what they did last road trip and take four of the final five games.