July 17 Game Notes: Iowa Cubs vs. Buffalo Bisons

IOWA CUBS (39-49) vs. BUFFALO BISONS (46-43)

Sunday, July 17, 2022 • 1:08 PM • Principal Park • Des Moines, IA

RHP Luke Farrell (2-1, 3.79) vs. RHP Casey Lawrence (8-2, 2.22)

TODAY’S GAME: Iowa and Buffalo will play the sixth and final game of their series today, with Luke Farrell taking the ball for Iowa. Farrell is 2-1 with a 3.79 ERA through 11 games with Iowa including eight starts. The righty has allowed 17 earned runs on 34 hits over his 40.1 innings pitched, walking 18 compared to 34 strikeouts. In game one of the series, Farrell allowed just one earned run on five hits over five innings of work. He walked one and struck out two, using six fly outs compared to one groundout to get through the Bisons lineup. Opposite of Farrell will be right-hander Casey Lawrence toeing the rubber for the Herd. Lawrence enters today’s game tied for second on the Bisons roster in starts this year with 12, going 8-2 with a 2.22 ERA over those 12 starts. He is just 1.1 innings shy of leading all pitchers on both rosters in innings pitched this year, with 73.0 innings entering today’s contest. Over those 73 innings, he has allowed just 18 earned runs on 50 hits, striking out 65 compared to just 13 walks. The 34-year-old has not made a start of less than five innings all year, going seven innings four different times. One of his two five inning starts came back on April 8 against Iowa, when he allowed just one earned run on two hits while striking out six.In all, opponents are hitting just .195 against Lawrence this year.

IN THE INFIELD: Greg Deichmann gets the start at second base today, marking his first professional game in the infield. Deichmann, who is in the fifth year of his professional career, has not played anywhere but the outfield since college. While at Louisiana State in 2016, he played six games at third base and 53 at first. In 2017, while in the Cape Cod League, Deichmann appeared in six games at first base. The last time he saw action in the middle of the infield was 2015, in the Northwoods League. That summer, he made six appearances at first, 14 at shortstop, 20 at second, and 29 at third. Today will serve as his first start at second base in seven years. His partner up the middle will be Levi Jordan, who will make his 16th professional start at shortstop. Jordan played 49 games at short in college, but has made only four starts there above Single-A. Today will be his second career game as Iowa’s shortstop, as he played two innings there as a defensive replacement last season.

BACK IN ACTION: Right-hander Dakota Mekkes has had an up-and-down year with Iowa, starting the year on the injured list. The 27-year-old was activated on May 12 and pitched in eight games, going 0-2 with a 9.64 ERA over the stretch. In his 9.1 innings, he allowed 10 earned runs on 12 hits, walking nine while striking out six. Opponents hit .324 against him with an on-base percentage of .468. After those eight games, Mekkes was placed on the developmental list on June 14. He spent three weeks working out some kinks in his mechanics and was re-activated on July 6. Since coming back, he has pitched in three games and has yet to allow a single run. The righty has allowed just six hits while striking out two in his three innings of work.

LEADING THINGS OFF: Darius Hill slots into the top spot in Manager Marty Pevey’s lineup card today, marking his seventh game leading off for Iowa. Through his first six games leading off, Iowa is 3-3. Hill is second on the team in games out of the leadoff spot with six, 66 games behind Dixon Machado. Aside from Machado and Hill, just four other players have led off all year for the I-Cubs. Through 35 games with Iowa, Hill is hitting .331 (46-for-139) with 20 runs scored, 11 doubles, one triple and one home run. The outfielder has driven in seven runs while walking eight times compared to 19 strikeouts.

PRODUCTION FROM THE TOP: Each of the top six hitters for Iowa collected at least one hit in last night’s game, with Nelson Maldonado recording two. The six players combined to record seven of Iowa’s eight hits as a team, driving in all five of their runs. Maldonado was the only player for Iowa to have a multi-hit game including a two-RBI double.

JACKSON IN ACTION: Jackson Frazier went 1-for-4 with an RBI last night, extending his hitting streak to a season-high eight games. It’s his longest streak since 2016, when he hit in eight straight with Double-A Akron, and the longest of his career at Triple-A or higher. Frazier has hit safely in 13 of his last 14 games, boosting his season average with Iowa to .246, and reached base in all 14. After starting his I-Cubs career with a .195 average (8-for-41) over his first ten games, the outfielder has turned it on. Since the calendar flipped to July, he has gone 17-for-50 through 14 games. That has given him a .340 average and a team-leading .660 slugging percentage this month. He has also collected 17 RBI over that span, which is the most by an I-Cub this month, and accounts for over a quarter of Iowa’s total run production (17-of-66) in July.

AGAINST BUFFALO: The I-Cubs and Bisons will meet for the series finale today, with Buffalo currently holding a 3-2 series lead. Today’s game will be the 12th and final game the two teams play all year, with Buffalo leading the season series 7-4. The I-Cubs hold a five-game lead over the Bisons in their all-time series at 112-107 and are 62-46 against Buffalo all-time here at Principal Park. Through the first 11 games the two teams have played this year, Buffalo is now outscoring Iowa by one run, at 42-41. A win today would earn a series split for Iowa and send them into the All-Star break nine games under the .500 mark.

SHORT HOPS: Iowa took three walks last night including two from their leadoff hitter Dixon Machado; the three walks gave them a total of nine through the first five games of the series…I-Cubs hitters have been hit by six pitches through the first five games, the most times they have been hit by a pitch in any series this year…all four relievers for Iowa yesterday retired the first batter they faced, with two of the four stranding two runners.