Watching the Lugnuts on a Hot August Night
The Cubs’ low Single-A affiliate Lansing came to Cedar Rapids Monday night for the only time this year to take on the Kernels (an Angels affiliate), so I drove up and watched on a 95 degree night in Iowa.
I got lucky because Andy Sisco, one of the Cubs’ top pitching prospects, was on the mound for the Lugnuts. Sisco is a tall lefty, and he was good, though not great. The scoreboard radar reading consistently had him throwing 90-91 mph, and he changed speeds enough that the Kernels were often late on that fastball. But they were still able to hit Sisco. He finished the night after having thrown just 5 innings, allowing 3 runs on 9 hits (2 doubles, 7 singles), walking 1 and striking out 7.
The Kernels also put a lefty on the hill – Micah Posey. Posey fits more into the soft-tossing lefty mold (as opposed to Sisco, the big, hard thrower), and he did a decent job of keeping the Lugnuts off-balance, allowing 1 run before also leaving after 5 innings. (Of course, Lansing is a poor hitting team – 13th out of 14 Midwest League teams in runs scored. In many ways, they mirror their parent club. While they can’t hit very well, they are second in the league in ERA, and as a result, have a .500 record.)
Lansing was able to get to the CR bullpen, though. They tied the score at 3 in the top of the 6th with three straight hits from the bottom of the order – a double by Robinson Chirinos and singles by both J.J. Johnson (who’s had a terrible year, but looks like a baseball player, so will probably be given more chances) and Keith Butler. Then, first baseman Casey McGehee and catcher Jake Fox each hit solo homers in the top of the 7th to put Lansing up 5-3. McGehee’s was a line shot to left and Fox’s was a real blast way over the leftfield wall. Both McGehee and Fox were 2003 draft picks of the Cubs, Fox in the third round and McGehee in the 10th.
Unfortunately, the Lansing bullpen was just as shaky as the Cedar Rapids bullpen. While Frederico Baez (3.25 ERA in 63.2 IP coming in) didn’t allow anyone to score, he gave up hits to 4 of the 7 batters he faced, and one of the outs was a laser beam (hopefully Chip Caray won’t mind if I borrow that phrase) to left. Lefty Clayton Rapada (5.08 ERA in 39 IP) saved Baez in the 7th, but Adelberto Mendez (3.52 ERA in 7.2 IP) came on in the 8th and allowed the Kernels to tie the score at 5.
The Kernels had a runner on first with two outs when the rain and lightning came and the umpire (singular used for a reason, noted below) stopped play.
A few other notes from the game and from researching for this post:
