Chicago Cubs Minor League Wrap: September 26

Just the I-Cubs tonight. Tomorrow afternoon, there will be the penultimate Iowa game of the season. And tomorrow evening, the Smokies will try to win their first outright Southern League title since 1978.

Iowa Cubs

The Iowa Cubs laid an egg against the Toledo Mud Hens (Tigers), 8-5 in ten innings.

Matt Swarmer took the hill to start the game end left after giving up four runs on five hits over 4.2 innings. One of the four runs allowed was unearned. Swarmer walked three and struck out four.

Iowa tied the game back up in the bottom of the fifth and Iowa’s bullpen held the Mud Hens in check until extras. But Danis Correa had trouble finding the plate as he took over to pitch the tenth inning. In his one inning of work, Correa gave up four runs on two hits, two walks and two wild pitches. Correa struck out one.

After Toledo scored a run in the top of the first inning, first baseman Matt Mervis tied it back up with a 441-foot solo home run. It was Mervis’ 36th home run this year and 15th with Iowa. Mervis went 2 for 5 with an additional RBI on a groundout in the bottom of the tenth, giving him 119 this season. That’s the most in all of Minor League baseball since the Mets’ Pete Alonso hit the same number in 2018.

Third baseman Scott McKeon was 2 for 3 with an RBI double and a walk. He scored once.

Catcher John Hicks was 2 for 5 with a double.

Center fielder Darius Hill tied the game up with a two-run single in the fifth. Hill went 1 for 5 and scored once.

Mervis’ home run.