August 15 • 4:08 PM CT • Principal Park • Des Moines, IA
GAME ONE: RHP Grant Kipp (1-0, 7.18) vs. LHP Kendry Rojas (2-0, 3.72)
GAME TWO: LHP Josh Fleming (1-1, 3.44) vs. RHP Trent Baker (3-3, 5.40)
TODAY’S GAME: The Iowa Cubs and the St. Paul Saints are set to play a doubleheader today at Principal Park...right- hander Grant Kipp is slated to start for the I-Cubs in game one with left-hander Josh Fleming scheduled to start game two ...St. Paul is scheduled to start left-hander Kendry Rojas in game one and right-hander Trent Baker for game two.
FLY THE WWW: The I-Cubs won their third straight game over the St. Paul Saints Thursday night in a 10-3 victory... Iowa belted five home runs in the contest, led by two home runs and five RBI from Ben Cowles...after going down 1-0 on a leadoff home run from St. Paul, Iowa erupted for six runs in the bottom half of the first inning, all coming with two outs...Kohl Franklin pitched 4.0 innings in his first appearance at Principal Park, allowing just one run... reliever Evan Taylor notched his first Triple-A win with 2.0 scoreless innings out of the bullpen.
LET’S PLAY TWO: Iowa is set to play in their fourth doubleheader of the 2026 season and third at Principal Park...they were swept in their last doubleheader on July 25 at Gwinnett...Iowa has a 1-5 record in doubleheaders this year, their lone victory coming in game one on June 6 versus Toledo.
THE BIG INNING: The I-Cubs have benefitted from several big innings this week in the three victories over St. Paul... Iowa scored six runs in the first inning of Thursday night’s contest, all runs scored with two outs...they scored five runs in the seventh inning on Wednesday night, and five runs in the fifth inning at Field of Dreams on Tuesday night...Iowa has scored five or more runs in a single inning four times in the past week, also doing so last Friday at Indianapolis in the seventh inning of a 9-3 victory...prior to last Friday, Iowa had not scored more than three runs in a single inning since July 19 at Memphis, when they scored four runs in the third inning...they had not scored five or more runs in a single inning since July 9th when they scored six runs in the fourth inning against St. Paul.
POWER SURGE: Iowa hit five home runs Thursday night, matching their season high for home runs in a single game, previously set on April 2 at Louisville...Iowa hit three home runs in the first inning of last nights game, a feat they also hit on Tuesday night with three home runs in the fifth inning at Field of Dreams...the three home runs match their season high for most home runs hit in a single inning...before this week, that mark was hit just once previously this season, last occurring in the sixth inning on June 18 against Indianapolis...after hitting just one home run in their entire series last week at Indianapolis, Iowa has erupted for 11 home runs in the series against St. Paul, the most in the International League in that span.
BACK-TO-BACK: Iowa hit two sets of back-to-back home runs in Thursday night’s contest, with Owen Miller and Ethan Hearn going back-to-back in the first inning, and Greg Jones and Ben Cowles going back-to-back in the fifth inning...it is the first time this season that Iowa has hit multiple sets of back-to-back home runs in a single game...The I-Cubs have hit six pairs of back-to-back home runs this season, three of which have come in the current series against St. Paul after Jordan Nwogu and Cowles went-to-back-back in the fifth inning on Tuesday to tie and take the lead at Field of Dreams...prior to this series, Iowa had not hit back-to-back home runs in a game since Christian Bethancourt and Scott Kingery did so on July 9 against St. Paul.
BENNY BARRELS: I-Cubs infielder Ben Cowles went 3-for- 3 with two home runs and five RBI in yesterday’s contest...it marked the first time this season that he has hit two home runs in a game, last doing so July 19, 2025 with Iowa against Columbus...the five RBI were one short of his season high of six he drove in on May 24 versus Memphis...in the series so far against St. Paul, Cowles is batting .500 (5-for-10) with four runs scored, three home runs, and six RBI.
B.J BOMBS: BJ Murray hit his 14th home run of the season Wednesday night in the seventh inning...BJ also hit a three-run home run in the fifth inning at the Field of Dreams on Tuesday, making it back-to-back games in which he had hit a home run in...marked the first time he had done so since April 13-15, 2025 with Double-A Knoxville at Rocket City and versus Columbus...it was also the second time he had done so at Triple-A, with the other coming on May 15-16, 2024 at Syracuse...Murray is the first I-Cub to homer in back-to-back games since Christian Bethancourt did so on July 8-9 versus St. Paul.
THE JAGUAR: Outfielder Kevin Alcántara saw his on- base of 42 games come to an end on Sunday...it was the longest active on-base streak in affiliated professional baseball...Kevin broke the Iowa Cubs franchise record for the longest on-base streak in franchise history on July 26 at Gwinnett, previously held by Jonathon Long at 35 games that he set from July 9-Aug. 24, 2025...it is the longest streak in the International League this season and second longest streak this year in all of Triple-A, trailing Albuquerque’s Chad Stevens’ 51-game on-base streak from March 27-July 3...Kevin hit his 19th home run of the season Wednesday night, setting a new career high for home runs in a single season, surpassing his season total of 17 home runs last year with Iowa.
AIR JORDAN: I-Cubs Infielder Jordan Nwogu recorded his first multi-hit and multi-RBI game at the Triple-A level Wednesday night, going 2-for-4 with 2 RBI, notching a go-ahead two-run single in the seventh inning...it was his first multi-hit game since May 16 against Double-A Columbus...he hit his first Triple-A home run on Tuesday at Field of Dreams...he was promoted to Triple-A Iowa on August 4.
GREG THE GREAT!: Infielder/Outfielder Greg Jones was featured on SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays on Wednesday, coming in at number six with a diving stop and throw from shortstop to end the sixth inning at Field of Dreams on Tuesday...Greg hit his second home run with the I-Cubs last night in the fifth inning after hitting his first home run on Tuesday at Field of Dreams...Jones joined Iowa on July 21 as a free agent.
FIELD OF VICTORIES: The Iowa Cubs defeated the St. Paul Saints 6-3 on Tuesday night at the MiLB at Field of Dreams Game in Dyersville, IA...Greg Jones, Ben Cowles, Jordan Nwogu, and B.J. Murray hit four homeruns for the I-Cubs..down 2-1 in the fifth inning, Cowles and Nwogu hit-back-to-back home runs to tie the game and take the lead before Murray hit a three-run blast to blow the game open for Iowa...Jordan Wicks earned his second win of the season, pitching 5.0 innings and allowing just one earned run on two hits...Jaxon Wiggins (1.0 IP), Ethan Roberts (1.0 IP) and Gabe Klobosits (1.0 IP) threw three combined scoreless innings, allowing no hits and just two walks...Klobosits earned his third save of the season.
AYE-RS!: Chicago Cubs’ No. 2 overall prospect catcher Owen Ayers was ranked as the No. 93 overall prospect in professional baseball by MLB Pipeline on Thursday... he recorded his fifth multi-hit game last Wednesday since being promoted to Iowa on July 17...Ayers is batting .278 (20-for-72) with four doubles, one home run, 10 RBI, 13 walks and four stolen bases in 21 appearances with the I-Cubs...Ayers played in 65 games in Double-A Knoxville, batting .304 with 16 home runs and 48 RBI...since being promoted to Iowa on the 17th of July, Owen is batting .285 (6-for-21) with four RBI... at the time of his promotion, Ayers ranked first in the Southern League in on-base percentage (.417), slugging percentage (.591), and OPS (1.008), second in batting average, third in extra-base hits (33), fifth in total bases (136), and sixth in home runs.