IOWA CUBS (27-33, 57-75) at COLUMBUS CLIPPERS (30-28, 71-61)
September 4 • 6:05 PM CT • Huntington Park • Columbus, OH
LHP Braxton Garrett (5-5, 3.46) vs. RHP Rorik Maltrud (6-1, 4.00)
TONIGHT’S GAME: The Iowa Cubs and the Columbus Clippers are set to play the fourth of a six-game series at Huntington Park tonight...left-hander Braxton Garrett is set to make his fifth appearance for Iowa...right-hander Rorik Maltrud is slated to start for Columbus.
BACK ON TRACK: The I-Cubs defeated the Columbus Clippers by a 4-2 score last night at Huntington Park...scoreless in the seventh inning, Ethan Hearn cleared the bases with a two-out, two-strike double to put the I-Cubs in front 3-0...Kevin Alcántara extended the lead to 4-0 with an RBI single in the eighth inning... after Iowa allowed back-to-back solo home runs with two outs in the eighth inning, Ethan Roberts came on to close the game in the ninth inning and earned his first save of the season...Jayden Murray earned his second win of the season after pitching two scoreless innings in a bullpen day for Iowa.
WHAT A RELIEF: Six Iowa relievers pitched in a bullpen day effort to help lead the I-Cubs to victory...the staff struck out a combined 13 Columbus hitters...Evan Taylor (2.2), Jaxon Wiggins (1.1), Jayden Murray (2.0), Antoine Kelly (1.0) and Ethan Roberts (1.0) combined to throw 8.0 scoreless innings, allowing five hits and three walks while striking out 11.
JAX-ON: Chicago’s No. 6 overall prospect Jaxon Wiggins made his seventh appearance out of the bullpen, throwing 1.1 scoreless innings...Wiggins is yet to allow a run in his seven appearances out of the bullpen, throwing 8.0 scoreless innings, striking out 10 and allowing four hits and five walks...Jaxon made his first appearance out of the bullpen this year on August 11 against St. Paul at the MiLB Field of Dreams game.
AYE-RS!: Chicago Cubs’ No. 2 overall prospect catcher Owen Ayers threw out his 35th and 36th runners of the season Thursday night between Advanced-A, Double-A and Triple-A, which is tied for 12th most of any player at those levels... he went 2-for-4 Wednesday night, giving him his ninth multi-hit outing in 38 Triple-A games...he hit his third Triple-A home run Saturday night, a go-ahead two-run shot in the fifth inning...he drew three walks Friday night for the second time this season, last doing so with Double-A Knoxville on April 24 against Chattanooga...last Thursday he collected his first walk-off hit since being promoted to Iowa on July 17...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...Owen has also reached base in 16 straight games dating back to Aug. 15...he is slashing .246/.370/.393 (15-for-61) during this stretch and owns the fifth-longest streak by an I-Cub this season, trailing Kevin Alcántara’s 42-game stretch.
AGAINST COLUMBUS: The Iowa Cubs and the Columbus Clippers are meeting for the fourth and final time of the 2026 season...Iowa is currently 8-10 versus the Clippers this year...the two teams last met May 5-10 at Principal Park, with the teams splitting the series 3-3...the teams last met in Columbus April 14-19, also resulting in a 3-3 split...the two teams met on Opening Weekend (March 27-29) at Principal Park, with the Clippers taking the series 2-1.
TWO, THREE: Iowa Cubs’ infielder Owen Miller hit his 29th double of the season Tuesday night, which is third-most in the International League this season, trailing Indianapolis’ Ronny Simon (31) and former I-Cub Jonatho Long (34)...he also hit his seventh triple of the year on Tuesday, which trails 2026 I-Cub teammate BJ Murray for the league lead (9).
JUMPMAN: Iowa Cubs outfielder Jordan Nwogu collected his second consecutive multi-hit game last night, going 2-for-4...it is the first time he has notched back-to-back multi-hit efforts at the Triple-A level...Jordan last recorded back-to-back multi hit games on April 8-9 with Double-A Knoxville against Rocket City...he tallied his first career three-hit game at Triple-A Tuesday night, and has raised his batting average this week from .186 to .235...it marked his first three-hit game since April 3 of this season with Double-A Knoxville...his last four-hit game came on Aug. 21, 2025 with Knoxville as he went 4-for-5 with two runs scored...Nwogu is 5-for-9 with a double and one RBI thus far in the series against Columbus.
MAN OF STEELE: Left-handed pitcher Justin Steele made his first outing in a competitive game since April 7, 2025 vs. Texas...he threw 1.2 innings and allowed one earned run on three hits...he was placed on the injured list on April 9, 2025 with left elbow tendinitis...Steele was named an All-Star in 2023 and has gone 32-22 with a 3.30 ERA (186 ER in 506.2 IP) in 102 games (91 starts) with the Cubs.
RUNNER: James Triantos tallied another multi-hit game Tuesday night and added a stolen base bringing his season total to 121 hits and 26 stolen bases...the last I-Cub to match those numbers was John Andreoli with 130 hits and 43 stolen bases in 2016...James ranks among International League leaders in batting average (3rd, .306), doubles (5th, 27) and hits (7th, 121).
COMEBACK CUBS: Iowa earned their fifth come from behind victory in their last nine games Saturday night...four of those wins have come when they have been trailing and down to their final three outs...last Thursday night the I-Cubs secured their third victory this season when trailing after eight innings, all coming in their last nine games...prior to this stretch, Iowa was 0-50 in games when trailing after eight innings.
EXTRA, EXTRA: The I-Cubs improved their record to 8-5 in extra inning games this season with their win on Saturday night against Omaha...it marked Iowa’s fifth straight extra-innings win as they defeated Toledo 7-3 in 10 innings on Aug. 20, 5-4 in ten innings against Toledo on Aug. 18, Indianapolis 5-3 in 10 innings on Aug. 5 and Memphis 5-4 in 10 innings on July 18...it was the third extra innings win at Principal Park during the 2026 campaign and first since June 17 versus Indianapolis.
CONGRATS BJ!: Long-time Iowa Cub BJ Murray made his Major League debut Tuesday night vs. Milwaukee, going 1-for-4 with a single in the Cubs’ 9-4 loss...Murray had played in 118 games with Iowa this season, batting .294 (128-for-436) with 74 runs, 24 doubles, nine triples, 16 home runs, 68 RBI and 69 walks...he played in 88 games with the I-Cubs in 2024 and hit .204 (61-for-299) with 11 home runs and 39 RBI before batting .242 (107-for-443) in 125 games with Double-A Knoxville in 2025.
KIPP TO MY LOU: Iowa pitcher Grant Kipp pitched two scoreless innings out of the bullpen Wednesday night, striking out four...over his last four outings, Kipp has posted a 2-0 record with a 0.90 ERA across 10.0 IP (1 ER), allowing four hits and seven walks while striking out 15...Kipp matched his Triple-A high for strikeouts in an outing with seven on Aug. 21 at Toledo, hitting that mark twice more this year...his season high for strikeouts in a game is eight, doing so with Double-A Knoxville May 7 versus Birmingham and May 27 at Chattanooga.