The final six regular season South Bend Cubs home games have arrived. And with the Midwest League postseason right around the corner, the Cubs are looking to ride some positive momentum into the first round in what will be the battle for the West Division pennant. South Bend still awaits its first round playoff opponent, but with this final homestand of the regular season scheduled against Cedar Rapids, it’s an opportunity to stack some W’s before game one of the first round set on the road on September 8.
South Bend just wrapped up a six-game road trip with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, and after setting for a series split, the Cubs will meet the Kernels for the third and final series in this second-half. South Bend played 18 games in the first-half against the Fort Wayne TinCaps, and did not see Cedar Rapids. In the second-half, South Bend did not play Fort Wayne, and instead it’s the 18-game slate versus the Kernels.
Cedar Rapids is not in playoff contention, and the Kernels have been riding the caboose of the division for most, if not all of the second-half. When it comes to who is likely to face-off against the Cubs in the first-round, it is either going to be the Quad Cities River Bandits, or the Beloit Sky Carp. Last week, both Quad Cities and Beloit squared off against one another in Davenport. The series started with a tie atop the West Division. Quad Cities won the first two games, before Beloit rattled off victories on Thursday and Friday last week. On the weekend, QC won both games, and now hold a 2.0 game lead in the West with six games to go.
This week, Quad Cities will take on Peoria, and it was the Chiefs spoiling the final homestand for the West Michigan Whitecaps last week. Peoria may have knocked West Michigan out of playoff contention with a series win in Grand Rapids. On the other side, Beloit will take on the Wisconsin team that just split with the Cubs in Appleton.
Quick nugget on the East Division as well, it is really turning into a situation where the Great Lakes Loons are in the same spot they were in the first-half. Great Lakes was in position to win the first-half, but it was the Dayton Dragons that swooped in at the last minute to clinch that postseason spot. Great Lakes utilized a six-game winning streak to now take a 3.5 game lead on West Michigan with six games to go. Lake County is still in contention in the East as well, but they are 4.5 games back. The benefit that Lake County has is that they will play Great Lakes this week. West Michigan will be at Dayton. If the Whitecaps are going to clinch, they’ll need to dominate a series in Dayton, and then would need Lake County to take it to Great Lakes, but not enough to where the Captains would leapfrog the Whitecaps. West Michigan is 1.0 game ahead of Lake County.
So, with all of that being said, tight races in both divisions to close the regular season. We probably won’t know until the weekend of what is going to transpire, but the Cubs are going to have to be ready for anything, knowing that a September 8 game one road trip to either Davenport or Beloit is in the cards. South Bend must be ready for anything.
With that, that’s why the Cubs have to embrace this week against Cedar Rapids. The Kernels, despite their record, have added some significant pieces to their roster, including this year’s number-three overall Major League Baseball draft pick, Vahn Lackey. The former Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket was the third overall selection by the Minnesota Twins, and after 15 games at Low-A Fort Myers, he has played five games with Cedar Rapids. In the five games, Lackey is hitting .333 with two homers and five RBI with more walks than strikeouts.
The Kernels split with the Cubs at the start of August when they were last at Four Winds Field. South Bend shutout Cedar Rapids to start that week 6-0, and then pounded the Kernels on that Sunday 13-1. The Cubs will have to be ready knowing Cedar Rapids wants to put one last good impression on the season before they’ll wrap their campaign on Sunday.
Players to watch on South Bend…
Kade Snell, OF: Kade Snell had himself a big series in Appleton, one week after being named the Corporal Paul Deguch Community Service Award winner on the last homestand. You could tell how much that honor meant to Kade, and he had one of his more consistent series on the road in Appleton. While he didn’t homer, Snell had 10 hits, including three base hits in Sunday’s game. In the Friday win over Wisconsin, the Cubs scored six runs in the 9th inning to shock the Rattlers, putting together one of their best crunch time performances in team history. Snell had the game winning hit as part of that 9th inning, helping the Cubs score six runs or more in the 9th inning for the fifth time in South Bend Cubs history (since 2015). The Cubs also did it earlier this season in Dayton. Snell’s game winning base hit gave the Cubs the insurance they needed to go win the game in the bottom of the 9th, and now Snell returns home to cap off his regular season in that hope that he can be a difference maker for South Bend in the postseason. The Cubs are going to need Snell to be a guy this September. And he is more than capable to be one of the big reasons the Cubs can win their third championship in seven seasons.
Logan Poteet, C: Certainly one thing that was not lost in the Sunday back-and-forth loss to the ‘Rattlers was the performance of Logan Poteet. The Cubs catcher mashed a multi-home run game, with the first one driven off the video board in Appleton in deep left-center field. With the height of that video board, and how tall the wall is, that is not an easy task. But Poteet hammered that baseball off of his own headshot on the videoboard. In the 9th inning Sunday, Poteet nearly led another impossible comeback as South Bend was once again down to their last out of the game. Poteet crushed another big bomb, and Alexey Lumpuy followed with a solo shot of his own. South Bend got close, but still fell 11-10. Still, Poteet seems to be turning the power switch on again as we creep towards the postseason, and that would be just another weapon to have in the lineup, knowing how Poteet was hitting the ball shortly before he left Low-A Myrtle Beach. Poteet hit .326 with the Pelicans in the month of June, and also clubbed 14 home runs with Myrtle Beach in 51 games. He now has seven with the Cubs, and Poteet was one of the Cubs stars in the final regular season series last year at Four Winds Field, where he hammered his first professional homer. Poteet can be a difference maker come playoff time with his power ability, and you just get a feeling that he is going to hit a huge home run in the playoffs, knowing what he has done all year in clutch spots.
Cole Reynolds, LHP: A key part of any playoff run is pitching matchups. When you get to the postseason, for the most part, gone are the traditional Minor League Baseball pitching schedules where guys have to throw or play at a specific time. When you get to the postseason, it is all about guys who can get outs pitching in the highest leverage situations. For Cole Reynolds, who started this season in the Cubs rotation, he has primarily pitched out of the bullpen in the second-half. His last two appearances, although one has been a start and one has been a bullpen outing, have been superb. Reynolds was terrific in his start against West Michigan last homestand, in four shutout innings, he did not walk a batter. He also did not walk a man in 3.1 scoreless frames as part of the Cubs big comeback on Friday night in Appleton. Without the shutout bullpen work of both Edwardo Melendez and Cole Reynolds, South Bend does not win that game, plain and simple. Reynolds hasn’t walked a batter in his last 7.1 innings. Knowing his experience both as a starter and as a reliever this year, Reynolds has the chance to be a key impact type guy in the playoffs. Whether that is in long relief, or a short lefty-to-lefty type duel, Reynolds is going to be asked to get some big outs just knowing that the matchup battles are coming in the postseason. With command being a thing that he struggled with early in the year, the last two outings are a super promising sign that he is in a good flow with his stuff, and that he is ready to go. Let’s see what he can do this week against Cedar Rapids to continue to put himself in a great spot come September 8.
Schedule…
Tuesday, September 1 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Jostin Florentino vs TBA
Wednesday, September 2 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Brayden Spears vs TBA
Thursday, September 3 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Nazier Mulé vs TBA
Friday, September 4 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Alfredo Romero vs TBA
Saturday, September 5 - 7:05 PM ET: LHP Pierce Coppola vs TBA
Sunday, September 6 - 2:05 PM ET: RHP Anhuar Garcia vs TBA
Catch the six-game series in South Bend on 96.1 FM and 960 AM Sports Radio WSBT, online at wsbtradio.com, or on MiLB.com with Brendan King and Tyler Reidy on the call.
Of note, Sunday’s game will be broadcast live on 94.3 FM WIRX.