The dash to September is officially on! With the All-Star Break concluding, the South Bend Cubs are back. And the final road to the Midwest League postseason begins. The first-half West Division champions return to Four Winds Field this weekend to start a nine-game homestand, with the first three coming against the team the Cubs clinched the division against in June, the Peoria Chiefs.
Peoria is back in town, and this weekend will officially conclude the season-series between the Cubs and Chiefs in 2026. The only time these two can see each other again would be the first-round of the playoffs. Peoria would need to win the second-half in the West Division to make that happen.
In the series before the All-Star Break, South Bend took four of six games away from the Cedar Rapids Kernels on the road. It was a big rebound series for the Cubs, after dropping five of six on the first leg of that big 12-game road trip in Beloit. For Peoria, they did not go into the respite with the same type of confidence. Peoria salvaged their series at Quad Cities last week after losing the first three of that six-gamer, but they managed to win just two games of the six total. Before that, Peoria also dropped four of six at the hands of the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers at home. You have to go back to the first week of June to find the last Chiefs series win, which to their credit was a six-game sweep of the Beloit Sky Carp.
The Chiefs are 8-12 to begin the second-half, and the Cubs are 10-11. After South Bend struggled in Beloit, that was a massive performance in Cedar Rapids to bounce back. That is not easy to do on those long road trips either. When you struggle on the first leg, it’s very hard to flush it on the second leg with the travel and other circumstances. But the Cubs did it.
Peoria has lost both of their series played against the Cubs this season, with the last one in June resulting in the Cubs clinching the first-half at Four Winds Field. But remember way back when in April during the first road series of the season when the Cubs dramatically took four of six away from the Chiefs. It was that wild Sunday game on April 12, when Owen Ayers crushed a 9th inning home run to absolutely steal a 5-4 win away from Peoria. That was the start of it all for the Cubs in the first-half, when the match was lit, and we got the first notion that this team is very, very special.
That series in April also featured the 2500th win as a franchise for South Bend. It was not only sweet because of the first win of the season, and the first managerial win for Daniel Wasinger, but also because of the 13-1 beatdown that the Cubs laid on the Chiefs. Seven of nine Cubs in the lineup had multi-hit games, and every Cub reached base. On the pitching side, the Cubs did not walk a batter and struck out 12 Chiefs.
But that was then, and this is now. We say it all the time, the Cubs must keep their collective foot on the gas pedal. It is crucial, especially now, knowing that the All-Star Break is over, and this really starts the grind of the season. Baseball is always fun, but the dog days of summer can take a toll on you physically and mentally. That’s why it is so important that this team continues to play hard, and if that is the case, they are going to keep winning.
Peoria looks quite similar, roster wise, from the last time the Cubs saw them in June. Chiefs opening day lead-off man Tai Peete was on the Injured List for quite a while, but after an early July return, he is right back on the IL. Peoria has gotten one key cog back in their order though. And that’s outfielder Ian Petrutz. He is no stranger to South Bend, playing 10 games against the Cubs in 2025 and hitting .275. Petrutz scorched at the plate in his final five games heading into the break, hitting .529 (9/17) in that stretch.
Luis Pino and Jack Gurevitch had similar hot stretches in their final five games going into the ASB as well, with Pino hitting .444, and Gurevitch hitting .333. Although the Chiefs have lost both of their series against the Cubs this year, it’s not because they haven’t hit the ball well. Gurevitch is at .294 in five games against the Cubs. Josh Kross is hitting .300 versus South Bend in 10 games with two home runs and six RBI.
As we saw as well in June, Peoria’s starting rotation features some incredible arms. One of the top pitching prospects in the St. Louis Cardinals organization remains in Peoria, in right-hander Tanner Franklin. We saw Nate Dohm have a revitalized start against the Cubs in June as well. Since posting a 20.25 ERA in five starts in May, Dohm had a 1.29 ERA in June, and has kept a similar pace in July.
When you get to this point, seeing a team for a third in a season, it’s all about repetition and the ability to use the scouting report to the best of your ability. We saw it in the first-half when South Bend and Fort Wayne played each other 18 times. When we got to the third series between the two in June, everyone knew everyone. There were no more secrets.
Since both rosters heading into this weekend have stayed primarily the same throughout the season, we will see if that ends up playing to anyone’s advantage.
Players to watch on South Bend…
Luis Rujano, RHP: Perhaps one of the more underrated roster pick ups of the last month has been Luis Rujano. A guy that was with the Cubs for nearly all of 2025 has some absolutely wicked stuff. Last season, Rujano was in the starting rotation for the first three weeks before being moved to the bullpen. After grinding through that transition, in the middle of last summer, Rujano became one of South Bend’s best relievers. This season, he got the opportunity to begin the year at Double-A Knoxville, but struggled for most of the early season. After a reset in the Arizona Complex League, Rujano has looked like the guy we knew late last season over his last couple outings with South Bend. Rujano threw a perfect inning in his only appearance of the Beloit series, then went two perfect frames on July 9 at Cedar Rapids, earning the win. As we know from both 2019 and 2022, late inning relief is so crucial in the postseason. Rujano has the makeup to profile as a guy that can handle the late frames come crunch time. His stuff is nasty, he is throwing as hard as we have ever seen, and that slider looks especially devastating. Keep an eye on what he does for the rest of the second-half.
Eli Jerzembeck, RHP: Kind of in the same realm as Rujano, Eli Jerzembeck had a very nice bounce back outing in Cedar Rapids. Since he came up from Myrtle Beach, ‘Jerz’ has not had a strictly defined role. Which is not a bad thing. He’s been a Swiss army knife. He started his Midwest League debut, he has come out of the bullpen for long relief, he has been a short inning reliever, he has closed games. He has done it all. And that’s fantastic. He had a similar role with the Pelicans, and he continues to do the same with the Cubs. Jerzembeck can light up a radar gun, and with the amount of different pitches he throws, he can be such a weapon in the bullpen with a true starter’s arsenal. The guy throws the kitchen sink at you. And for a short-inning reliever, that is a bit of a rarity, but that’s why his stuff can play anywhere he throws in the game. With his two shutout innings on Sunday, earning the victory in that game, that sure has the potential to get Jerzembeck back on track. He was one of South Bend's best pitchers in the month of June, giving up just two runs in four combined outings.
Matt Halbach, 3B: One of the constant heartbeats in the South Bend Cubs lineup all season has been Matt Halbach. When needed, Halbach has consistently stepped up to give South Bend terrific at-bats, hustle, and an outstanding glove at third base. He is so rock solid at the hot corner. Sometimes, when you have a guy that plays the same position every single day. You start to take them for granted. That is a natural emotion, but you really have to remind yourself that these things are a rarity. A guy playing the same position, truly everyday, doesn’t happen a lot. It’s like Kane Kepley in center field, Justin Stransky behind the plate, even guys of years past like Pete Crow-Armstrong, Luis Verdugo, Andy Weber, it is very hard to have the discipline and simply the talent to go out there everyday and make your job look easy with the glove. Halbach has done that all season at third base for the Cubs. At the plate, Halbach is heating up in July. With a .304 average so far in the month of July and 11 RBI in 11 games this month, Halbach went into the All-Star Break with confidence, batting .348 in his final five games before the horn sounded. Sometimes, the All-Star Break can be tough for a player if they’re really hot and finding it at the plate, but other times, the ASB doesn’t do anything and a guy continues to hit the same after. For Halbach, he is so mentally sound, that it would be no shock for him to come out on Friday and stay on the same pace he has been. Also, a little rest for a guy who plays everyday is also something that can really help.
Schedule…
Friday, July 17 - 7:05 PM ET: LHP Ethan Flanagan vs RHP Yhoiker Fajardo
Saturday, June 18 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Alfredo Romero vs TBA
Sunday, June 19 - 2:05 PM ET: TBA vs RHP Tanner Franklin
Catch the entire three-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.