Appleton, WI - For the eighth time this season, the South Bend Cubs have been shutout in a game. Thursday night at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton, it was the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers cruising to a 9-0 whitewash of the Cubs. With the loss, the Cubs have dropped two of the first three games in the series. The Cubs still hold the Midwest League’s best record at 70-49.
Wisconsin was in control of the game right away, with left-handed starter Wande Torres striking out the side in the top of the 1st. Cubs starter Nazier Mulé matched Torres with a shutout bottom of the 1st. In the 2nd, however, Wisconsin picked up the eventual game winning hit and RBI courtesy of a double by Yannic Walther.
Torres continued his dominance early, working three perfect innings to begin the game. The Cubs picked up their first hit courtesy of a Justin Stransky single in the 4th.
Keeping South Bend in the game out of the bullpen was right-hander Ethan Bell, who worked two innings of one-run baseball through the middle frames.
Also out of the bullpen, Yoendris Gonzalez, who has typically been the Cubs closer, fired a perfect 6th inning, but also surrendered a two-run home run to Eric Bitonti in the bottom of the 7th. It marked the first runs that Gonzalez has allowed in the month of August.
Torres pitched 6.2 innings of shutout baseball, and Wisconsin lefty Bjorn Johnson completed the whitewash with 2.1 innings of scoreless baseball.
South Bend will look to even the series, as they also did on Wednesday, when the two teams get together again at 7:40 PM EST on Friday night. Right-hander Alfredo Romero is the scheduled starter for the Cubs.
Looking at other action across the Midwest League, as South Bend awaits its first-round playoff opponent, the two likely candidates, Quad Cities and Beloit, are playing each other this week in Davenport, Iowa. Beloit, who dropped the first two games of the series to Quad Cities, got the win tonight by a final of 11-5. In the division, QC leads Beloit by one-game with nine regular season games to play before the postseason.
South Bend will return home on Tuesday to begin the final regular season homestand of the campaign, with a six-game series against Cedar Rapids beginning Tuesday at 7:05 PM EST.