The second two-week long road trip of the 2026 is coming up for the South Bend Cubs starting on Tuesday, and with the Cubs tied for the most road wins in the Midwest League this season, they will look for more success on the team’s journey through the second-half. The already playoff-bound Cubs will look for some retribution against the Beloit Sky Carp this week, followed by the second series of the trip coming in Cedar Rapids for the first matchup against the Kernels this season.
South Bend will make its first venture to ABC Supply Stadium this season, but the Cubs and Sky Carp have already gotten together once this year. The last time they played on Sunday, April 19 at Four Winds Field, the Sky Carp no-hit the Cubs with Aiden May and Justin Storm teaming up for the no-no. It was the first time the Cubs had been no-hit since September of 2022, with May starring that day in six innings, and Storm wrapping up the final three.
Even with that, the Cubs still won the series, taking four of six away from Beloit. But the sour taste left in the Cubs mouths that day, is probably similar to what we felt on Sunday in Downtown South Bend, with Quad Cities scoring seven runs in the 9th inning, coming back to beat South Bend 7-2. Like the Beloit series, South Bend still was victorious in the series, taking four games away.
The Cubs have lost just two series all of this season, to the same team. Fort Wayne is the only Midwest League club that can say they have taken a series against South Bend, and the Cubs are hoping to keep it that way. Last year, when the Cubs went to Beloit in August, they left that series against the Sky Carp in first place in the West Division in the second-half. Already with their playoff run scheduled, South Bend is hoping to control its own destiny in this second-half, knowing that if they win both halves, the second place team by default would get into the postseason, which would hand major momentum to the good guys.
Beloit is a massively aggressive base-stealing team, with the Sky Carp having swiped 180 bases on the season. Compared to Quad Cities last week, who leads the league in total times caught-stealing, Beloit has only been caught 28 times. Manager Angel Espada instills a high-risk, high-reward base running operation, and the Cubs will have to be ready. It’s a great tale of the tape, between Beloit’s base running prowess, and Cubs catcher Justin Stransky leading the Midwest League in total base runners caught-stealing.
Much of the Sky Carp roster is similar to when the Cubs saw them in August. At the top of the lineup, Starlyn Caba is a pest to play against, in the most redeeming way possible. Caba is a terrific on-base man, just like Cubs center fielder Kane Kepley. Caba homered off of Brooks Caple on the day Beloit no-hit the Cubs, and he can do it all.
Last year, we saw Miami Marlins second-round pick Brandon Compton make his first impression on the Midwest League against the Cubs late in the season, and the former Arizona State Sun Devil is having a spectacular month of June. Compton is hitting .300 on the dot in June with nine homers and 21 RBI. Nine of his 12 home runs on the season have been clubbed in this month, and he is mashing the baseball.
One guy the Cubs did not see in April is former first-round pick Dylan Head. The Illinois native played at Homewood-Flossmoor High School in the south Chicago suburbs, which was the same high school that the Cubs drafted former South Bend Cub Tyler Schlaffer out of. Head was not in the lineup at all for Beloit the week that the Sky Carp were in town, but he is also heating up with a .298 June batting average after struggling to begin the season. Head is just 21-years old, and was a first-rounder of the San Diego Padres in 2023 before the Padres traded him to the Marlins in the Luis Arraez deal.
From a pitching standpoint, the guy that helped no-hit South Bend, May, missed a good chunk of time due to injury in the month of May. The Sky Carp activated him on June 7, and he has made every start since. Somehow, Justin Storm remains in Beloit, although he has appeared in a game against South Bend in every season since 2024. He’s got a 2.45 ERA on the season. However, Beloit pitching has struggled for the most part this season, posting a 5.72 team ERA.
We’ve talked all about this before on South Bend Cubs radio, when you win something, anything, you are automatically going to have a target on your back of teams wanting to play their best baseball against you. The Cubs are the benchmark for the rest of the West Division in the hopes that another team can have a half like the Cubs. So with that, comes pressure. Pressure can certainly be a privilege. But with this road trip featuring two teams who are trying to set a date to play the Cubs in the playoffs come September, South Bend must keep its foot on the gas and continue to play like we know they can.
Players to watch on South Bend…
Jostin Florentino, RHP: You will see him starting twice this week, and this really feels like the week that Jostin Florentino can officially cement himself back onto the scene for the South Bend Cubs. The 2025 Chicago Cubs Minor League Pitcher of the Year arrived to South Bend late, after dealing with injuries over the off-season. Like many guys who are injured to start the year, it takes a bit to really get rolling on the mound. After Florentino battled through his first number of outings, the last two especially have been really, really sharp. In Fort Wayne, Florentino struck out at the time a season-high of six. He was sharp in game two of a doubleheader, and allowed just a run in four innings. That set the table for his most recent outing this past week against QC, tossing four scoreless frames with seven strikeouts. What is impressive about Florentino is his ability to get consistent swing and miss action on his four-seam fastball, even though it’s thrown at about 92. Florentino’s sweeper and changeup combo is so vicious, that he can sneak a heater past you, and while you’re still thinking about that in the box, you chase the sweeper and you going down swinging. It’s a huge opportunity with Florentino starting twice this week, and my week’s end, you could be seeing a reflection of the guy who won the organization’s highest pitching honor last year.
Angel Cepeda, INF: The return of Angel Cepeda has bolstered the South Bend Cubs lineup with a guy that compliments the rest of the lineup. With lefties Kane Kepley, Jose Escobar, and Josiah Hartshorn (switch-hitter but has had very few right handed ABs), Cepeda feels like the perfect changeup to go against a righty on the mound. And that’s what we saw this weekend. Cepeda came up with clutch RBI base-hits on consecutive nights, but none were bigger than his two-run single to tie and take the lead on Friday night as part of the Cubs comeback over QC. Cepeda was South Bend’s opening day shortstop, but after an injury derailed his early season, he is now back. At just 20-years-old, Cepeda was a huge part of Myrtle Beach’s playoff run a year ago, and he is going to be relied on the rest of the year with the middle infield with him, Ty Southisene, and Alex Madera. It’s a very young shortstop room for the Cubs right now, with Ty about to celebrate his 21st birthday. Cepeda will not be 21 until October. Now with consistent at-bats after coming back from injury, look for Cepeda to really take off on the back-end of this road trip. After Beloit, that will be two weeks of playing everyday, which is where he was around when he got hurt.
Jose Escobar, INF/OF: Jose Escobar is on another planet right now. Coming into Sunday’s game against Quad Cities, Escobar was 9/16 in his previous five games. That’s a .563 average, with a 1.704 OPS. He had two homers and nine RBI in his previous five games as well. And it’s a part of the South Bend Cubs lineup that we have talked all about in what could really make a difference in September. The bottom of the lineup played a huge part of the Cubs winning Midwest League titles in 2019 and 2022. Back in 2022, it was the likes of Pablo Aliendo and the aforementioned Luis Verdugo at the bottom of the order that made South Bend’s lineup so dangerous. In 2019, Marcus Mastrobuoni and Levi Jordan made it really difficult for opposing pitchers in the playoffs to carve around the South Bend order. Escobar feels like the same type of deal as a guy that will hit towards the bottom, but has the effectiveness of a guy that can be at the top. Especially with how he is swinging it right now, remember his home run on Saturday night was a second-deck 1st Source Bank Performance Center shot. Only the elitist of elite can get one up there. Escobar has some pop that many are not talking about enough. And it’s not even towards the point of being sneaky pop anymore. It’s live on the scene and pitchers continue to challenge him with fastballs. It’s not working. At some point, Escobar will have to make an adjustment when he is not getting the same stuff he is now, but considering he hit .300 to start the year with Myrtle Beach, he’s ready for the challenge.
Schedule and Probables…
Tuesday, June 30 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Jostin Florentino vs. RHP Aiden May
Wednesday, July 1 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Mason McGwire vs. RHP Carson Laws
Thursday, July 2 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Nazier Mulé vs. LHP Joey Volini
Friday, July 3 - 7:35 PM ET: RHP Jaxon Wiggins vs. LHP Nate Payne
Saturday, July 4 - 2:05 PM ET: RHP Kevin Valdez vs. RHP Liomar Martinez
Sunday, July 5 - 2:05 PM ET: RHP Jostin Florentino vs. LHP Brayan Mendoza
Catch the entire six-game series in Beloit on 96.1 FM and 960 AM Sports Radio WSBT, online at wsbtradio.com, or on MiLB.com with Brendan King on the call.