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May 23 Game Notes: Iowa Cubs at Nashville Sounds

May 23, 2023 - International League (IL)
Iowa Cubs News Release


IOWA CUBS (25-17) @ NASHVILLE SOUNDS (23-21)

Tuesday - 6:35 PM - First Horizon Park - Nashville, TN

RHP Caleb Kilian (2-0, 4.97) vs. RHP Janson Junk (2-3, 3.86)

TONIGHT'S GAME: Iowa and Nashville will meet for game one of their six-game series tonight, playing each other for the first time since 2019. Set to take the ball for Iowa will be Caleb Kilian looking for his third win of the year. The righty enters tonight's game with a 2-0 record and a 4.97 ERA through his first six starts with Iowa. He has allowed 14 earned runs on 27 hits including seven home runs, while walking nine and striking out 19 in 25.1 innings pitched. Opponents are hitting .273 against Kilian, who has thrown at least 4.0 innings in all but one start this year. Opposite of Kilian will be Janson Junk, pitching in his eighth game and making his seventh start of the year for the Sounds. Through his first seven games, Junk is 2-3 with a 3.86 ERA, allowing 15 earned runs on 34 hits and 13 walks while striking out 26 batters in his 35.0 innings pitched. The 27-year-old has allowed five earned runs in each of his last two starts, on May 10 against Gwinnett and May 16 against Durham.

BACK IN NASH: It has been quite some time since the Iowa Cubs and Nashville Sounds squared off against one another. Nearly four years to be exact. The I-Cubs and Sounds last played all the way back during the 2019 season, with the last contest taking place between the two ball clubs coming on August 25, 2019, in Des Moines. Nashville got the better of Iowa in that game winning by a score of 7-5 with Austin Bibens-Dirkx earning the win for the Sounds and Alec Mills suffering the loss for the I-Cubs. The last time Iowa played in the Music City also came during the 2019 season, with a three-game series from July 19-21. The I-Cubs lost the series to Nashville during that three-game stretch but did come away with the victory in the final game by a score of 8-4. Trevor Clifton picked up the win for Iowa while Joe Barlow recorded the loss for Nashville.

STREAK ENDED: Outfielder Darius Hill has been having a solid month hitting at the plate and was on a nine-game hitting streak coming into the series finale against Indianapolis this past Sunday. Unfortunately for last season's minor league hits leader, the streak came to end with an 0-for-5 performance with two strikeouts in Sunday's 5-1 loss to the Indians. Hill's hitting streak started back on May 9 versus Toledo and during that span the Dallas, TX, native hit at a clip of .310 (13-for-42) with three doubles and six RBI. The nine-game hitting streak for Hill was the third-longest hitting streak by an I-Cub this season. Christopher Morel has the longest hit streak for Iowa in 2023 spanning over 11 games from April 8-22. Jake Slaughter owns the second-longest hitting streak at 10 games from April 23-May 6.

FINDING HIS GROOVE: Nelson Velazquez has been splitting time between Chicago and Iowa this season, as the outfielder has had two separate stints up in the big leagues. Velázquez has spent the last two weeks with the I-Cubs, however, after Chicago optioned him to Iowa on May 8. In his return to Iowa, Velázquez struggled at the plate, going 3-for-19 (.158) with zero RBI and nine strikeouts. The Puerto Rican national was able to get back in the swing of things in the most recent series against Indianapolis, however. Against the Indians, Velázquez hit at a clip of .333 (7-for-21) with four runs scored, two doubles, two RBI, and a home run. With his solid series against Indianapolis, Velázquez is hitting just under the .300-mark on the season at .295 to go along with five home runs and 11 RBI.

LOW SCORING OUTPUT: After getting off to a hot start in April, the Iowa offense has cooled off quite a bit in the month of May. In its most recent series against Indianapolis, the I-Cubs totaled just 15 runs over six games against the Indians, which marked its lowest run total on the season out of every six-game series played. Quite the contrast from the 63 runs scored in the six-game series versus Louisville from April 25-30. Iowa has played a total of five six-game series so far in 2023 and in the four series prior to Indianapolis, Iowa recorded an average of six runs per game. That was not the case this past week as Iowa managed to score an average of just two and a half runs per game against Indianapolis, nearly a 60-percent drop-off.

AGAINST NASHVILLE: The I-Cubs and Sounds are set to play game one of their six-game series tonight, marking the only six games the two teams play all year. After playing for 22 straight seasons (1998-2019), Iowa and Nashville haven't played each other for the past three seasons. Tonight will mark the first contest between the two teams since August 25, 2019. Iowa is 90-87 against Nashville all-time at home, while going 73-103 on the road against the Sounds, good for a 163-190 overall all-time record. They enter tonight 30 games below the .500 mark on the road against Nashville, looking for their first win at First Horizon Park since July 21, 2019.

SHORT HOPS: Iowa out-hit Indianapolis 8-6 in Sunday's finale, but dropped the game 5-1, marking just their third loss this year (15-3) when out-hitting their opponent...the I-Cubs dropped to 0-5 when David Bote starts at third base this year with their loss on Sunday...Iowa has scored just four runs over their last three games and they have the worst batting average in May among all Triple-A teams, at .217.

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