Cubs get early jump on Garcia, Baby Cakes

The Iowa Cubs scored 10 runs in the first three innings and held off the New Orleans Baby Cakes, 12-8 on Wednesday afternoon.

Each of the first five batters of the game collected singles against ‘Cakes starter Jarlin Garcia, and all five came around to score. The Cubs tacked on three more runs in the second, highlighted by Ryan Court’s second home run of the series, and two more runs in the third to build a 10-0 advantage.

Five Cubs collected multi-hit games, led by a three-hit effort from Chesny Young, and Court drove in four runs, but Iowa starter Trevor Clifton was unable to capitalize on the run support by failing to escape the third inning.

Garcia tallied the first Baby Cakes hit of the day with a dribbler up the third base line, and Braxton Lee and Tomas Telis followed with singles to load the bases before Clifton forced in two runs with back-to-back walks. The Cubs turned to Daury Torrez, who got a fly ball and a strikeout to prevent further damage.

Torrez (1-2) worked 3 2/3 scoreless innings out of the bullpen to pick up the victory, but not before the ‘Cakes got within shouting distance with a four-run eighth against Alberto Baldonado to close the deficit to 12-7. Peter Mooney had an RBI single, his second hit of the afternoon, and Cito Culver and Lee added run-scoring singles in the rally.

Recent major league call-ups left the Iowa pitching staff short-handed, and catcher Ali Solis was brought in to get the final three outs. He allowed a home run to Isaac Galloway and an infield single to Cristhian Adames, but induced a game-ending double play to close out the Cubs’ sixth win in eight attempts this season against the Baby Cakes.

Garcia (0-1) gave up 11 earned runs, tying the New Orleans franchise record held by three other pitchers, most recently Dylan Axelrod in 2016.

The ‘Cakes and Cubs close out the four-game series on Thursday at 7 p.m.