Three homers power Baby Cakes to 9-5 at Iowa

DES MOINES – Yadiel Rivera hammered a pair of home runs and Lewis Brinson crushed another to lift the New Orleans Baby Cakes to a 9-5 victory over the Iowa Cubs on Friday.

The ‘Cakes have won two of the first three games of the series at Principal Park.

Elieser Hernandez made his first start in nine days and worked five innings, allowing one run on four hits for his second win of the season.

The ‘Cakes got the scoring started in the first inning with a two-run home run from Brinson, his second home run of the series.

New Orleans added a run in the third and scored three more in the fourth inning to knock out Cubs starter Adbert Alzolay. Brinson was hit by a pitch before Deven Marrero reached on an error. Rivera then drilled a three-run home run.

Iowa rallied, sending nine hitters to the plate in the sixth and scoring four runs to draw within a run before Kyle Keller worked out of the inning.

Jeff Brigham worked the final two innings to preserve the win as the ‘Cakes improved to 22-20.

GAME NOTES – Monte’ Harrison added two more stolen bases to his Pacific Coast League-leading total of 16. The multi-home run game for Rivera is the first for New Orleans since Peter O’Brien last August.

UPCOMING – The ‘Cakes and Cubs meet Saturday at 4:38 p.m. in fourth game of the six game set (RADIO: WODT SPORTS 1280 AM or cakesbaseball.com).

NEXT HOME GAME – The ‘Cakes return home Tuesday to play Oklahoma City in a four-game series.