SOUTH BEND – The South Bend Cubs and Bowling Green Hot Rods traded runs throughout the first eight innings before the Hot Rods took the lead in the ninth to win the game 5-4. The Cubs have now dropped four games to Bowling Green this season despite the fact that the Hot Rods have a losing record.

The Cubs are now also four games back from the lead in the Eastern Division of the Midwest League behind the West Michigan Whitecaps.

WHAT HAPPENED: Bowling Green’s offense kept rolling from the night before as they took the first lead of the ballgame in the second inning.

After Jesus Sanchez walked with one out, Rene Pinto singled and Adrian Rondon doubled to allow Sanchez to advance from first to giving the Hot Rods a 1-0 lead.

Facing an early deficit for the second night in a row, the Cubs stormed right back to tie the game in the bottom of the second on Michael Cruz’ RBI-single to score Kevonte Mitchell from second.

South Bend continued by loading the bases with one out in the bottom of the fourth inning. Once again, Cruz delivered as he hit a fielders choice to first baseman Nick Lowe who threw to second to start the double play, but a bad throw to Ethan Clark covering first allowed two runs to score for the Cubs.

Cruz, however, allowed Bowling Green to get back into their rhythm in very next frame as his throw on a soft bunt sailed way over the head of Alberto Mineo at first. Luis Ayala then fielded the stagnate ball in the Cubs bullpen and threw home to keep Josh Lowe from getting an inside-the-park home run.

In the sixth inning, Sanchez homered in a 1-1 count to tie the game 3-3. Then, after Pinto singled, Cubs starter Bryan Hudson was pulled from the game in favor of Matt Swarmer.

The game remained tied until the top of the ninth inning when Bowling Green took the lead after a ball that looked foul down the third base line was ruled fair by the home plate umpire.

With one out in the frame, Michael Brosseau hit a questionably fair soft groundball down the third base line to reach first base. Followed by a walk, the Hot Rods then hit two singles to take a 5-3 lead.

Though South Bend would go on to make a small push towards tying the game again behind Kevonte Mitchell’s ninth inning solo-shot, the Cubs could not overcome the Hot Rods late comeback.

CUBS’ INCONSISTENCY ON THE MOUND: On the night, Hudson threw five innings while giving up two earned runs on nine hits and two walks. Many of Hudson’s struggles, however, come when facing left-handed hitters. This season lefties are currently hitting .353 against the Illinois-native while he has held righties a .200 batting average.

Swarmer pitched well throughout two innings to keep the game tied before turning the mound duties over to Wyatt Short in the ninth. In those two innings, Swarmer held the Hot Rods to two hits while picking up two strikeouts. Nevertheless, while he has a 2.33 ERA in five home games, he has a 6.32 ERA in five games on the road.

Short, though he leads the team in saves, has also dealt with inconsistency at times this season. While he has yet to allow a run with no outs, his ERA jumps to 4.05 after he has recorded two outs. His ERA also fluctuates with the count; when he is ahead he has an ERA of 2.35, but when behind in the count his ERA is 5.79.