• Box Score: Omaha Storm Chasers 7, Iowa Cubs 0
* * *
A rocky start to the season is becoming but a distant memory for the Omaha Storm Chasers.
They won their ninth straight game — the franchise’s longest winning streak since 1993 — in dominating fashion Thursday. Mike Moustakas hit two home runs and Eric Hosmer had four hits to back the solid pitching of Danny Duffy in a 7-0 win over Iowa in front of 4,326 at Werner Park.
After a 2-6 start, Omaha has won 11 of 12 to take a three-game lead in the PCL’s American Northern Conference.
“The first games of any season are always going to be hit or miss for any team,” Duffy said. “You have to get used to falling back into things.
“Obviously, we were going to come out of it. This team is a really good squad, and a lot of us have been together for four years. It’s been fun.”
Duffy, a 22-year-old left-hander, held the Cubs to one hit in six innings to pick up his first Omaha win. He struck out eight — a season high for a Storm Chasers pitcher — and did not walk a batter as he faced 19 hitters, one over the minimum.
And he did it by having to rely on his fastball more than he would have liked.
“He didn’t command his off-speed very well tonight,’’ Omaha manager Mike Jirschele said. “He threw enough for strikes, and when you’re throwing 94 to 96 (mph), it helps.
“He mixed his pitches well and for the most part kept the ball down in the zone.’’
The only hit off Duffy was a fourth-inning single by Brad Snyder that barely eluded diving Omaha second baseman Johnny Giavotella. Three Omaha relievers followed Duffy and gave up only two other singles as the Cubs never got a man past first base.
In three home starts, Duffy has pitched 15 scoreless innings, surrendering seven hits while striking out 20. He could have another couple wins but left his previous two starts at Werner Park with leads in the fifth inning when he reached his pitch limits.
“It’s nice to get the win,’’ he said, “but I’m not worried about it as long as we get the ‘W’.’’
Moustakas made that happen when he launched his third homer of the season, a three-run shot over the berm in right field, in the third inning. Omaha added a run in the fourth on Lorenzo Cain’s RBI bunt single, then saw Hosmer and Moustakas open the fifth with back-to-back homers to make it 6-0.
Hosmer doubled in Omaha’s final run with an RBI double off the right center-field wall in the eighth. It completed a four-hit game for Hosmer, who upped his average to .408.
Moustakas’ two-homer night raised his average to .237. He came into the game hitting .225 but Jirschele isn’t worried about the 22-year-old third baseman, who hit 36 homers and drove in 124 runs in 2010 at Northwest Arkansas and Omaha.
“He’s been swinging the bat better and better, and he’s going to get to where he was last year,’’ Jirschele said. “He had a good year in Double-A last year, and he came up here and started slow but got it going.
“You know he can hit at this level.’’
• Notes: The series continues Friday night at 7:05 p.m. with Mike Montgomery (1-1, 3.00 ERA) pitching for Omaha against Ramon Ortiz (0-1, 4.02). ... A left-handed hitter, Hosmer had two hits off Iowa left-handed starter J.R. Mathes. Hosmer is now hitting .481 (13 of 27) against left-handers. ... Omaha has had eight different pitchers pick up wins in the last eight games.
Contact the writer:
402-679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com
twitter.com/PivOWH
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
