Mahle, Kane County Cougars rout Chicago Dogs

Starting pitcher Greg Mahle twirled a gem and the offense provided plenty of run support, as the Kane County Cougars ran away with a 13-2 victory over the Chicago Dogs on Thursday night at Northwestern Medicine Field in Geneva.

Mahle (8-0), who was recently named the July Pitcher of the Month in the American Association, was perfect through the first six innings of the ballgame. The former Los Angeles Angel retired 19 straight Chicago Dogs (37-35) to start the night, including four strikeouts. The bid for perfection came to an end with a solo homer by Dusty Stroup with one out in the top of the seventh. However, Mahle retired the next two hitters to finish the night allowing just one run on one hit across seven innings to earn his seventh consecutive victory.

While Mahle dominated, the Cougars (41-31) offense did the same. The scoring got started in the bottom of the first against Chicago (37-35) starter Kenny Serwa (4-5). Trendon Craig led off the ballgame with a single and promptly stole second. Two batters later, Cornelius Randolph drove in Craig with a double to right-center to make it 1-0.

In the third, the Cougars broke the game wide open. Kane County put up five runs in the frame on five hits to push the lead to 6-0. In the inning, Randolph drove in a pair of runs with another double. Claudio Finol, Josh Allen, and Jonah Davis also picked up an RBI each in the inning.