WATCH: SB Cubs manager Nick Lovullo on team’s recent winning streak
South Bend Cubs manager Nick Lovullo discusses his team’s hot start to August, putting them within two games of a playoff spot with four weeks left.
SOUTH BEND ― It looked like the 2025 season was trending toward being a forgettable one for the South Bend Cubs when the calendar flipped to August. The High-A minor league affiliate of the Chicago Cubs sat at 38-60 overall and 15-17 in the second half, and it felt like the only thing to look forward to at the games were the cheap beer nights and fireworks on Fridays.
In the immortal words of ESPN personality Lee Corso, though, “not so fast, my friends.”
Ten days later, South Bend finds itself in the heart of the postseason race. They finished their latest homestand with a 4-2 win over the Fort Wayne TinCaps Sunday, Aug. 10, giving the Cubs five victories in the six-game set with their in-state rival.
Combine that with a 3-3 mark against Quad Cities in the six-game series before that, and the Cubs went 8-4 on their longest homestand of the season.
After being five games back of a playoff spot 10 days ago, they are now trailing Beloit by just two games. South Bend visits the Sky Carp for a six-game series starting this Tuesday, Aug. 12.
“Guys are loose, guys are having fun, guys are joking around with each other,” said Cubs manager Nick Lovullo on the energy around his team right now. “They’re having a good time in there, but they’re also able to flip the switch … and go out there and take care of business.”
Ariel Armas, pitching leading the way for South Bend Cubs
Much like the Cubs’ overall play, few could have predicted what Ariel Armas has done the first 10 days of August.
The catcher was batting .188 for the season when the month began. All he’s done since then is hit, going an eye-popping 16-for-23 in the first nine games of August. He has a .719 on-base and .920 slugging percentage, and his 10 RBIs for the month are already the most in a single month for him this season.
His overall batting average has gone up 40 points to .228 in the process.
“He had an incredible week; probably one of the best weeks in all of baseball,” Lovullo said. “… Ari has been working incredibly hard at his swing and his approach all year long. He’s hit balls hard and had good at-bats in spurts from the beginning of the season until August, but now he’s really understanding how opposing pitchers are trying to get him out. He’s going out with a gameplan for each at-bat and each pitch, and he’s executing it.”
Armas has caught one of the best pitching staffs in all of minor league baseball the last five weeks as well, regardless of level. It’s 2.40 staff ERA is the fifth best across all four levels of the minors.
Yenrri Rojas has been stellar in his three starts for the team, allowing one run in 16 innings of work with 16 strikeouts. Evan Aschenbeck has a 0.55 ERA his last three starts, while Connor Schultz is 2-1 with 20 strikeouts across four outings.
“Regardless of who our starter is, we know they’re going to go out, take the baseball and give us a quality start,” Lovullo said.
Biggest series in three years for South Bend Cubs
A huge test now awaits the Cubs with its six-game road trip to Beloit. Both South Bend and Quad Cities sit two games behind the Sky Carp for first place in the second-half standings of the Midwest League’s West division.
Despite the overall record still being subpar (45-62), the Cubs’ 22-19 second half mark has them squarely in the playoff race. The minor league baseball playoff format is setup where the team with the best record in the first half and the best in the second half of each division advances to the postseason.
There are four weeks left in the regular season (24 games). If South Bend finds a way to take four of six from Beloit or better, it will be in first place of the division going into the final stretch of the season.
The last time South Bend was in the postseason hunt was 2022, when it won the Midwest League championship.
“It’s exciting,” Lovullo said. “We were even talking about it this week (against Fort Wayne): this is meaningful baseball. We’ve talked about how there’s nothing better at any level — especially this level — to go up until the end of the season, playing meaningful baseball games, competing for the playoffs and competing for a championship.”
Austin Hough is a sports editor within the Center for Community Journalism at Gannett. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @AustinRHough. Hough can be emailed at ahough@gannett.com.