Redbirds score five in first, top Cubs 8-4 to stay first
Five runs before Iowa could breathe put Memphis in command, and the Redbirds never gave it back in an 8-4 win that kept them first.
Memphis turned Friday night into a one-inning statement. The Redbirds scored five times in the first at Principal Park, with Blaze Jordan starting the burst with an RBI single and Brody Moore following with a two-run double that quickly pushed Iowa into a hole Memphis never climbed out of in an 8-4 win.
That opening frame set the tone for a night in which the Redbirds stacked 14 hits and kept pressure on the Iowa Cubs from the start. Jordan finished with three hits, raising his team-leading total to 52, while Colton Ledbetter added a three-hit performance of his own with a double, an RBI and a run scored. The early traffic mattered because Memphis did not need a perfect night from the mound to control the game once the offense had taken charge.
Quinn Mathews was tagged for four runs on four hits and issued four walks while striking out four over 4.2 innings, but Memphis’ bullpen erased any chance of a Cubs comeback. Luis Gastelum, Chris Roycroft, Ryan Murphy and Scott Blewett combined for the final 4.1 innings without allowing a run, and Murphy collected his first Triple-A victory by throwing two perfect innings with four strikeouts. That shutdown work kept Iowa from turning the game into the kind of late slugfest that can wreck a road lead.
The win moved Memphis to 30-19 and kept the club 1.0 game ahead of the Nashville Sounds in the International League standings. It also preserved a remarkable run of consistency, with the Redbirds spending every day of the 2026 season at least tied for first. The series is the opener of a six-game set in Des Moines and part of a 12-game road trip, a matchup with added weight as the Triple-A version of Cubs-Cardinals. Memphis and Iowa are meeting for the first time in 2026 in a series scheduled for May 19-24.
Jordan, 23, from Southaven, Mississippi, has become one of the focal points of the offense, and his night fit the profile of a lineup built to strike early and often. Entering the game, he was batting .308 with 49 hits, eight home runs and 23 RBI in 159 at-bats. Memphis now heads toward its next home series against Louisville, which begins June 2 at AutoZone Park, carrying the same formula that has kept it near the top all season: jump first, add on, and let the bullpen finish.
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