Kane County Cougars infielder Marcus Chiu and Sioux City Explorers Angel Macuare won the American Association’s Rawlings July batter and pitcher of the month, the league announced Friday.
Chiu led the league in hitting in July, posting a .376 batting average with 35 hits including six doubles, a triple and a league-high 10 home runs. He also walked seven times, stole two bases and scored 24 runs.
He may have secured the award on the final day of the month, blasting two home runs with 5 RBI in Kane County’s big 9-4 win on the road at Chicago on Thursday night. It was his second multi-homer game of the month including a three-homer night against the Explorers back on July 3rd.
Chiu has bounced around the association now in his third season in the league. He played a full season with Lake Country in 2023 before playing with both Lake Country and Fargo-Moorhead in 2024. He started this season back in Fargo before returning to the East with Kane County.
On the pitching side, Macuare is putting his name into the ring of Explorers starters having a breakout season.
The right-hander joined the Explorers stacked staff at the beginning of the month and all he did was post the best ERA in the league in July with a 1.13 mark across five starts.
He allowed just three earned runs across 24 innings of work, striking out 29 while walking just three.
His best start of the month came on July 16th when he went seven shutout frames on the road in Lincoln with five strikeouts.
This is his first season in the American Association after spending six seasons in the Houston Astros organization and two in the Minnesota Twins.
Rawlings is the official baseball of the American Association.
