Momentum, said a veteran baseball man long ago – or maybe it was Mark Twain during the game’s infancy – is only as good as tomorrow’s starting pitcher.

And so it went for the Sky Sox, who turned almost certain defeat into dramatic victory Tuesday but saw pitcher Jason Hirsh suffer his worst outing of the season in Wednesday’s 18-4 defeat.

Iowa banged out 25 hits – that’s 45 for the Cubs in two games of the series – led by catcher Chris Robinson, Nate Spears and Andres Blanco with four each. Sam Fuld and Matt Camp stroked three hits each, as did Doug Deeds, who had a homer and two walks.

“It’s always hard to play a day game after a night game, especially one as emotional as last night,” said Iowa slugger Jake Fox, who leads the Pacific Coast League in homers and RBIs and raised his average to .406.

“Everybody’s tired and groggy, so if you get some hits and runs early there’s always a chance the other team shuts it down. A lot of times you see a blowout on days like this.”

A crowd of 7,368 filled Security Service Stadium, most of the fans being middle school students as the Sky Sox hosted their third Math Day of the season.

They saw Hirsh surrender 11 hits and eight runs in less than five innings but the majority of those fans were gone by the seventh inning when Kenny Perez – an infielder by trade – became the fourth Sky Sox pitcher. Perez, who also pitched once for the Sox last season, blanked the Cubs in the eighth but surrendered six hits and five runs in the ninth with his fastball in the low-to-mid 70s.

“I yelled at Kenny in the training room for humping one up there at 81 (mph),” Sky Sox manager Tom Runnells said.Runnells always fears an injury when a position player takes the mound in an emergency situation.

“I’ve been down that road with Tim Olson a few years ago,” Runnells said. “I’m very appreciative of guys that go out there and help us when our bullpen needs it. But we don’t want to hurt their career.”

The Sky Sox (19-13), who have lost four of their past five, entered the day’s action a half-game behind division leader Salt Lake.

“The season is a mental grind,” Runnells said, “and it becomes tougher in games like last night and today.”

The Cubs (18-14) scored in every inning until the eighth while Iowa left-hander J.R. Mathes (5-3) allowed only consecutive RBI doubles in the third to Matt Miller and Carlos Gonzalez before departing with a 13-2 lead in the seventh.

Robinson (.395), 24, shares time behind the plate with 33-year-old Mark Johnson, who had three hits in Tuesday’s wild 16-15 game won by the Sky Sox with two runs in the 10th inning.

Robinson, a third-round pick out of Illinois in 2005 by the Detroit Tigers, was traded to the Cubs for former Sky Sox infielder Neifi Perez during the 2006 season.

Ale Reed pumps after the Colorado Springs Sky Sox got a hit against the Iowa Cubs on Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at Security Service Field. Photo by Bryan Oller, The Gazette

Bryan Oller