Tonight was a weird one for me.

The whole fact that South Bend had a rain delay just threw everything off for me. That included feeding the dogs and making supper for me and my wife. But once the games began, I was too busy thinking about what was going to happen in South Bend. 

I was lucky enough to go for a walk and then come back and watch a little bit of Ryan Jensen pitch along with getting to see Myrtle Beach hit. That seemed to be my focus until Kohl Franklin took the mound around 7 o’clock. He pitched well throwing two scoreless frames. He gave up one hit and struck out three and he did not allow a run. However, Kohl was not today’s Starting Pitcher of the Day.

Instead, that honor goes to Richard Gallardo of Myrtle Beach.

The 20-year-old out of Venezuela was very efficient tonight throwing 55 pitches, 41 of them for strikes. It might be one of his best outings of his career just in terms of getting the ball and going right after people. He made it through five innings and gave up two hits and did not allow a run while striking out five.

As for Hitter of the Day, this one was a no-brainer.

Catcher and utility man PJ Higgins ran away with tonight’s award going 4-for-4 with three RBI for Iowa. Higgins is swinging the stick extremely well right now he as he is hitting .294 with a .400 on base percentage and has six RBI in 10 games. It’s almost as if he is knocking on the door again to Chicago. If you remember, he made the club coming out of spring training last year before having to undergo season ending surgery.

When it comes to the Reliever of the Day, this one took a while to sort out as there were a lot of things going on throughout the night. Ultimately, James Borque’s two shutout innings for Iowa got the nod. Bourque also struck out four and did not allow a hit. It was only his fourth appearance on the year, but his longest outing as he’s only thrown 4.1 frames now.

Myrtle Beach continued its winning ways tonight as they are now 8-5 and have not lost yet this week. Iowa snuck out a 4-2 win over Louisville while Tennessee fell to Rocket City 8-3. South Bend lost 6 to 4 at home in a hard fought game.