The best way to describe today’s schedule would be weird. Three of the four Cubs affiliates played late this morning and early this afternoon. By 3 o’clock central time, Iowa, South Bend, and Myrtle Beach head all won games. That left Tennessee is the only game to watch tonight. I abided.

As I settled into watch, I wondered aloud several times if anybody could top the performances of earlier in the day. With Myrtle Beach putting up 13 runs, the odds were that they would have the hitter of the day. After Porter Hodge gave up two in the first to Columbia, the Pelican’s bullpen shut down the Fireflies for the rest of the day while Columbus only was able to score one run against Iowa and South Bend only gave up two runs in their win. So, picking the pitchers of the day was going to be a rough decision.

Let’s start with the Hitter of the Day.

Robel Garcia of Iowa hit his system leading 10th home run of the year today as Iowa won 8-1. Garcia went 3-for-5 with three RBI and now has an OPS of 1.167 on the year. Pete Crow-Armstrong gets an honorable mention how long with teammate Juan Mora as they both went 3-for-6 on the day.

When it came to the Starting Pitcher of the Day award, Daniel Palencia was nails in an abbreviated start. The Cubs skipped Palencia’s last scheduled start the last time through the rotation. So he was on a strict pitch count today as he only threw 43 pitches, but 28 were for strikes. He struck out four and did not allow a hit nor a run as well as not even walking a batter. It was clearly his best outing as a Cub in South Bend. For the month, he has thrown seven innings and has not allowed an earned run yet in May.

Today’s Reliever of the Day, goes out to Luis Rodriguez of the Pelicans who went 3.1 innings and struck out four while only allowing one hit and not giving up a run. That outing lowered his season ERA to 1.37. I would not be surprised to see him in South Bend at some point next month.

Dinger of the Day

Let’s roll with this jack by the behemoth of a prospect, Felix Stevens, his second of the year and first since coming off the IL.