Riley Martin – Picture by Todd Johnson

Today was not a good day in Mudville. Only the Iowa Cubs were able to bring home a win but it came right down to the wire for Myrtle Beach and Tennessee as both had an opportunity to win.

Since last night, there’s been a little bit of player movement.

The Iowa Cubs released second baseman Robel Garcia today. I thought this might be coming in another 10 days as that is usually the date that most minor league free agents can opt out of their contract. Robel probably has an opportunity to play overseas and make some decent money for the rest of this year. At Tennessee, Jake Slaughter was promoted last night from South Bend. He took the place of Levi Jordan who went up earlier this week to Iowa. South Bend, meanwhile activated catcher Caleb Knight from the development list and Myrtle Beach was pretty busy today calling up pitchers Alfredo Zarraga and Angel Hernandez from extended spring training. In addition, infielder Liam Spence was placed on the disabled list by the Pelicans.

As for today’s award winners…

Triple of the Day

Pete Crow-Armstrong shows just how fast he really is.

Starting Pitcher of the Day 

Porter Hodge had a very unique set of stats today. He gave up one unearned run in four innings of work but struck out five while walking three. However it took him 83 pitches to get through those four innings. Then again, he kept his team in the game and was able to pitch his way out of several situations. Also, love this video of how he transformed himself.

Reliever of the Day

Riley Martin had a rough May for South Bend. For May 1 to May 31, Martin struggled to adjust in six games where he threw 20 innings. His ERA was 7.20 as opponents hit .284 against him. There would be occasional moments when he would be OK, but he was struggling to adapt to the new level until tonight. Against an excellent Dayton team, Martin through 3.1 scoreless innings and struck out seven and only gave up two hits along the way. That lowered his ERA at High-A full point.

Hitter of the Day

When it came time to figure out who the Hitter of the Day was going to be, I had to sit around and wait for an hour because Jake Slaughter and Greg Deichmann had similar stat lines through seven innings. By the time both games were complete, they had almost exact stat lines. They each went 2-for-3 with a homer, three RBI, and a walk. As a result, they are going to share today’s award. Deichmann now has HRs in four straight games and will probably be the player of the week on Monday

I’ll be back tomorrow morning with the weekly and again on Monday with the breakdown of what happened at each affiliate this week.