Jeremiah Estrada – Picture by Todd Johnson

Tonight was all about baseball. 6 games were played which included 46 innings of play. You would think there would be a lot of stats to peruse through. Not so much. Almost every single game was a pitcher’s duel. Only Tennessee put more than 2 runs on the board. 

Myrtle Beach was swept in their doubleheader by scores of 2-1 and 3-2. Iowa was swept as well as they lost 1-0 in the opener and 3-2 in the nightcap. South Bend won 2-0 as you will read why in a second. Tennessee, they put up some runs in a slugfest highlighted by our hitter of the day as they won 10-9 over the Shuckers.

Starting Pitcher of the Day

Joe Nahas went six scoreless tonight for South Bend as he actually got a well deserved start tonight on the Marquee Network. Nahas was a stud as maneuvered around the powerful first place Kernels lineup. He only struck out two but only needed 79 pitches to get through his outing.

Relief Pitcher of the Day

Jeremiah Estrada did the rare three inning save scoreless save tonight, his first of the year. He struck out six in those frames including 3 in a row at one point. He was just flat out dominant. He lowered his season ERA to 1.17 after two months in High-A. Yeah, he’s ready for Tennessee. He has been for quite a while.

Hitter of the Day

Jake Slaughter has always had good bat-to-ball skills. The issue in his development has always been him chasing pitches and trying to do too much at the plate. He’s not doing that anymore. He had a nice run at the end of April which got him promoted to Tennessee. Since arriving, he’s gone on a tear. In just 5 games, he has 3 dingers (two tonight), 10 RBI, and he’s hitting .353. It’s a very small sample size. Then again, it’s a very good start! Tonight, he went 3-for-4 with 4 RBI and walk to lead the Smokies to a win!