Yohendrick Pinango – Picture by Todd Johnson

Tonight was looking good for a systemwide sweep until a late rally by Peoria destroyed those hopes in South Bend. However, Myrtle Beach kept their one game lead over Charleston with two games left to play. The Pelicans do not hold the first tiebreaker if they both have the same record after Thursday. The Pelicans magic number is now two. With two wins, or one Pelican win and a Charleston loss, the Pelicans will be in the playoffs come September.

There was a lot of good action tonight and a lot of great performances. Let’s get to the awards.

Web Gem of the Day

Oh, my!!!!

Pictures of the Day

Friend of the website Rich Biesterfeld was in attendance in Kodak after spending last week in Myrtle Beach. Here are some pics that Rich took of the Smokies in action.

Starting Pitcher of the Day

Peyton Remy of Tennessee went five innings and gave up one run while he struck out seven along the way. It wasn’t a no-hitter, but it was one of his better performances of the season as a starter. 

Reliever  of the Day

This is getting to be a bi-weekly thing for Jeremiah Estrada, even at Tennessee. Tonight, he went two innings, did not allow a hit, nor did he walk anybody, and he also struck out two. Double-A does not seem to be holding him back. It was his home debut and his dad was there to record his first home K.

Hitter of the Day

This was a tough choice. While David Bote did have an excellent night in Iowa going 3-for-4 with 4 RBI, he’s technically not a prospect and is just on a rehab assignment. That left three other players in contention.

Kevin Made of Myrtle Beach I went 3-for-5 with two runs batted in. He had a double and is really rounding in the shape.

His teammate, James Triantos, went 2-for-4 with a home run in 3 RBI. It was nice to see him get his second home run of the year as it is such an important time in the Pelicans’ playoff push.

I know this is hard to believe, but neither Made nor Triantos won tonight.

In discussing it with the other guys from North Side Bound, we’re going with Yohendrick Pinango who went 4-for-4 tonight with one RBI. It’s hard not to reward that kind of excellence. That pushed his batting average for the month to .298. When next week does come and South Bend is in Beloit, I don’t know if I’m going to see Pinango. Usually at the end of the month, the Cubs make some moves and we’ll see if he’s there that week or gone to Tennessee the next. He’s pretty close to moving.

Greg Zumach and I will be back tomorrow morning as we did a MLB Draft Q and A together where we offer varying opinions about certain topics that were sent in via Twitter. I’ll be back again Thursday with some thoughts on pitch counts and innings limits for the second half. And on Friday, it’s looking like I’ll put out a few brief profiles on some guys that are moving up towards the top of first round of the draft.