Jake Washer – Picture by Todd Johnson

Today was another fun day. It was nice that the games were a little staggered today as I get to watch South Bend and Tennessee play first followed by a little bit of Myrtle Beach and Iowa before I went to fix supper.

Some cool little tidbits happened today.

Matt Mervis hit his first home run at Iowa and his dad was in attendance to see it.

Kevin Made broke a 0-for-7 Start a South Bend and went three for five on the day including driving in the game winning run with a triple in the bottom of the eighth.

Web Gem of the Day

Today’s defensive play of the day went to James Triantos on the slow roller as he got him by less than half a step.

The system did not get to 42 runs today. Myrtle Beach was shut out by Charleston. South Bend won slugfest 13 to 12 and the Smokies throttled the Lookouts 7-1. Iowa finished up the night beating Omaha 7 to 0.

Hitter of the Day

Alexander Canario had a great day going 4-for-4 with three runs, one dinger, and two RBI. But he’s not going to win today. This is the second straight day that somebody’s had an amazing day and came in second.

Today’s award goes to Jake Washer in South Bend who went 4-for-5, he hit two home runs, he scored four runs, and he drove in four. Now that he’s playing every day, it might be time to have the conversation about sending him up to Tennessee. He’s been consistent all year and it’s time.

Starting Pitcher of the Day

Matt Dermody is having one hell of a month at Iowa. He had another outstanding start today where he went five innings, allowed four hits, but he did not give up a run. Along the way he struck out six Storm Chasers to lower his ERA for the month to 0.92. He looks like he could be the Cubs’ Pitcher of the Month. Unfortunately, he was not the Starting Pitcher of the Day.

Riley Thompson of Tennessee has had an up-and-down season. It has to be tough coming off of two years of not playing baseball to try and amp it back up again. Because of that, the Cubs have limited him to just three innings a start. Today, he had one of his best starts of the year to get Starting Pitcher of the Day. He went three innings, allowed just two hits, and struck out five in that span. He looked really impressive as he did not walk anybody. For the month, he’s only appeared in three games since coming off the development list but opponents are hitting only .167 against him and he’s struck out 10 in 8.2 total innings. Today’s start was his first in 12 days. It’ll be interesting to see if the Cubs let him get to four innings at some point in August and then five in September.

Reliever of the Day 

No one came close to Tennessee reliever Walker Powell today. He came on in the fifth inning and pitched through the eighth allowing just 2 hits and striking out 4. Since coming over from South Bend, the 6-foot-8 pitcher has a 1.59 ERA at Tennessee in four outings. In 17 innings, he’s struck out 12 guys and only walked five with a 1.00 WHIP. He’s also picked up some velocity this year and what he is showing at Tennessee is pinpoint control. He’s mixing his pitches well and has a nice curveball and he can keep hitters off-balance. I am pretty intrigued about how much he has improved this year and how much that improvement is sustainable in the future.

I will be back tomorrow morning with “The Breakdown” looking at the week on the field and a couple news bytes. We will also launch our nondrafted free agent tracker tomorrow around noon. Once they Cubs get all their draf picks signed, they will be entering the nondrafted marketplace.