Alexander Canario – Picture by Micah Manuel/Tennessee Smokies

Tonight was, a bit tense. With pennant races in full effect, South Bend was hosting Beloit who was one game back of them in the standings. Tennessee was facing Birmingham with just a 2 game lead over Rocket City and 6 over Birmingham. The Pelicans, meanwhile, were on the verge of falling below .500 in the second half even though they are already in the playoffs. As for Iowa, they were in Indianapolis with Wade Miley on the bump, who actually pitched well. But at 16.5 games back, they I-Cubs are pretty much out of it.

Good Sign of the Day

It was cool getting see Brennen Davis in the cage taking some cuts. He has a week left of rehab in the ACL before their season ends next Tuesday. If the Cubs don’t think he is ready for Iowa yet, he will have to likely rehab at Myrtle Beach or South Bend. He’s definitely going to go the Arizona Fall League in October, though, to make up for lost time.

Starting Pitcher of the Day

I have been saying for a month that Tyler Santana was ready for High-A. Unfortunately, every other member of the Myrtle Beach starting rotation has been bumped up to South Bend. For Santana, he owned the Down East Wood Ducks for not 1, not 2, not 3, but 6 scoreless innings. He also struck out 6 as he only allowed 2 and gave up 2 walks bookended by a rain delay. Unfortunately, Down East does not have MiLB TV, but I am sure he looked something like this:

Promote him already.

Reliever of the Day

This award goes out to Luke Farrell of Iowa who pitched 2.2 scoreless tonight in relief of Wade Miley and struck out 4 batters.

Dinger of the Day

This guy….

Hitter of the Day

Pete Crow Armstrong was today’s hitter of the day. He went 2-for-4 in South Bend’s loss to Beloit. He drove in a run, and scored a run after the perfect bunt single followed by a stolen and then he went to third on a SF, He came home on a wild pitch after rattling the pitcher. I like Rebecca Snyder’s pics of that instance.

I will be back in the morning with a profile on draft pick Mason McGwire.