It was a busy night as they were five games in the organization as Iowa made up a game that was canceled on Tuesday. On the whole, the starting pitching did well across the system and Iowa’s bats were pretty potent, especially compared to the rest of the organization.
There was one transaction that took place this afternoon as the Chicago Cubs called up Javier Assad to start tonight‘s game as Jameson Taillon went on the injured list. To replace Assad on the roster, Iowa activated pitcher Curtis Taylor from the development list.
Let’s get to the action along with a few awards!
Iowa – Game 1
This was a bloodbath in the purest sense! The I-Cubs scored in the top of the first as Mike Tauchmann drove in one of three runs on the night to bring in Miles Mastrobuoni. In the third, Christopher Morel homered, his fifth, and Darius Hill had a single to drive in Mastrobuoni again along with Nelson Velazquez. At that point it was 4-0 and then Matt Mervis hit a ball to kingdom come
But that wasn’t enough as Mike Tauchman added another homer in the fifth with Nelson Velazquez on and then Sergio Alcantara drove in Darius Hill and Brennen Davis to make it 10-0.
This was a game that also Roenis Elias throw 6 scoreless frames only to give up two runs in the bottom of the seventh as he was pretty close to having a seven inning no hitter
Dinger of the Day
Stat of Day
This little factoid was about the absent power from yesterday.
Tennessee
Jordan Wicks only made one mistake tonight and that was on the very first pitch of the game where he gave up a home run. The Smokies later come back and tied it in the fifth and then the game would go to extras. As for Wicks, he went five strong and gave up that one hit and walked a guy while striking out five.
The Smokies offense continued to sputter, except for Miguel Amaya who went 2-for-4 on the night. Thankfully, the Smokies played some small ball in the tenth to bring in the winning run for a 2-1 win. Luis Verdugo had the winning hit and Pablo Aliendo had a key bunt to move the ghost runner to third to set it up for Verdugo. Kudos go out to Ben Hecht and Blake Whitney who both pitched two scoreless innings in relief.
Web Gem of the Day
We should all not be shocked by anything he does in the field.
South Bend
This game started off well as Bradlee Beasley hit a solo shot to begin the game, and then Luke Little pitched in and out of trouble over three innings. He walked two and allowed three hits, but he also struck out four, did not allow a run, and lowered his season ERA to 0.84.
The problem for the Cubs came in relief as Tyler Santana gave up for runs over 2 and 2/3 innings. The Cubs’ offense only managed to scrape out six hits and could not put a string of them together to get more than two runs and the Great Lakes Loons scored 5.
Myrtle Beach
I am starting to like watching this team as they’re kind of fun. One reason I like watching them is that I never know what’s going to happen. Any one of the nine hitters could do something at the plate and who knows what we’re going to see from pitching on a nightly basis. Here is the web gem runner up from Christian Franklin.
The stars of tonight‘s game were Reginald Preciado who went 2-for-4 and Marino Santy, who threw four scoreless innings and struck out five. I’ve been really impressed with Santy and his curveball was back in action tonight. Jack Aldrich came in and struck out three guys in the ninth to earn the save and close out a win for the Pelicans.
The Next Big Thing Award – It’s going to Catch On…
Iowa – Game 2
This game got off to a pretty good start as David Bote doubled in Morel and Mervis to make it 2 to zip. And then Miles Mastrobuoni walked with the bases loaded to make it 3 to 0. The Cubs had some bullpen issues in the 7th and the lead was in danger pretty quickly. Cam Sanders came in with the runners on base before getting the final out. Sweep!
Starting Pitcher of the Day
Riley Thompson settled in and just dominated for five innings as he struck out nine Buffalo Bisons along the way to get the Pitcher of the Day award.
I will be back in the morning with a look at some surprising things happening in South Bend and Myrtle Beach.