Kevin Alcantara – Picture by Todd Johnson

It’s been a busy couple of days in the minors. Yesterday, we saw Luis Vazquez get awarded the Southern League Player of the Week. He had gotten the Hitter of the Week earlier yesterday in The Breakdown for an amazing 11-for-19 week with three home runs and six RBI. Congrats to Luis!

Today was a busy day at North Side Bound as we kept up with transactions all day long and Greg Zumach put out Mock Draft 2.0 which has a pretty cool name sitting at number 13.

Let’s get to the action on the field as PCA returned after a brief illness and Daniel Palencia was back on the mound after being pulled after two innings last week. 

The Smokies Do Some Smoking of Their Own

Pete Crow–Armstrong did not show any signs of rust at all after missing almost a full week. He got two singles his first two times up to the plate but that was not really the story of the night. The newest Smokie Bradley Beasley hit back-to-back home runs with Pablo Aliendo in the top of the second inning to give the Smokies a 2 to 0 lead. The Smokies added two more runs before a Chase Strumpf home run in the ninth gave them a 5 to 1 margin and they would go on to win 6-1.

As well, Owen Caissie went 2-for-4 with a walk while Aliendo and Beesley wound up going 2-for-4 as well.

Quote of the Day

On the mound, Daniel Palencia looked good going 3.1 scoreless innings. He did not allow a hit, but he did walk three and strikeout three. On the night he threw 63 pitches, 35 of them for strikes. Walker Powell came in and went 3.2 innings striking out five and allowing one run

Yeah, Palencia’s back!

“Daniel Palencia hits 101 on the Birmingham radar gun for the 2nd out, then throws 2 consecutive knee bending CBs for called strikes to start off the 3rd batter.” – My friend John

Theatrics of the Day in South Bend

This was the pitchers duel tonight between Richard Gallardo of South Bend and Alex Cornwell of Peoria. The Peoria Chiefs had a 1-0 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth inning when Kevin Alcântara came up to the plate. 

The end result tied the game and sent it to extras. Alcântara walked it off with a two-run single in the tenth as he went 2-for-5 on the night with three RBI, which accounted for all of South Bend’s runs. For his performance, Alcantara is today’s HITTER OF THE DAY and Dinger of the Day!

Chase Watkins was excellent in two innings IN relief and Adam Laskey held the line to get the game to extras.

As for the Pelicans…

They only got five hits on the night, but Michael Arias pitched well going three innings and striking out four and allowing one run. This game was a lot closer than the 5 to 2 end result as Charleston scored three in the bottom of the seventh to put the game away. The only highlight of the night for Myrtle Beach was this bomb by Andy Garriola.

Wrapping It Up In Iowa

The I-Cubs finally got home from a cold week in Buffalo. And things did not go well at all in Des Moines. Javier Assad and the pitching corps got roughed up for 9 runs on the night. The I-Cubs actually closed the gap to 6-4 at one point before giving up 3 unanswered runs the next inning. That made it 9-4 for the final score.

Down in Arizona – Great News of the Day

DJ Herz has been rehabbing a hamstring and today he threw 3.2 innings and from the sound of it will probably be in action in Tennessee next week! He allowed 1 hit today and struck 4 but walked 3. He threw 62 pitches with 39 of them being strikes. That’s great news!

In addition, Ed Howard played in a game for the first time in almost a year.

I will be back tomorrow night with tomorrow’s recapitulation of the night’s events. See you then!