News of the Day – The Mervis Promotion

Matt Mervis will be in Chicago tomorrow and on the Chicago Cubs roster!!!!

Morel Pub of the Day

Yup, NSB’s April Player of the Month got the same nod from the International League. No one here at NSB is surprised in the slightest.

Hopefully, Christopher Morel will join Mervis soon!

Rich Biesterfeld Pics of the Day

Alexander Canario is another step closer!!!!!!!! And that is all we know.

Pitching Matchups

I was pretty excited to see him who all was going to be pitching tonight. It looks like it would be a pretty good evening of pitching performances as Grant. Kip was slated to go for Myrtle Beach. Connor Noland was making his May debut for South Bend. Ben Brown was making his debut at Iowa. Porter Hodge would be trying to write the ship with the Smokies.

Let’s see how they did.

I was really hoping Connor Noland would bounce back from his last start that didn’t go so well. At first, it did not look good. Noland threw 32 pitches in the first inning tonight against Cedar Rapids but somehow only gave up 1 run. Kudos to him! Noland would set down 10 of the next 12 to make it through 3.2 innings with 3 Ks. He left in a tie game.

Grant Kipp of Myrtle did not have a great start and the Pelicans fell behind early 3-0 quick. Kipp is a strange guy because he gets hit around some but is missing bats. That tells me there might be something there as he struck out 6 in four innings in spite of being tagged for 3 earned.

As for Porter Hodge, he is still on the struggle bus at Tennessee. Although, his offense helped him out quite a bit as they scored two in the first and three in the second to give him a little cushion after an inning and a half. At the time, I thought that hopefully he would settle down after that. In the second, he set them down 1-2-3. And did the same in the fourth. And then the Smokies pulled an Iowa and just pummeled Rocket City for 6 runs to take an 11-2 lead. Hodge went 4.2 with 7 and just those initial 2 runs. Baby steps.

Starting Pitcher of the Day

But the pitching performance of the day belonged to Ben Brown who went 5.2 IP where he allowed 3 hits and gave up a run and he struck out 7 Triple-A hitters! That will do every time! Brown is not too far away from getting a callup. I could see late May or in June depending on how he does over the next few starts.

Impersonating the Iowa Cubs Again Award

Yeah, the Smokies just wheeled out their bats and turned this game into a Bugs Bunny cartoon. They won 19-2 and improved to 14-10 and now sit firmly in first place!

Other Scores

Iowa (17-9) won 2-1.

South Bend lost (14-10) 8-1. The offense seems a little lost since McGeary left. Today, though, was about the bullpen struggling but Cedar Rapids scored a lot of runs on bloop singles and swinging bunts. It was tough to watch.

Myrtle Beach (12-11) lost 6-0. Not much going on with the bats today.

Dingers of the Day

Reivaj-O-Meter

.333 – He went 1-for-5 on the day.

My Promotion Pimp of the Day

Yeah, Luis Vazquez is dominating at Double-A. Last year, I was all about moving Jeremiah Estrada up a level all summer. This year, Luis Vazquez will get that treatment.

Tweet of the Day

With today, being one of my favorite holidays. The Smokies got into the spirit of things early today with their wonderful tweet about May the 4th.