James Triantos – Picture by Todd Johnson

Yesterday, I commented how there was a lack of offense across the system and that trend continued this afternoon. Tennessee only managed three hits while South Bend had just five and the Iowa Cubs scattered eight hits today in a losing cause. But for South Bend, they were the only ones to win in the early afternoon games and it took them 11 innings to do so.

Let’s start with Reliever of the Day

Luke Little and his transformation into a relief pitcher looks to be a complete success after two weeks. He went two more scoreless innings this afternoon and struck out three. For the week, at Tennessee, he threw four score of the settings and he’s only allowed two hits in a relief role. Another couple of weeks with this kind of production, I could see him in Iowa in June. 

Clutch Hit of the Day

As a 20 year old at High-A, that type of player is going to come with a lot of potential and a lot of warts. Such is the case of James Triantos. I got to see him yesterday and he does have a pretty good knowledge of the strike zone but he just needs to clean up his approach a little bit with two strikes. I saw him ground out yesterday on a pitch that would’ve been ball one, but he was just being defensive in that instance. Today, Triantos looked mature in the top of the 11th as he hit a single to drive in the game-winning run for South Bend. On the day, he went 2-for-5 and upped his average for the week to .313 to go along with a .764 OPS. Not bad for your first week in High-A. He will have his hands full against one of the best teams in the league in Beloit all next week. That’s going to be a good test for him.

Welcome Back to the Rotation

It was cool to see Manny Espinoza back in the rotation for South Bend. He had missed the first five weeks of the season and pitched in a piggyback roll on Tuesday. Today, the Cubs are still hesitant and stretching him out, but he went three innings and allowed one hit while striking out three. What I liked about him last year in the first half was that he has pinpoint control and can make his pitches and chain speeds well. That’s what he did today. Hopefully he can stay healthy the rest of this year. I will be.

Hitter of the Day

This goes to Miguel Amaya who was4-for-4 with an RBI and one double. He’s now hitting .400 with a 1.000 OPS since being sent down to Iowa earlier this week. Unfortunately, Iowa lost 6-2 to Toledo.

Starting Pitcher of the Day

See the Tweet, it say it all.

Other performances of note

Pete Crow Armstrong went 2-for-4 today, to raise his average to .287.

Juan Mora has been raking since going back to Myrtle Beach. Today, he went 3-for-4 to raise his average to .500 on the week.

DJ Herz struck out 9 Biscuits today, but 3 walks and high pitch counts limited him to just over 3 innings as he gave up 3 runs.

Cristian Hernandez also went 2-for-4 and Rafael morel went 2-for-5 in the Pelicans’ 3-1 win.