Kevin Made – Picture by Todd Johnson

The harbinger of things to come happened just as the games got started as Chattanooga won their makeup game to take a 1 game lead on the Smokies. That put the Smokies behind the 8 ball, so to speak. It was either win and stay a half a game behind or lose and fall 1.5 games behind. And that was before Chattanooga played a second game.

The night did not go well for the Smokies as well as the rest of the affiliates, save for Iowa.

Let’s get to the games.

Myrtle Beach got skunked. Nick Hull and Jose Romero had rough nights on the mound as the Birds fell behind 6-0. Myrtle Beach only managed five hits in their 9-0 loss.

As for South Bend, they did not fare much better. Kevin Made had two of the hits but the Cubs could not overcome an early 5-1 deficit as they lost 6-4.

The Iowa Cubs started the late game but played a tight game with Memphis. Jared Young hit a dinger, his 12th, which puts him 1 behind Felix Stevens for the system lead. A key highlight was when Yonathan Perlaza extended his on base streak to 31 games with a double.

Memphis took a 5-2 lead in the 7th as the bullpen melted down. Jared Young tripled and came in to score on a grounder to make it 5-3 heading into the ninth. Young went 3-for-4 on the night. In the ninth, the I-Cubs put the first two guys on base with a walk and a HBP to bring up the winning run with no out. Darius Hill had the first crack at being a hero. For some strange reason, Hill bunted and it turned into a force out at third. That brought up Bryce Windham with 1 out. Bryce quickly fell behind 0-2 in the count. He worked his way back to 2-2 before he singled to make it 5-4. Then, our hero, Yonathan Perlaza went yard (see below) to make it 7-5 to walk it off for Iowa and their win was the only Cubs win on the night.

Hitter of the Day/Dinger of the Day

Good Sign of the Day

Cam Sanders came on in the ninth for Iowa….3 up, 3 Ks. Just one pitch off of an immaculate inning.

As for the Smokies…

They spotted Pensacola 3 runs in the first and Tennessee got back in it for a while as they scored two in the bottom half of the inning.

Luis Vazquez continues to show he is ready to move up. He went 3-for-4 with 2 RBI as the SMokies lost 7-4. The pitching did not hold up as Pensacola just keep chipping away at the Smokies’ pitchers.

While that game was going on, Chattanooga fell behind 2-0 in game 2 of their doubleheader but came back to take a 3-2 lead. Biloxi tied it at 3 later to make things a little more interesting. That game would go to extras to extend the Smokies’ agony. The Lookouts scored first in extras (even though it was the 8th) to take a 4-3 lead. They would shut down the Shuckers in the bottom of the inning to take a 2 game lead on the Smokies.

So, here is how it works….The Smokies need to win the rest of the weekend as their first half apparently ends Sunday. Any loss by the Smokies in their doubleheader tomorrow or Sunday eliminates them. They also need to Biloxi to win both tomorrow and Sunday as well.

Oof!