Owen Caissie – Pic via MLB Pipeline

Heading into tonight, I was excited to see how some of the Cubs top pitching draft picks from the past two years were going to do. Cade Horton was going for South Bend and Drew Gray was on the bump for Myrtle Beach. As well, Walker Powell, who has been pretty good the last few starts, was taking the hill for Tennessee. And, to top things off Riley, Thompson was starting for Iowa.

Let’s start out in Tennessee. 

Hitter of the Day

When Owen Caissie homers in the bottom of the first, that’s usually a good sign. He followed that up with a double in the third, and then Cole Roederer drove in a run in the sixth. All the while, Walker Powell pitched really well through five innings, and then gave up three runs in the sixth to tie the game. From there on end, the Tennessee bullpen showed up as Blake Whitney tossed three scoreless and struck out three. And then in the 10th, Cayne Ueckert shut down the Barons. The Smokies won in the bottom of the inning after an Owen Caissie sac fly moved Levi Jordan to third, Hayden McGeary brought Jordan in on a sacrifice fly as well giving the Smokies a 4 to 3 win. For the day, Caaissie went 3-for-5 and raised his OPS over .900 and he also drove in two runs which gives him 51 on the year.

This was not Cade Horton’s best start of the year. That might’ve been last week. Tonight, he struggled with getting stuff by hitters. He did last five innings, but he allowed seven hits and one walk as he gave up five runs against the Peoria Chiefs. Then, Max Bain came in and pitched two scoreless innings and struck out two in his full season debut. Adam Laskey then threw two more to get it to the bottom of the ninth. The Cubs had crawled back in the game after holding a 2 to 1 lead, and then a 4-2 lead, they took a 6-5 lead only to see Peoria score a run in the top of the eighth to tie it. In the bottom of the ninth, it looked like the Cubs had a chance to get the win and then the rains came. Due to lightning, the game was suspended and will be finished tomorrow.

Pictures of the Day

These are really nice shots from Rebecca Snyder, a South Bend Cubs season ticket holder.

Starting Pitcher of the Day

Riley Thompson had himself one hell of a start out in Iowa. He went six innings, allowed one run, and struck out seven to get today’s plaudits. The Cubs won 3 to 2 in large part due to Thompson’s start, but Luis Vasquez homered and drove in two runs on the day, and Nelson Velazquez doubled in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh to score Vasquez, who is off to a great start at Iowa.

As for the Pelicans…

They tore up Augusta’s bullpen today scoring six runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Cristian Hernandez had one of his best days of the season for Myrtle Beach. He went 2-for-5 with two RBI. Pedro Ramirez has just been outstanding since coming back from Mesa. He went 2-for-5 with two doubles and two RBI. And Parker Chavers continues to show why he should not be a Pelican as he went 1-for-3 with two walks, and two runs. 

Meanwhile, starter Drew Gray had a pretty good outing. He threw 58 pitches and went three innings. 33 of them were for strikes and he struck out four. However, he did walk three. The Pelicans would go on to win 9 to 3. 

Reliever of the Day

Jose Romero went 2.2 innings piggybacking off of gray and struck out six and did not allow a hit. The only base runner he allowed was on a walk.

It was a busy day here at North Side Bound as I had some prospect profiles built up that I wrote on my walks last week during Prospect profile week. I always like doing profiles and updates because you get a little history of the player and it is usually the bread and butter of a prospect website along with breaking news and prospect lists. All of the players chosen this week are from the lower parts of the system and most of them I have not done profiles on either at Cubs Central or North Side Bound. 

Here are the four Prospects from today…

Jefferson Rojas
Leonel Espinoza
Angel Gonzalez
Kenyi Perez

And here are the four Prospects I will be doing tomorrow starting at 5:30 AM. 

Rafael Morel – 5:30 AM
Luis Rujano – Noon
Reivaj Garcia – 3 PM
Ismael Mena – 5 PM