Alexander Canario – Pic by Todd Johnson

“The Daily” is a little bit late today as today was my birthday. I got a little carried away and lost track of time tonight. So, your post is coming out just a little bit late.

The big news of the day was the promotion of Alexander Canario up to Chicago. I, for one, am pretty ecstatic about the move. I’ve been raving about him since I first saw him back in August 2021. That was the day he debuted in Davenport with South Bend. Since then, I’ve had a front row seat to his development and I am ready for him to get the next challenge. His comeback from two broken bones in his leg and a dislocated shoulder has been nothing short of miraculous.

As for the games…

I was really looking forward to seeing the results of Jackson Ferris’s’ start tonight. But by the time I got to have a look, he was already out of the game after three innings. He did strike out six, but he gave up four runs on five hits as he also walked three. Myrtle Beach would end up losing 6 to 2 and both Pelican runs were driven in by Brian Kalmer who went two-for-four. Kalmer wound up with 29 RBI on the month which led the entire Cubs’ system. I am pretty sure you’re going to see his name quite a bit in the All-Star team discussion in the morning.

South Bend played a very close game with Fort Wayne tonight. They fell behind two in the second inning and then came back and took a 4-2 lead in the fourth. In the bottom of the frame, Fort Wayne scored three runs to take a one run lead, which didn’t last long as South Bend came back to tie it in the fifth. That’s the way the game stayed until Fort Wayne scored three in the bottom of the eighth to win 8 to 5. James Triantos and Felix, Stevens, both had two hits and Luis Verdugo, who is going to make tomorrow’s All-Star team, had two RBI.

All of the runs between Tennessee and Biloxi were scored by the fourth inning tonight. The Smokies struck first with doubles by Nelson Maldonado in the first and then Matt Shaw in the second.. But Biloxi scored two in the third and one in the fourth to take a 3 to 2 lead, which they held onto through the end of the game. Nobody in Tennessee except for Maldonado had multiple hits. Matt Shaw went one-for-five and played third base tonight.

Earlier in the evening, Shaw was placed on MLB Pipeline‘s top 100 prospect list. That gives the Cubs six prospects in the top 100! That’ll do and has not been done by the Cubs since 2015.And then Jim Callis quoted the Pipeline tweet with a little prediction of his own.

With three losses, a system sweep of the wrong order looked to be a possibility. Thankfully, Iowa was able to score 4 runs in the sixth inning to win 10 to 7 over Toledo. Yonathan Perlaza’s two-run single gave the Cubs the lead in the sixth and then Chase Strumpf walked to make it a three run lead. Strumpf did drive-in three runs tonight is he hit his 11th home run at Iowa.

Reliever of the Night

The star of the night on the mound was reliever Tyler Duffy, who struck out four in two innings. He gave way to Michael Rucker, who closed it out in the ninth for the Iowa win.

I will be back in the morning with the monthly All-Star team and on Saturday I’ll take a look at 17th round pick Ethan Flanagan out of UCLA, who I think was one of the steals of the draft for the Cubs!