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White Sox Minor League Update: May 11, 2021

A 3-1 day in the minors, with homers aplenty — including round-trippers from Jake Burger and Micker Adolfo

By Darren Black
MLB: Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago White Sox
Jake Burger has now homered in back-to-back games, and is making web-gems at third.
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Today was the Jake Burger show early on, and we all enjoyed it.

Burger now has two hits on the year, both homers. But that is not all he showed off. He also flashed some leather at third, and he looked pretty comfortable doing it. Burger was not the only former Top 10 prospect showing us to not forget about them, though.

Blake Rutherford had a multi-hit day that included two doubles. He has four extra-base hits already this season, and that gap power is exactly what the White Sox are looking for. Gavin Sheets and Seby Zavala each added two hits as well, to keep their early season hot start going.

On the pitching end, Jonathan Stiever had a good first two innings but came into some trouble in the third and fourth. He finished with two runs allowed and did not have his strikeout stuff (just one). He did what he needed to do, though, as he left with the Knights in the lead.

Besides one homer allowed by the bullpen, they were lights-out. Relievers only allowed two runs in five innings to preserve the win. While they were doing that, Marco Hernández was the guy that put Charlotte back in the lead with a go-ahead two-run homer.

It was one of those rare games where all the prospects did well and the Knights won, which makes for a perfect day for Charlotte and all of us fans.

Poll

Who was the Knights MVP?

This poll is closed

  • 86%
    Blake Rutherford: 3-for-5, 1 R, 2 RBI, 0 BB, 0 K
    (98 votes)
  • 11%
    Marco Hernandez: 2-for-4, 1 HR, 1 R, 2 RBI, 0 BB, 1 K
    (13 votes)
  • 1%
    Nik Turley: 1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 2 K
    (2 votes)
113 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Who was the Knights Cold Cat?

This poll is closed

  • 93%
    Tim Beckham: 0-for-4, 0 BB, 2 K
    (89 votes)
  • 6%
    Ryan Burr: 1 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K
    (6 votes)
95 votes total Vote Now

The Birmingham Barons are good. They are now 6-1 this season, after a 6-1 win. They led throughout, thanks to a stellar start from Blake Battenfield. He went five innings, only allowed one run, and struck out nine batters. Once Battenfield came out, the bullpen actually improved on his work. In the final four innings, Zach Muckenhirn, JB Olson, and Bennett Sousa only allowed one hit and struck out seven. Sousa actually went two innings, and had three of those strikeouts.

Meanwhile, the offense just as good, thanks in part to Micker Adolfo’s second homer of the season.

That was, unfortunately, his only hit of the day, but Adolfo is showing some pop early on this year. That was the only homer for Birmingham, but they still showed gap power with five doubles, two of which came from Craig Dedelow. The best offensive performance of the night probably belongs to Ti’Quan Forbes. He is now hitting better than .400 after his three-hit performance. He drove in the first run of the game and the Barons did not look back after that.

Poll

Who was the Barons MVP?

This poll is closed

  • 1%
    Micker Adolfo: 1-for-5, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 0 BB, 1 K
    (1 vote)
  • 41%
    Ti’Quan Forbes: 3-for-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, 0 BB, 0 K
    (41 votes)
  • 56%
    Blake Battenfield: 5IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 9 K
    (56 votes)
  • 1%
    Bennett Sousa: 2 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 2 BB, 3 K
    (1 vote)
99 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Who was the Barons Cold Cat?

This poll is closed

  • 93%
    Ian Dawkins: 0-for-4, 0 BB, 1 K
    (69 votes)
  • 6%
    Zach Remillard: 0-for-3, 1 R, 1 BB, 0 K
    (5 votes)
74 votes total Vote Now

A big win for the Dash, as they recovered after losing an early lead. Taylor Varnell got the start in this one and was lights-out for the second straight time. He went three scoreless innings (still has not allowed a run this season), with six strikeouts. He has had about as good a start in the farm system as anybody. Unfortunately, the pitcher that replaced him, Wilber Perez, almost gave away the game. He allowed five runs in the three innings he pitched, but four of them came in the fifth to put the Crawdads up, 4-3.

The Dash got those first three runs in a couple fun ways. Luis Mieses hit a two-run blast in the second and then Evan Skoug scored on a balk; two types of run scoring that are about as opposite as can be. Once it came to the seventh, the long ball gave the Dash the lead, and then the win. Alex Destino made it a 6-5 lead with a three-run homer, and Lenyn Sosa followed that up with his second homer of the season to make it 7-5.

The bullpen did not have a great game today as they allowed a sixth run, but when it mattered, Lane Ramsey came into the game and got the save. In the ninth, he through a perfect inning with one strikeout, a successful end to a great win.

Poll

Who was the Dash MVP?

This poll is closed

  • 41%
    Taylor Varnell: 3 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 6 K
    (28 votes)
  • 50%
    Luis Mieses: 2-for-4, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 0 BB, 0 K
    (34 votes)
  • 8%
    Alex Destino: 1-for-4, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 0 BB, 2 K
    (6 votes)
68 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Who was the Dash Cold Cat?

This poll is closed

  • 6%
    Harvin Mendoza: 0-for-4, 0 BB, 1 K
    (4 votes)
  • 93%
    Wilber Perez: 3 IP, 5 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 5 K
    (56 votes)
60 votes total Vote Now

The first and only loss of course belongs to Kannapolis, who after seven games are still winless. This one was a very weird game, though, especially on the hitting side.

The Cannon Ballers actually were on base 12 times this game, but the makeup of that was nine walks to go with just three hits. Of those three hits, two were from José Rodríguez, who also scored the lone run of the game for the Cannon Ballers. The third hit is actually a fun story: The Sodfather’s son, Brandon Bossard, had a double today, the first hit of his professional career.

The pitching side was not great, but Jared Kelley was at least better. He only went 2 2⁄3 innings, but he struck out five over that span and only allowed one run. He was bit by errors, though, so three runs crossed the plate while he was on the mound.

It was with the bullpen where the game really got out of hand. Martin Carrasco and McKinley Moore combined to allow seven runs. This was Moore’s first outing of the year, so he finished his time on the mound with a 108.00 ERA, so not great. And it wasn’t very good for the Cannon Ballers today either.

Per Kannapolis Twitter, 0-8 would be a record? Not sure if it’s team or league, but hey, history is on the line tomorrow.

Poll

Who was the Cannon Ballers MVP?

This poll is closed

  • 74%
    José Rodríguez: 2-for-5, 1 R, 0 BB, 1 K
    (50 votes)
  • 10%
    Rigo Fernández: 1 1⁄3 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K
    (7 votes)
  • 14%
    Jared Kelley: 2 2⁄3 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 4 BB, 5 K
    (10 votes)
67 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Who was the Cannon Ballers Cold Cat?

This poll is closed

  • 5%
    Martin Carrasco: 3 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 4 K
    (3 votes)
  • 83%
    McKinley Moore: 1⁄3 IP, 4 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 1 K
    (46 votes)
  • 10%
    Bryan Ramos: 0-for-5, 0 BB, 2 K
    (6 votes)
55 votes total Vote Now

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