White Sox Minor League Update: June 29, 2021

This was a close one from start to finish, and a game Rob Manfred would not like (too many extra innings)

In that many extra innings, teams are bound to get hits, so 12 from the Knights might seem like a lot but it really isn’t. Nevertheless, Jakes Burger did not care, and did whatever he could to get on base every single time up. He went 4-for-4, with a couple of walks; even though Gavin Sheets played well in his White Sox debut, Burger wants to be in Chicago, too. Burger’s first hit of the game came in the second inning, his 10th homer of the season to give the Knights a 2-1 lead.

(Why is the burger getting burnt? Burned burgers aren’t tasty!)

After that, the scoring almost halted for Charlotte. They were able to tie the game in the seventh on a Blake Rutherford sac fly, and then again in the 11th on a Burger RBI single.

The pitching was what was impressive, especially the bullpen. Alex McRae started the game and did fine, five innings of work and just three runs allowed. But the bullpen did not allow a run for the eight innings they pitched, and a lot of familiar names helped in that. Jace Fry lowered his ERA below two in a scoreless inning. Ofriedy Gómez and Hunter Schryver also had scoreless stints of their own, though Schryver did have the better outing. After Connor Sadzeck and Will Carter continued the scoreless trend, Tanner Banks came in for the win. He went three innings, the only run he allowed was unearned, due to the extra baserunner. Other than that, Banks was great, with just two hits and five strikeouts. Without those three great innings, it is tough to see how Charlotte wins.

Tim Beckham made sure it did win, in the bottom of the 13th with a sac fly.

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If you are looking for offense, go ahead and skip this recap, because Winston-Salem and Kannapolis will give you everything you seek. Here, the Barons were shut out and did not play well. The lineup could only muster four hits, all singles. Micker Adolfo had a tough day everywhere as well. He did not get one of those four hits and struck out three times, and he also had a fielding error, his third of the season. Out of any of the more known prospects in the lineup, only Ti’Quan Forbes came away with a hit.

The pitching was pretty good, though. Blake Battenfield got the start and allowed three runs in five innings. There was a fourth, but it was because of the Adolfo error. The bullpen was where the truly good stuff was happening. In four innings it did not allow a run, in hopes that the lineup could put together any type of offense. Peter Tago and Bennett Sousa both had a scoreless inning, though Sousa did struggle with his command (eight strikes and 14 balls). Zach Muckenhirn went a couple of innings and did well in them, just one hit allowed and two strikeouts. The Barons just could not get any offense for it to matter.

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Lots and lots of runs and the Dash come out on top, as they led throughout the game. The pitching was mostly good, sans a couple of bad bullpen outings, but it also doesn’t hurt to score 14 runs, either.

Cooper Bradford and Luke Shilling were the ones to have rough stints, but in the end it did not matter that much. Kaleb Roper had the start and did his job. In fact it was one of his better outings; he went four innings and allowed two runs. Declan Cronin came in right after for two scoreless innings, and Dan Metzdorf added a third. By that time, the Dash were up, 9-2, and in no real danger in losing, but they did add five more runs in the ninth just for fun.

The offense was just ridiculously good today with 14 runs, 17 hits, and five walks on top of that. Eight of those hits were for extra bases including three from Yoelqui Céspedes, who had a bit of a breakout game. He went 4-for-6, so he added a single beyond those doubles and even stole a base.

Yolbert Sánchez kept his hot streak going with a two-hit night as did Lenyn Sosa (unfortunately, Sosa’s 2-for-6 performance was worse than his batting .500 last week). The Dash did need a couple of homers, though, so not everything was in play. Luis Curbelo hit his ninth homer of the season to give the Dash the lead, and Travis Moniot added his fifth homer a few innings later. It was a whole-team approach, from top prospects to organizational players, for this big win.

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Another outing with lots and lots of runs. But this time, the White Sox farm team loses, as the Kannapolis pitching was ... less than stellar.

The vast majority of the runs scored in this game came in the second half of the matchup. It was not until Jesus Valles was lifted from the game after five innings of two-run ball did things got a little testy. Sal Biasi relieved Valles and proceeded to only get two outs while allowing four runs, and that was not the worst of it. Tyson Messer came in to try and stop the bleeding and, well, didn’t: He allowed four runs over four hits and two walks, all while not getting an out. Homer Cruz came in after and was able to get out of the inning, but he proceeded to allow five more runs. It was just getting out of hand, especially when considering that the Cannon Ballers had a 5-2 lead heading into the sixth inning.

The offense was pretty good, though, and since this is the minors, all is well if the prospects look good doing whatever in a loss. Four different batters had multiple hits, led by Samil Polanco and José Rodríguez. Polanco had a couple of doubles along with two singles. Bryan Ramos also added two hits to his total, both doubles. Meanwhile, the big bats hits were from Chase Krogman and Harvin Mendoza. Krogman hit his fourth homer of the year and showed decent patience at the plate with two walks. Mendoza’s only hit of the night came with a two-run homer, his second since his demotion.

Sure, Kannapolis lost, but look at all the good prospects who did well. Seriously, this team is 15-33, it cannot be all bad.

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This game was played on June 28, the only minor league game for the White Sox organization that day; it was also opening day for the ACL White Sox.

There never is a lot of information coming from the Arizona Rookie Leagues, but this is the only Stateside rookie squad the Sox have now, and they lost their opener. The pitching totals are not really trustworthy, at least they haven’t been in the past, but it was clear Ronaldo Guzman has some rust to work off. He went 3 ²⁄₃ innings and did only allow one run, but it is the rookie leagues so the opposing batters did not take advantage of his five walks and three hit batsmen. The bullpen was very good, though, and did not allow a run for the rest of the game. Erick Bello had command struggles, too, but was able to keep his walks from scoring.

The offense by both teams was pretty bad, but at least the ACL Sox had more hits, even with less run production. Sam Abbott led the way with a single and a double, he would later drive in the lone run with a sac fly. Wilber Sánchez and Jefferson Mendoza were the other two hitters to record hits.

Strikeouts were aplenty for the lineup with 13 total, Elijah Tatís had three of them while most batters had at least two. Not a pretty day, but these are very young guys for the most part coming off of a year where they played no baseball, it’ll take time.

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Due to COVID precautions on the Brewers ACL squad, Tuesday’s game with Brewers Blue was cancelled.