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White Sox Minor League Update: July 20, 2021

More promotions today, as Taylor Varnell shines in his Birmingham debut in one of two shutout wins on the farm. It was such a good day, even Kannapolis won, thanks in part to five hits from Samil Polanco

By Darren Black
Taylor Varnell finally got his much-deserved promotion to Double-A, and threw five shutout innings right away
Tiffany Wintz/South Side Sox

This one came down to the wire in the ninth, as the Knights had a chance to take the lead and possibly win with the go-ahead run at second base, but they were unable to get it done. The story of the game was exactly that, not converting baserunners into runs. Though Charlotte did have some success in the ninth to trim a three-run deficit to one, they could not take advantage of all their baserunners. They had 12 hits, two more than Durham, along with four walks. The only had six strikeouts, so the bat was getting on the ball — but not in the correct spots. Deivy Grullón led the way with three hits, while Mikie Mahtook reached base every time he was up. That included a homer to lead off the ninth inning.

Eloy Jiménez grabbed another hit in Triple-A, a single. However, his big play came in the field, where he dove — and did not get hurt.

The pitching was pretty good. Jonathan Stiever started, and was fine. Over his five innings he allowed seven hits, and odds are you are not going to keep them all from scoring, so he allowed three runs. The seven strikeouts he had with it seemed to help keep the damage minimal. Kodi Medeiros took over and allowed what would be the winning run after coming in to keep the Knights in the game. He had two no-hit innings to bring his ERA down to 7.11. Also of note, Bennett Sousa was promoted to Triple-A today.

Poll

Who was the Knights MVP?

This poll is closed

  • 54%
    Deivy Grullón: 3-for-4, 0 BB, 0 K
    (41 votes)
  • 42%
    Mikie Mahtook: 1-for-1, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 0 K
    (32 votes)
  • 2%
    Ofriedy Gómez: 2 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 1 BB, 2 K
    (2 votes)
75 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Who was the Knights Cold Cat?

This poll is closed

  • 71%
    Matt Reynolds: 0-for-4, 0 BB, 1 K
    (40 votes)
  • 28%
    Kodi Medeiros: 1 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 2 K
    (16 votes)
56 votes total Vote Now

It really was smooth sailing throughout the game for Birmingham, especially for their pitchers ... then the ninth inning came as Chattanooga, down 3-0, loaded the bases with two outs. Thankfully, Lane Ramsey was able to close it down for the save as the Barons won, the first of two shutouts today on the farm.

How we got there was pretty simple: The Barons just scored all three runs early, and the pitching did the rest. The first run came from Mitch Roman on a double, and then, who else but Romy González drove in the final two with a homer. Each of these runs came in the second inning, so it was really all mostly up to the pitching.

Before we get there, the Barons did have other batters do things. Micker Adolfo had a double, and new to Double-A Yolbert Sánchez had his first hit at the new level.

Another newbie, Taylor Varnell (who should have been promoted long ago), started the game and set the tone for the win. He went five shutout innings with four strikeouts. Though the bullpen was able to keep the shutout, the last couple arms ran into some trouble. Félix Paulino was very, very good. He needed just 11 pitches to strike out all three of his batters. It was just that Andrew Perez and Lane Ramsey wanted to make things interesting. Perez went 1 2⁄3 innings, but allowed three hits. He saved himself with strikeouts for four of those five outs. Lane Ramsey took over and allowed four batters to reach base in the bottom of the ninth, but got out of a bases-loaded jam to keep the lead and get his fourth save.

Poll

Who was the Barons MVP?

This poll is closed

  • 93%
    Taylor Varnell: 5 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 4 K
    (78 votes)
  • 6%
    Romy González: 1-for-4, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 SB
    (5 votes)
83 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Who was the Barons Cold Cat?

This poll is closed

  • 44%
    Carlos Pérez : 0-for-4, 0 BB, 1 K
    (22 votes)
  • 44%
    Xavier Fernández: 0-for-4, 0 BB, 1 K
    (22 votes)
  • 12%
    Joel Booker: 0-for-4, 0 BB, 0 K
    (6 votes)
50 votes total Vote Now

A shutout win for the Dash, as a few top prospects on the team do really well. Bailey Horn was great in Low-A but has struggled mightily against High-A hitters, but there was no problem today. He had three shutout innings, and though his command was a little suspect with a walk an inning, he still struck out five and didn’t allow a hit. Obviously, the good pitching continued into the bullpen and the Dash only used three more pitchers. Declan Cronin went two, Wilber Perez went three, and then Caleb Freeman closed it down with a shutout inning of his own.

The offense was pretty good, too. They had 11 hits, and seven of the nine batters in the lineup had hits. Lenyn Sosa had three singles, while Evan Skoug added a couple, too. Luis Curbelo had two doubles for his day, as he tries to right his season after a good start.

For those on Luis Robert watch, he did not play today, for some reason. It seems odd to activate a guy to play and then sit him.

Poll

Who was the Dash MVP?

This poll is closed

  • 72%
    Lenyn Sosa: 3-for-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, 0 BB, 0 K
    (45 votes)
  • 4%
    Luis Curbelo: 2-for-4, 2 RBI, 0 BB, 0 K
    (3 votes)
  • 14%
    Bailey Horn: 3 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 3 BB, 5 K
    (9 votes)
  • 8%
    Wilber Perez: 3 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 3 K
    (5 votes)
62 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Who was the Dash Cold Cat?

This poll is closed

  • 83%
    Travis Moniot: 0-for-4, 0 BB, 3 K
    (44 votes)
  • 16%
    Yoelqui Céspedes: 0-for-3, 1 R, 0 BB, 1 K
    (9 votes)
53 votes total Vote Now

This was a true back-and-forth game, as a couple of Kannapolis pitchers who haven’t been pitching much recently allowed all eight runs, but the offense was able to pick them up for the team’s 20th of the season. Matthew Thompson and Yoelvin Silven both have not pitched much lately, and it showed today. Thompson went three innings and allowed five runs. He did get four strikeouts, but he really was not great. Silven only went went one inning and allowed the final three runs of the game. He was attacking the zone, but clearly left too many hittable pitches out there.

The other pitchers were great, though, especially the final two. Sammy Peralta took over for Silven and really settled down the game. He went three no-hit innings, with four strikeouts and allowed the Kanny bats to take the lead. McKinley Moore closed out the game with another no-hit inning, for his sixth save of the season.

Meanwhile, boy did the bats show out. The Cannon Ballers had 17 hits (seven of the nine batters); in fact, six hitters had multiple. José Rodríguez had a couple of hits along with Luis Mieses, Harvin Mendoza, and Caberea Weaver. Weaver also added his 10th stolen base of the season, and Rodríguez stole his 19th bag so far. Recently-promotoed Jeremiah Burks had the second-most hits, three, but Samil Polanco had the most with a 5-for-6 night, one of which was a double.

Poll

Who was the Cannon Ballers MVP?

This poll is closed

  • 6%
    Sammy Peralta: 3 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 4 K
    (4 votes)
  • 93%
    Samil Polanco: 5-for-6, 3 R, 1 RBI, 0 BB, 0 K
    (60 votes)
64 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Who was the Cannon Ballers Cold Cat?

This poll is closed

  • 69%
    Matthew Thompson: 3 IP, 5 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 4 K
    (36 votes)
  • 30%
    Yoelvin Silven: 1 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 2 K
    (16 votes)
52 votes total Vote Now

Another back-and-forth game, with the ACL Sox giving up a lead late in the game and then taking it right back in a big way (a seven-run eighth inning) for the win. They did run into some trouble after that, but the big offensive eighth was just too much to overcome for the Brewers Blue team.

It was a pitching duel for the majority of this game. Through five innings, both teams each had one run, and at the end of the seventh, it was tied, 3-3. However, 12 runs came in the eighth inning, so that’s why it looks like the offenses were very good. Misael González led the team in hits with three, along with the team high in RBIs with four. Benyamin Bailey, who has not done very well since his demotion, had his first homer in the ACL that briefly gave the good guys the league in the sixth. Everybody for the ACL Sox reached base except for Wilfred Veras, as this was another game where seven of the nine batters in the lineup got a hit. They needed every one of them, with just a two-run win.

Again, for the majority of the game, the pitching was good. Dilmer Mejía got the start and was fantastic. He wet five innings, and the only run he allowed was unearned due to an error. It did not start getting tricky for the pitching until Hunter Speer came out; he blew a 3-2 lead, and then gave way to Marcus Evey, who would almost blow a seven-run lead and has just had a terrible season. He was out there in the last inning and only recorded one out while allowing five runs (four earned), as each batter he left get on base scored. Thankfully, the damage stopped there.

Poll

Who was the ACL Sox MVP?

This poll is closed

  • 47%
    Misael González: 3-for-5, 1 R, 4 RBI, 0 BB, 2 K
    (22 votes)
  • 43%
    Dilmer Mejía: 5 IP, 0 ER (1 R), 5 H, 0 BB, 3 K
    (20 votes)
  • 8%
    Benyamin Bailey: 1-for-3, 1 HR, 2 R, 1 BB, 0 K
    (4 votes)
46 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Who was the ACL Sox Cold Cat?

This poll is closed

  • 11%
    Wilfred Veras: 0-for-5, 0 BB, 3 K
    (4 votes)
  • 88%
    Marcus Evey: 1⁄3 IP, 4 ER (5 R), 2 H, 2 BB, 0 K
    (32 votes)
36 votes total Vote Now

This afternoon was not one to remember for the DSL White Sox. The offense was not very good. Though they did score three times, the lineup could only muster two hits, from Luis Pineda and Manuel Guariman. Nobody was really walking, either, with just two, so it was an overall bad performance from the offense.

As a whole the pitching was poor, but a couple of pitchers did come away with good outings. Oriel Castro came in as what seemed to be the opener, but had a good bulk game. He went four innings and just allowed two runs. He even had seven strikeouts. Replacing Castro was Yohemy Nolasco, and he continued the good outing with 2 1⁄3 shutout innings. Both of these guys gave the DSL Sox a chance to come back and win, but the offense did not take it, and then dug itself a big hole with a six-run eighth.

Poll

Who was the DSL Sox MVP?

This poll is closed

  • 65%
    Yohemy Nolasco: 2 1⁄3 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 2 K
    (21 votes)
  • 34%
    Oriel Castro: 4 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 7 K
    (11 votes)
  • 0%
    Luis Pineda: 1-for-3, 1 RBI, 0 BB, 2 K
    (0 votes)
32 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Who was the DSL Sox Cold Cat?

This poll is closed

  • 68%
    Daniel González: 2⁄3 IP, 1 ER (6 R), 3 H, 2 BB, 1 K
    (22 votes)
  • 15%
    Adrian Gil: 2⁄3 IP, 1 ER, 0 H, 4 BB, 2 K
    (5 votes)
  • 0%
    Victor Quezada: 0-for-3, 0 BB, 2 K
    (0 votes)
  • 15%
    Javier Mora: 0-for-4, 0 BB, 2 K
    (5 votes)
32 votes total Vote Now

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