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White Sox Minor League Update: August 15, 2021

A lot of offense in Charlotte, but not so much in the lower levels, as Gavin Sheets, Yermín Mercedes, and Misael González each homered today

By Darren Black
Romy González hit a homer yesterday in game that ended in a 6-5 Barons win today.
Birmingham Barons

Charlotte got on the board early, quickly, and consistently to get to 14 runs. Everybody in the lineup had at least one hit, and each batter either had a run scored or driven in, so it was a true team effort. A slight majority of the runs were due to the five homers the Knights hit: Gavin Sheets, Mikie Mahtook, Yermín Mercedes, Blake Rutherford, and Zach Remillard each had one in the rout.

Mercedes actually had five hits on the day to lead the team, and Rutherford had three.

It was an offensive day, and the Knights bats were just plain better. Charlotte jumped out to a big lead from the start, so the pitching did not need to be sharp — and for some, it wasn’t. Jimmy Lambert allowed two runs in his three innings and Bennett Sousa, to close out the game, allowed three (two earned). In the middle, it was pretty good, including a three inning no-hit stretch from Nik Turley, Hunter Schryver, and Lane Ramsey.

Poll

Who was the Knights MVP?

This poll is closed

  • 93%
    Yermín Mercedes: 5-for-6, 1 HR, 3 R, 3 RBI, 0 BB, 0 K
    (93 votes)
  • 5%
    Blake Rutherford: 3-for-6, 1 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, 0 BB, 0 K
    (5 votes)
  • 2%
    Gavin Sheets: 2-for-5, 1 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 0 K
    (2 votes)
100 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Who was the Knights Cold Cat?

This poll is closed

  • 84%
    Bennett Sousa: 1 IP, 2 ER (3 R), 3 H, 1 BB, 1 K
    (54 votes)
  • 15%
    Jimmy Lambert: 3 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 2 K
    (10 votes)
64 votes total Vote Now

Game one, or the last innings of the game that started yesterday, went pretty well for the Barons in the end. Birmingham had a 4-0 lead because of a big second inning. Romy González participated in that with a two-run homer, his 19th of the season as he, for some reason, is still with the Barons. JJ Muno drove in two more runs with a single, to get that four-run lead.

Davis Martin pitched in two innings yesterday, but then was replaced by Peter Tago, who did not follow the Martin Plan, and allowed four runs in the fifth to tie the game. Jake Elliott came in to settle things down with two shutout innings — but then, the game was suspended. Luis Ledo had a solid eighth, but then allowed the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth.

The Barons bats, which were lacking all day today, did not disappoint in the bottom of the ninth. Yolbert Sánchez, with a couple of runners on base, drove them in for the walk-off win.

On the Yasmani Grandal front, he had three at-bats today and struck out three times as the DH.

Poll

Who was the Barons MVP?

This poll is closed

  • 81%
    Romy González: 2-for-4, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
    (50 votes)
  • 8%
    Yolbert Sánchez: 1-for-5, 2 RBI, 0 BB, 0 K
    (5 votes)
  • 9%
    Jake Elliott: 2 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 3 K
    (6 votes)
61 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Who was the Barons Cold Cat?

This poll is closed

  • 28%
    Peter Tago: 3 IP, 4 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 2 K
    (20 votes)
  • 59%
    Yasmani Grandal: 0-for-3, 0 BB, 3 K
    (41 votes)
  • 11%
    Craig Dedelow: 0-for-4, 0 BB, 3 K
    (8 votes)
69 votes total Vote Now

The Dash played two games today. This one, the first of the day, was the one to win. They didn’t, though, as the lineup couldn’t score. The offense only had three hits on the day, and two of them were from José Rodríguez, both singles. The third was from Yoelqui Céspedes, so at least the top two prospects on the team did well. For everybody else, they were 0-for-18 with two walks. Not hard to see why only one run was scored.

The pitching was actually pretty good overall. The two pitchers used, Kaleb Roper and Yoelvin Silven, only had two earned runs to go along with two unearned runs. Roper had probably his best outing of the season, with five innings and seven strikeouts.

Poll

Who was the Dash MVP?

This poll is closed

  • 36%
    José Rodríguez: 2-for-2, 1 R, 1 BB, o K
    (21 votes)
  • 63%
    Kaleb Roper: 5 IP, 1 ER (2 R), 4 H, 1 BB, 7 K
    (37 votes)
58 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Who was the Dash Cold Cat?

This poll is closed

  • 25%
    Alex Destino: 0-for-3, 0 BB, 2 K
    (12 votes)
  • 75%
    Brandon Bossard, 0-for-2, 0 BB, 0 K, 2 Errors
    (36 votes)
48 votes total Vote Now

If game one was the game to win, well, game two was always going to be a loss. From the get-go the Dash were down 3-0, and it was 11-2 after two innings. It looked like it was supposed to be a bullpen game, with Kevin Folman getting that start, but he was only able to get three outs — and then Edgar Navarro got no outs while allowing six runs. After that, the game could have been called off, because the Dash were not coming back. In total, Winston-Salem used eight pitchers and only three came away unscathed: McKinley Moore, Sammy Peralta, and Cooper Bradford.

The hitting was better than game one, but it didn’t generate 14 runs like Greensboro. The Dash had seven hits, the most coming from Evan Skoug with two. The only two batters to get hits in game one, José Rodríguez and Yoelqui Cespédes, both had hits in game two. For Cespédes, he hit his 17th double of the season, as he finished the day with an .850 OPS. Luis Mieses played in this one as well, and did not collect a hit in either game — he is starting to run into trouble since his re-promotion.

Poll

Who was the Dash MVP?

This poll is closed

  • 58%
    Evan Skoug: 2-for-3, 1 R, 0 BB, 0 K
    (29 votes)
  • 24%
    Yoelqui Cespédes: 1-for-4, 1 RBI, 0 BB, 1 K
    (12 votes)
  • 18%
    José Rodríguez: 1-for-3, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 0 K
    (9 votes)
50 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Who was the Dash Cold Cat?

This poll is closed

  • 2%
    Kevin Folman: 1 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 0 K
    (1 vote)
  • 97%
    Edgar Navarro: 0 IP, 5 ER (6 R), 3 H, 1 BB, 0 K
    (40 votes)
41 votes total Vote Now

At least Misael González kept his power stroke going in a loss for Kannapolis. González hit his second homer in Low-A, a two-run shot to make it a one-run game. He added a double as well, and those were two of the three hits the lineup had. Anderson Comas had the third, as the rest of the lineup went hitless.

The pitching had its hits and misses, and unfortunately, Andrew Dalquist was one of the misses. He only pitched 2 1⁄3 innings, and allowed four runs. He did not have good command, with 43 balls to 38 strikes thrown to get him six walks. The bullpen was much better and allowed just one run in 5 2⁄3 innings. Corey Stone had the best outing of the bunch, with 2 2⁄3 shutout innings.

Poll

Who was the Cannon Ballers MVP?

This poll is closed

  • 92%
    Misael González: 2-for-4, 1 HR, 2 R, 2 RBI, 0 BB, 1 K
    (39 votes)
  • 7%
    Corey Stone: 2 2⁄3 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K
    (3 votes)
42 votes total Vote Now

Poll

Who was the Cannon Ballers Cold Cat?

This poll is closed

  • 92%
    Andrew Dalquist: 2 1⁄3 IP 3 ER (4 R), 4 H, 6 BB, 4 K
    (38 votes)
  • 7%
    Samil Polanco: 0-for-4, 0 BB, 0 K, 1 Error
    (3 votes)
  • 0%
    Tyson Messer: 1⁄3 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 1 K
    (0 votes)
41 votes total Vote Now

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