White Sox Minor League Update (April 4): Knights 6, Clippers 2

After their first Monday off of the season, the Knights were right back on track with a series-opening win over the Columbus Clippers. Jonathan Stiever started today and had good results. He will be on an innings limit this year, as he really hasn’t pitched much in the past couple of years. Maybe Stiever will be used as a reliever this year should he get the call to MLB, but for now, he should start for Charlotte. Today though, was more of a get-your-feet-wet type of outing, just going two innings. He didn’t strike anybody out, so it was probably a fastball-heavy day when he fell behind counts. He left after 32 pitches, 18 strikes against 14 balls, so he wasn’t the sharpest.

So, it was a bullpen game — nothing new in Charlotte! — and that is probably why he got the ball today instead of the first three games, as the bullpen, after a day off, was fresh. The pen did really well over the next seven innings. And it didn’t need to be that good, because of Lenyn Sosa. It was his day today, from the batter’s box and at shortstop.

A nice play off of a short bounce to get an out:

A homer, his first of the year:

Another homer, his second of the year:

Sosa should be the first middle infielder up if a White Sox infielder gets hurt. He is just showing you why that is today.

Carlos Pérez had a similar day behind the plate and at-bat. He had a heads-up play, catching a runner who didn’t really read this ball in the dirt well.

Oh yeah, and then Pérez went upstairs to pull this fastball out, for his second homer of the season.

Andrew Pérez was the first arm out after Stiever, and went two innings with no strikeouts. It was not until JB Olson in the fifth that the Knights staff recorded a strikeout. It just so happened that Olson was also the first one to allow a run.

Franklin German took over and he looked like he could keep the two-inning trend going, but really lost command in the eighth. He gave up a runoff of just one hit, but he hit a batter and walked two, so he just didn’t have it his second time on the mound today. Declan Cronin was sent in to clean up German’s bases loaded mess, and figured it out to keep the lead for the Knights intact. Cronin struck out the first batter he faced and got an infield fly on the second to escape the scare. Kenyon Middleton closed out the game for the 6-2 win.