White Sox Minor League Update: Knights 8, Redbirds 2

It wasn’t the best of seasons for the Charlotte Knights (53-96), but at least they won their season finale in convincing fashion. The 8-2 win was bolstered by a perfect performance from Nick Nastrini. It, literally, was perfect over five innings: 15-up, 15-down, with three strikeouts.

It’s the end of the year in the minors, and perfect games and no-hitters mean nothing down there anyway, so Nastrini was pulled after 69 pitches. He will now prepare for possible MLB innings for the big club next year. Chase Solesky relieved and was less than perfect, giving up two runs off of a homer. The final two arms from the bullpen settled things down later, as Mike Mayers and Edgar Navarro didn’t allow a run in the final two innings. The game was very much over by then, but the game moved more quickly because of it.

The offense came away with eight runs over 11 hits. Nate Mondou was the only batter to not reach base, but was joined by Víctor Reyes (one walk) as the two hitless batters. Tyler Neslony was the most productive in the finale, with a three-hit performance. One of those was a three-run shot in the third inning.

Jason Matthews was right behind Neslony with a three-run homer himself, this one in the seventh. It was his first career Triple-A homer.

José Rodríguez didn’t join the home-run party, but he did join the multihit parade. He had a couple of singles to cap off a disappointing year.