White Sox Minor League Update: April 26, 2023

None of the affiliates recorded more than four hits, but amazingly, two of them won

The Knights offense did a good impression of the White Sox offense by only recording two hits ... however, in this instance, two hits were enough to win the game.

The teams traded runs in the second inning, and it appeared that the game might have a decent amount of hitting. The Tides scored their only run on a solo home run by Jordan Westburg. However, the Knights did not stay down for long, as Evan Skoug led off the bottom of the second with a double. After a pair of outs, Jake Marisnick drew a walk, and Billy Hamilton drove in the tying run with a single.

With the score still 1-1, Marisnick led off the bottom of the fifth with his second walk of the day. Marisnick then showed an excellent display of base stealing by taking both second and third. With one out, Zach Remillard hit a pop fly to Norfolk second baseman Connor Norby, and although Norby made the catch, a throwing error allowed Marisnick to score.

With how well the Knights pitching staff performed, the run that the strange error brought home turned out to be decisive. Starter Daniel Ponce de Leon only allowed one run on four hits in four innings, and the bullpen combined to allow zero runs on three hits in five innings.

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Oh, look, another offense that impersonated the parent club. Unfortunately, the Barons pitching staff imitated the White Sox pitching staff, too. When that happens, well, you are most likely going to lose handily, as the Barons did.

The Barons scored their only run of the game in the bottom of the ninth, when the game was out of reach. The Tylers (Neslony and Osik) both doubled to finally get Birmingham on the board. Up until that successful inning, the Barons only recorded one hit in the previous eight innings.

On the other side, with how poor Birmingham hit, the pitching staff had to be nearly perfect to give the Barons a chance to win. They were far from perfect, as the Tennessee offense was not fooled often. Garrett Schoenle allowed four runs (all earned) in five innings, and although Vince Vannelle’s relief appearance went pretty well, Luke Shilling’s outing transpired as: single, walk, walk, grand slam. Four batters faced, four runs allowed. At least Ben Holmes and Edgar Navarro each pitched a shutout inning in mop-up time.

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The Dash recorded zero runs on four hits against the Crawdads. Wow, those are the exact same totals as the White Sox in each of their last two games in Toronto.

Dash starter Andrew Dalquist allowed the first run of the game to score on a balk in the top of the first. He proceeded to allow two more runs in the third, when Daniel Mateo took him deep. Dalquist was removed after three innings and three runs (all earned).

Brooks Gosswein performed admirably in relief of Dalquist, allowing zero earned runs in 5 2⁄3 innings. The one run Gosswein allowed was unearned, though he was the one who made the error. Gosswein only allowed three hits, and the only downside to his stat line was that he issued four walks while striking out two.

Shout-out to Terrell Tatum, Wilfred Veras, and Michael Turner, who each recorded at least one hit. Nobody on the Dash drew a walk.

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Like the White Sox and Dash, the Cannon Ballers recorded exactly four hits today. Unlike both of those teams, though, the Cannon Ballers scored, and they even won!

With the game still scoreless in the top of the third, Logan Glass hit a double with one out. From there, Jordan Sprinkle and Mario Camilletti walked to load the bases for the red-hot Tim Elko. Elko got the job done with a sacrifice fly to drive in the first run of the game.

The Mudcats finally got on the board against Kannapolis starter Shane Murphy in the fifth. Murphy allowed a leadoff triple and a sacrifice fly that drove in the tying run, but Murphy was excellent overall, as he has been this season (2.40 ERA).

In the sixth, Elko put the Cannon Ballers ahead for the second time of the game with a home run. This was the only home run of the day for anyone in the White Sox organization, and it was a big one, giving Kannapolis a 2-1 lead.

Reliever Mark McLaughlin ran into some trouble for Kannapolis in the bottom of the sixth, allowing Carolina to tie the game again. Luke Adams drove in Carolina’s second run with a one-out single.

In the seventh, the Cannon Ballers drew three walks. Johnabiell Laureano, Sprinkle, and Camilletti were the ones who drew the walks to keep the inning alive for Elko. In a big spot, Elko came up to bat with those three players on base and two outs. Did Elko give Kannapolis the lead for the third time? You bet he did. Elko’s single put the Cannon Ballers ahead by a score of 4-2, and they led the rest of the way. Despite getting outhit 8-4, Kannapolis prevailed, and their record improved to an impressive 11-5. Are we sure they are in this organization?

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