White Sox Minor League Update: May 12, 2023

The Sox system plays five games, the latest concluding near midnight, on this, the day of Tears of the Kingdom’s release

Box score link

Sean Burke did not have a good start and JB Olson, A.J. Alexy, and Ben Holmes did not have good relief outings, resulting in a Knights loss, despite late action. Burke walked five and departed with one out in the fourth, trailing 3-0. Olson entered to keep things close and allowed two home runs for a five-run Bulls inning, Knights trailing, 8-0, after four.

Olson has made only one appearance of exactly one inning this year, all of his others going at least two outs longer. That sole one-inning stint and his two innings on Opening Day are his only two appearances out of 11 all season in which he has not allowed at least one run. In seven, he has allowed multiple.

Alexy walked two and allowed a run on a double and single. Holmes gave up three runs in an eighth inning featuring two walks, two hit by pitches, and a double.

There was a brief eight-inning rally that foreshadowed a much heftier one to come, catcher Evan Skoug reaching on a wild pitch strikeout, then taking second on another wild pitch and third on Nate Mondou’s single. The rehabbing Jake Burger’s second hit of the game drove in Skoug to make it 12-1.

Alejandro Mateo became the only unscathed Knights pitcher in the top of the ninth, and in the bottom, the team grasped at the dimming spark. Clint Frazier doubled and Stephen Piscotty homered, 12-3 Bulls.

Erik González singled, Skoug walked, and Laz Rivera singled to load them up with nobody out. Zach Remillard’s ground ball got the force out at home, but Mondou walked in a run (12-4), Burger hit a sac fly (12-5), Víctor Reyes and Frazier doubled (two in one inning for Frazier, 12-8), Piscotty singled (12-9), and González singled, two on with two out.

Oscar Colás pinch-hit for Skoug, representing the tying run, and on a 2-0 count, grounded out to first to end the game.

---

Game one box score link

This one started off yesterday, six runs scoring in the first off opener Vince Vannelle before the skies opened (all six unearned, on Moisés Castillo’s two-out, grand-slam-preceding error at short), and actually got significantly worse once it resumed. Vannelle, of course, was done after one, his ERA actually going down to 8.49 due to the runs being unearned. Yoelvín Silven pitched a scoreless second with a hit and walk, and he brought home the trophy for best bullpen performance.

Tommy Sommer, fresh off three excellent starts with the Dash, made his first Barons appearance and gave up four runs on seven hits over his four innings, including a pair of dingers.

Nick Gallagher started the top of a torturous and possible tortious eighth inning that saw 11 total Blue Wahoos cross the plate, all of those — each of the 11 runs scored that inning — coming with two outs. Once they got to two outs, the Blue Wahoos went RBI single, walk, two-run double, HBP, José Rodríguez run-scoring error, pitching change (Gil Luna Jr.), HBP, bases-loaded walk, RAIN DELAY, pitching change (Taylor Snyder, Barons third baseman), bases-loaded walk, bases-loaded walk, bases-loaded HBP, three-run double, pop out.

Because the rain delay during the eighth inning happened in the middle of an at-bat, Snyder had entered in a highly unusual four-inherited-runners situation, all scoring (Luna weeps). Only half of Nick Gallagher’s six runs were earned thanks to the Rodríguez error.

Snyder also pitched the ninth, walking one, allowing two singles, and throwing a wild pitch to let in the 22nd Blue Wahoos run of the game. It was Snyder’s second pitching appearance of his career, the other also coming this season: April 13, scoreless ninth, one hit, one walk (Barons lost, 13-3).

The Barons did score six runs on nine hits, but it was not nice, given the outcome. Chris Shaw hit a one run to put them on the board in the fifth, then in the seventh, Adam Hackenberg doubled and Snyder went deep for two, joining an elite club of players who have thrown more than one inning in a game they also homered in.

Shaw was at it again in the eighth with a two-out double to plate Tyler Neslony and Luis Mieses, and a final run choked across in the ninth when Snyder walked and was driven in by Alsander Womack. Final score, 22-6, not Barons.

Game two box score link

Matt Thompson finally broke his streak of allowing exactly two runs in nearly every start this year; unfortunately, he did so by allowing five in 3 ⅓ innings. Andy Atwood’s error contributed to one of those being unearned, but Thompson allowed four hits and walked three, as well as striking out two.

The Barons took the early lead in the third, Atwood hit by a pitch leading off. He stole second and scored on an error, but that was all they had going for them.

Alsander Womack had one of only two hits for Birmingham, a single to lead off the first (immediately erased via double play), Luis Mieses’ second-inning single the other. Nash Walters and Lincoln Henzman, just activated from the injured list, pitched well in relief; the winning Blue Wahoos pitcher was named Jacob Walters, making this a two-Walters game, for those interested.

---

Box score link

The Dash are a big bounceback team this year, and after a painful loss yesterday in which they surrendered eight runs in the seventh inning, they held on to beat the Drive, 5-3, tonight.

Jonathan Cannon seems to have gotten the hang of this High-A thing, earning his fourth win in six starts after delivering seven innings over which he struck out just two, but walked just one and only allowed one run. This was actually not quite as good as his last start, in which he also went seven innings but gave up three hits and shut out the opposition.

Here, Cannon took a no-hitter to the bottom of the fifth, when it was destroyed by a two-out double. Two more doubles in the sixth, sandwiched around a single, gave the Drive their only run while he was pitching. He threw 57 of 78 pitches for strikes.

In the meantime, the Dash built up a fairly comfortable lead, starting with DJ Gladney’s solo home run in the third and continuing when Wilfred Veras singled, stole second, and scored on a Wes Kath base hit (2-0, Dash). In the fourth, Chris Lanzilli doubled and Jason Matthews singled him in, 3-0, Dash.

Their fourth and fifth runs came in the sixth inning. Leading off, Shawn Goosenberg walked in his eighth straight game, 10 total free passes in that span. He stole second, his 13th, and came around to score on a Jason Matthews fly-ball single. Keegan Fish, who had walked, would also eventually score on a Terrell Tatum ground out.

Those two final runs provided some big peace of mind late: Jake Palisch relieved Cannon in the bottom of the eighth, and with two on and two out, was touched for a two-run single, pulling the Drive within two. He was able to get the final out of the inning, though, and Adisyn Coffey provided a perfect ninth to put the Dash record at 21-8. This game had two pitchers with the last name Coffey, Isaac getting the loss as Greenville’s starter.

---

Box score link

Tanner McDougal’s five walks did not allow him to go very deep in this game, but Kole Ramage and Mason Adams were excellent in relief, combining for seven shutout innings on four hits, four walks, and 10 strikeouts. This was Adams’ first appearance since throwing four innings on May 5 and striking out nine.

The Ballers never broke out for a huge inning (although they could have, going 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position), but they never needed to. Mario Camilletti doubled to drive in Caberea Weaver from a single in the third to tie it 1-1 after McDougal departed.

They took the lead in the fifth when Wilber Sánchez singled, stole second, and scored on Camilletti’s single. Their third run was also Camilletti, who singled in the seventh, was wild-pitched to second, and driven in by a Troy Claunch base hit. Weaver’s first home run of the year in the eighth capped it off at 4-1, Ballers.

---