White Sox Minor League Update: May 22, 2024

Jacob Gonzalez is now 6-for-10 with a homer since being promoted to the Barons

The weather in Nashville was suboptimal for baseball, so the Knights were unable to face the Sounds on Wednesday. These two teams are scheduled to have a doubleheader on Thursday. Charlotte’s record remains at 19-26.

Birmingham Barons 8, Biloxi Shuckers 4 (10 innings) (Gameday box) (Statcast box)
In a thrilling, 10-inning contest, the Barons prevailed to improve to 26-14.

The Barons used another strong start by Mason Adams to put another game in the win column. Adams has been on a hot streak, and he continued that today, only allowing one run in 6 1⁄3 innings. The only time the Shuckers scored against Adams was when Ernesto Martinez Jr. hit a solo homer in the second. Besides that, Adams made his job look easy.

Birmingham’s offense got started very early, as Terrell Tatum walked to lead off the game, and Jacob Gonzalez doubled him over to third. With two in scoring position and nobody out, Brooks Baldwin drove in a pair with a single. Duke Ellis led off the fifth with a single, and he took second with his 26th steal of the year. Ellis finished 3-for-3 with a walk, so he reached base safely every plate appearance. Gonzalez proceeded to drive in Ellis with a single to give the Barons a 3-1 lead.

In the eighth, with Adams out of the game, the Shuckers finally showed signs of life. Reliever Garrett Schoenle allowed two singles and a double, which allowed Biloxi to tie the game and snatch away Adams’ victory. The score remained 3-3 after the ninth, so a 10th inning was required.

The Barons offense exploded in the top of the 10th. With a free base runner on second to open the inning, Ellis singled (and, of course, stole second base), and Tatum brought home a pair with a single of his own. Tatum was caught stealing second, but Gonzalez homered to make the score 6-3, and the Barons were not done. With two outs, Edgar Quero singled, and Tim Elko homered to extend Birmingham’s lead to five.

Winston-Salem Dash 4, Bowling Green Hot Rods 1 (Gameday box) (Statcast box)
The Dash had an outstanding performance from its pitching staff, and this great day was spearheaded by Tyler Schweitzer, who has been very reliable lately. As a result, Winston-Salem won this low-scoring game.

Colby Smelley led off the bottom of the second with a single, and he scored on a double by Jordan Sprinkle. The Hot Rods quickly got that run back on a solo home run by Cooper Kinney, but that was the first and last time that Bowling Green scored.

Shawn Goosenberg homered to lead off the bottom of the sixth, and the Dash led from that point onward. For good measure, though, Wes Kath singled, and Sprinkle added another RBI with a triple. Then, in the eighth, Sprinkle walked, he advanced to second on a ground out, and he scored on an RBI single by Eddie Park.

Augusta GreenJackets 4, Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 3 (Gameday box) (Statcast box)
The Cannon Ballers offense got cold down the stretch, so Augusta came out on top in this close game.

Kannapolis got a quality start from Jake Peppers, who overcame five walks in six innings of work. Peppers struck out seven and only allowed three hits. The GreenJackets only scored twice against Peppers, and both of those runs scored in the first, when Augusta did not collect any hits, oddly enough.

The Cannon Ballers tied the game in the top of the third, when Wilber Sánchez led off with a double. Rikuu Nishida singled, but the next two batters struck out. However, Nishida stole second, so the Cannon Ballers had two in scoring position with two outs. Then, Ryan Galanie, a major spark plug for Kannapolis, doubled to tie the game. The game remained tied at two until the sixth, when Galanie went back to work, launching a solo homer to put Kannapolis on top.

Cannon Ballers reliever Nick Altermatt pitched around some early trouble in the seventh to preserve the thin lead. However, he was unable to do the same in the eighth. With one out and nobody on base, Arxy Hernández made a fielding error, and the next batter singled to put the potential go-ahead run on base. Then, Jace Grady got the biggest hit of the game with a two-run double to put Augusta ahead for good.

ACL Dodgers 10, ACL White Sox 6 (Gameday box)
The ACL White Sox offense could not keep up with the ACL Dodgers offense in this shootout of a ballgame.

Luis Robert Jr., an outfielder you may have heard of, led off the bottom of the first with a solo homer.

ACL White Sox starting pitcher Luis Reyes managed to preserve that 1-0 lead until the top of the third, when the wheels fell off. During that inning, the ACL Dodgers hit four singles and a double to put four on the board, and they led for the rest of the game. The ACL Dodgers added five more in the top of the fourth to put the game away.

Still trailing 10-1 in the sixth, the ACL White Sox got themselves out of blowout territory with a five-run inning. Guillermo Rodríguez drove in two with a single, Adrian Gil drew a walk with the bases loaded, and Leandro Alsinois added a two-run single. However, by that point, it was too little, too late.