White Sox Minor League Update: June 29, 2024

Sorry, ACL, your combined one-hitter got overshadowed by Kannapolis, who did you one hit better

Norfolk Tides 1, Charlotte Knights 0 (11 innings) (Gameday box) (Statcast box)
The red-hot Knights had closed within six games of .500 coming into Saturday’s action, but their bats fell asleep and wasted the pitching staff’s best non no-hitter effort of the season. Worse yet, Charlotte was 0-for-12 with RISP and left 10 on base while Norfolk won the game in extras without the benefit of a single hit. Man, the Manfred Man is so cool.

Cory Abbott completely stifled the Tides over five frames, using 69 pitches to whiff nine batters and allow just a second-inning infield hit (that the pitcher himself took a stab at stopping, unsuccessfully). The rest of the pitchers crushed it as well, so take a bow Chase Plymell, Sammy Peralta, and the first inning of Prelander Berroa’s night.

Berroa, who had the fastest pitch in all of Triple-A on Saturday night, at 99.4 mph, wild-pitched home the walk-off winner on a walk. Ah well, this was a game no one wanted to win, for real.

Bonus content: Zach DeLoach may be a slugger, but he can pick it in center:

Tennessee Smokies 4, Birmingham Barons 2 (Gameday box)
Maybe it’s just me, but the Barons don’t seem to win Noah Schultz Days too often.

Schultz struck out seven and allowed just three singles. But let’s be frank, he hit his pitch count again without even finishing four innings. He’s young and awesome, but the hype train has gotten out ahead of him. The portsider has started 23 career games as a pro and has yet to even pitch to the fifth inning; he’s averaging just shy of four innings per start in 2023.

Andrew Dalquist, who I swear wants to be called Drew but heck if I can find him referred to as such beyond a Twitter feed, bailed out Schultz by stranding the two singles he left on base in the fourth; the righteous righty reliever was not so lucky as he tried to escape the sixth and end his outing clean, as a two-out double plated two and tagged him with the loss.

Not that the arms were aided much by the bats; four singles, nine Ks, and an offense that phoned it in on Saturday.

Winston-Salem Dash 5, Rome Emperors 4 (10 innings) (Gameday box)
It was a nice bounce-back game for the Dash, whose win and Charlotte’s loss got the club back into third place among all White Sox affiliates this season, at 34-40. But don’t give our W-S fellas full credit for this one, as runs were delivered right to the front door, courtesy of four Rome errors.

Still, while neither the Dash pitching nor hitting nor baserunning nor defense distinguished itself on the whole, José Ramírez took a hero turn in finishing the game out, while Loidell Chapelli and Shawn Goosenberg clocked in with two-hit games.

Bonus Mario Camilletti game-tying sac fly content:

Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 6, Columbia Fireflies 0 (Gameday box)
This was the first nine-inning no-hitter in Kannapolis history, with Seth Keener (six innings), Luke Bell (two) and Nick Altermatt (one) taking the glory. We broke out a full story earlier in the night.

ACL White Sox 1, ACL Reds 0 (7 innings) (Gameday Box)
Chasing last night’s 2-1 win in seven frames, the Complex Sox went one better and took another one-run game, this time 1-0 over the Reds. And the three Sox pitchers this morning (Ricardo Brizuela, Carlos Hinestroza, Travis Lakins Sr.) walked off of the field at 1 p.m. local time most confident their combined one-hitter would be the pitching highlight of the day.

You read that right: Kyle Henley singled off of Brizuela as the second batter of the game (stole second, then picked off of his extra base) and the Complex Sox shut Cincy down the rest of the way.

Now, let’s not get too froggy, White Sox fans — our fellas only managed two safeties themselves, and it was a single that fueled their run-scoring fifth. That frame went Arnold Prado HBP, Darío Borrero single to put runners on the corners, Álvaro Agüero sac fly.

And that was it. Still counts as a full win, even when you manage just two hits, so the Complex Sox improve to 16-25.