White Sox Minor League Update: May 8, 2024

Jacob Gonzalez went 4-for-4 with a homer to help the Dash win big, as the farm went 2-2 overall

Charlotte Knights 8, Gwinnett Stripers 1 (Gameday Box) (Statcast Box)
The Knights pitching staff was on top of its game, and the offense caught fire down the stretch to pull away from Gwinnett.

Knights starter Johan Domínguez was very difficult for the Stripers to solve. In fact, in his first four innings, Domínguez did not allow any hits. Domínguez finally allowed one in the fifth, but even that was a single with a 67.5 mph exit velocity. Domínguez lasted six innings, and he allowed a grand total of zero runs on two hits, both singles. He only needed 75 pitches to get that far.

Meanwhile, the Knights offense got started in the top of the first inning. With one out, Zach DeLoach tripled and Carlos Pérez hit into a sacrifice fly to put the Knights ahead, 1-0. Then, in the third, Angelo Castellano doubled Charlotte’s lead with a solo homer to left. Castellanos finished with three hits, as he had a fantastic game.

In the sixth, when the score was still 2-0, DeLoach, Pérez, and Oscar Colás hit three consecutive singles to increase the lead to three. The Knights went back to work in the seventh, as Wynton Bernard led off with a single and stole second. Castellanos added another hit with an RBI single to make it 4-0.

A DeLoach ground out drove in another run, and so did a sacrifice fly by Pérez. In the eighth, Wilmer Difo added a pair with a single that drove in Adam Hackenberg and Dominic Fletcher.

With how well Charlotte’s pitching staff performed, that lead was plenty large enough for the Knights to hold on.

Pensacola Blue Wahoos 5, Birmingham Barons 1 (Gameday box) (Statcast box)
The Barons offense never got going in this game, only collecting one run on six hits during this loss to Pensacola.

This is difficult to believe, but the heretofore untouchable Jairo Iriarte had a rough start. Iriarte allowed three earned runs in 5 1⁄3 innings, which is not the worst result ever, but he issued eight walks and hit a batter. In other words, control was a massive problem despite him limiting the overall damage.

Iriarte walked the first two batters he faced, and hit the third. After a sacrifice fly, the Blue Wahoos had a 1-0 lead. Thanks to a double play, Iriarte managed to winnow down all the early traffic to just one run.

With two outs in the top of the fourth, Tim Elko started a rally with two outs and nobody on base by launching a ground-rule double, and Tyler Neslony (who finished with three hits) hit a timely single to tie the game.

Pensacola picked up an unearned run against Iriarte in the fifth, a frame when the righty did not have any control issues. The first batter of the inning reached on a Jason Matthews error, and after a single Iriarte retired the next two batters he faced. However, Jacob Berry made the Barons pay for the error, as he singled with two outs to give the Blue Wahoos a lead they did not relinquish.

The Blue Wahoos picked up two more in the sixth, and they got their last run in the ninth against reliever Jared Kelley. Meanwhile, outside of Neslony, the Barons offense did not get many base runners down the stretch.

Winston-Salem Dash 9, Asheville Tourists 4 (Gameday Box) (Statcast Box)
Jacob Gonzalez went on a tear to help the Dash pull away from the Tourists on Wednesday night.

Dash starter Tyler Schweitzer also did an excellent job, missing bats left and right throughout six innings of work. In total, Schweitzer got 17 swings-and-misses, as he made his job look easy. The only hiccup came in the second, when Logan Cerny hit a solo homer. However, besides that blast, Schweitzer allowed zero runs on three measly hits.

In the bottom of the third, Mario Camilletti singled, and Gonzalez went deep for a two-run homer. From that point forward, the Dash had the lead, but Gonzalez and the Dash offense were not close to being done. In the fourth, Jordan Sprinkle doubled, Weston Eberly walked, and Camilletti walked to load the bases with one out. That brought Gonzalez back up to the plate, and he singled to drive in another run. From there, DJ Gladney and Shawn Goosenberg drew back-to-back walks to force in two more runs, and it was 5-1.

In the sixth, Gonzalez led off with a single, and Gladney launched a triple to bring home another run. After a single by Chris Lanzilli, the Dash had a 7-1 lead.

With Schweitzer finally out of the game in the seventh, the Tourists offense woke up against Everhett Hazelwood, scoring three times to cut their deficit in half. However, the Tourists needed much more offense than that, and for good measure, the Dash added two more in the bottom half. Those runs scored on a Camilletti sacrifice fly and a single by (you guessed it) Gonzalez.

Delmarva Shorebirds 9, Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 2 (Gameday Box) (Statcast Box)
It was a rough day for the Cannon Ballers, who lost to Delmarva in a convincing manner.

Kannapolis starter Jake Peppers allowed five runs (four earned) in his first three innings, so it was not the finest game for him. A silver lining is that he lasted five innings, as he recovered to pitch scoreless frames in the fourth and fifth.

In the first, the Shorebirds grabbed an early lead on a single, a stolen base, and another single. The second frame was far more damaging, with the Shorebirds putting three more on the board. A leadoff home run by Aneudis Mordán started the inning, and it got worse from there. After a single, a stolen base, a wild pitch, and a fielding error by Wilber Sánchez, the score was 3-0. A single, a walk, and another grounder later, it was 4-0. Delmarva tacked one more on in the third on a blast by Anderson De Los Santos, and the Cannon Ballers were fighting out of a deep hole for the remainder of the game.

The Cannon Ballers scratched out a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth, and Arxy Hernández started that rally by reaching on a two-base error. A ground out by Juan González allowed Hernández to advance to third, and Sánchez hit a sacrifice fly to put the Cannon Ballers on the board. With two outs, Rikuu Nishida singled and stole second for his eighth steal of the young season. Ryan Galanie walked, Nishida stole yet another base — and then, incredibly, he stole home.

That was an aggressive sequence by Nishida, but it only counted for one run, and the Cannon Ballers needed way more than that. The score remained 5-2 until the top of the ninth, when the Shorebirds scored four insurance runs in garbage time.