White Sox Minor League Update: July 31, 2021

It’s all about Birmingham, with a doubleheader sweep, one win with the bats, one with the arms

On a night where Jonathan Stiever got back on track nicely, with five innings of two-run (one earned) ball, in line for a no-decision as his hook came with the game tied 2-2, the bullpen coughed this one up, and hard. Over the next three innings, Nik Turley, Will Carter, Zack Burdi and Hunter Schryver lost all semblance of the plate, tossing eight walks (against four Ks) and giving up eight runs to turn nail-biter to laffer. Stretch-run White Sox hopefuls Luis Robert and Jake Lamb sat 1-2 atop the Knights order and combined for a 5-for-6 day, reaching base in 7-of-8 plate appearances. Lamb got the better of Panther, however, with a double, homer and three RBIs in the loss.

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What ho, Birmingham, a rout in this doubleheader opener was a harbinger of sweeps to come. Emilio Vargas has pitched his way back into the Barons rotation — or maybe it was the trade of Konnor Pilkington and matriculation to Charlotte of John Parke? Eh, Vargas has been dynamite so let’s say it’s the former. But this game ain’t about pitching, it’s all offense, so I don’t even have time to tell you that the relievers, Zach Muckenhirn and Luis Ledo, recorded the last six outs of the game in the sixth and seventh on Ks.

Again, Birmingham is, oddly, mashing at Regions Field, so damn straight they mashing on the road. The mashing here was done in the form of homers: two from Joel Booker and one apiece from Carlos Pérez, Tyler Neslony, Xavier Fernández and Ian Dawkins. Four of the homers came as part of a seven-run seventh, with Pérez and Fernández going back-to-back with one out, Dawkins and Booker doing same later in the inning ... still one out. In fact as the Barons batted around, Pérez added a double in the melee.

So, manager Justin Jirschele was heard shouting from the dugout during that seven-run seventh, with the game somewhat in hand already, “dudes, chill those bats, save some for the nightcap!”

Guess what? Birmingham did not save some for the nightcap. And yet, thanks to the pitch stylings for Jason Bilous and Anderson Severino, two runs was enough to win, and sweep, Rocket City. While Bilous has scuffled a bit in Double-A after mauling batters in High-A earlier this year, tonight was a helluva bounce-back, eight K’s in 5 ²⁄₃ innings. Apparently working up against a 70-pitch cap (Bilous ended with 69 pitches, nice, and 46 strikes), the righthander gave way to Severino. The reliever issued two free passes and no Ks, but also no hits or runs.

The scoring came courtesy of a flaccid tap-single from JJ Muno, and the eventual game-winning RBI, a Xavier Fernández sac fly. But sorry, that’s all the O info you get, the nightcap’s all about the arms.

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It might sound like I’m picking on Winston-Salem, but they have gone like 10-30 since last sniffing .500 and that is not a happy trend. Tonight it was another game that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. The pitching was just bad, and among batters, AJ Gill snuck up and punched the Grasshoppers with a two-homer effort. Four other Dash had two hits in the game, but seven runs does not beat 11, ever.

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Tough to say this about a team 27 games below .500, but Darren Black’s prediction that the CBs will win the second-half title passes the smell test on a night like tonight. Kanny up and punched a tough Salem Sox club in the mouf, and Matthew Thompson delivered the wildest haymaker: six innings of one-run ball and six Ks against no walks. It’s Thompson’s first career Low-A win! BOOM.

Four hitters tapped two hits apiece, none better than the high-riding Samil Polanco, who knocked a double and triple in his two-RBI effort. Perhaps most notable among players was Polanco manning shortstop, pushing José Rodríguez to second base. César Hernández’s heir apparent on the South Side? Could be ...

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The ACL White Sox jumped out to a 1-0 lead against the more vaunted Dodgers, courtesy of a Johnabiell Laureano single. But on the play, Benyamin Bailey was thrown out at third base to end the inning. That’s how Saturday went for the White Sox, and in fact how the season has gone for this ragtag 6-16 crew.

Dilmer Mejía had another nice start, although navigating four innings at any level of baseball in 2021 with just one punchout means you are actually trying not to strike anyone out; curious strategy, D-bone.

Kohl Simas fared worse, a 2021 undrafted free agent making his professional debut tonight, getting tagged with the loss in relief of Mejía. Simas, you say? Why yes, Kohl is the son of former White Sox reliever Bill Simas. Bill was a big fan of the Wisconsin-based department store, you say? Nay nay, as apparently Kohl has a professional-playing brother, Karson. So the guess here is that Bill loved K’s as a pitcher, and loves K-names as a father. The more you know ...

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Sending me to a below-.500 coverage record like the rest of our ragtag Minors Update crew, for the first time this year, are these dastardly DSL White Sox, mustering just one hit in a relative mauling from Seattle’s DSLers. The one hit, from Alvaro Aguero, did not drive in the sole Sox run, so let’s investigate: in consummate DSL fashion, two walks, a wild pitch and another walk loaded the bases for Javier Mora — who lined into a double play. Never fear, with Aguero up, pitcher Lisander Brito balked home a run. Yup, offense in the DSL is like a Boggle game of nutty plays. Disafortunadamente, the DSL White Sox failed to procure four more run-scoring balks this afternoon, ensuring a tie or extras.