White Sox Minor League Update: May 7, 2024

The brunch games didn’t go too well, but Drew Thorpe and the red-hot Birmingham Barons sure are fun to watch

Gwinnett Stripers 7, Charlotte Knights 4 (Gameday Box) (Statcast Box)
Just as the Knights were starting to creep a bit toward respectability at 13-14, the club has dropped six straight, and done so in disheartening fashion. Today it was snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory, running out to a 3-0 lead before seeing the Stripers run off six runs late in a bullpen collapse.

But let’s focus on the good stuff.

Colson Montgomery hit his second straight leadoff home run, clocking one deep to start the a.m. game:

Colson is officially Heating Up now in May, getting on base three times and nudging his season OPS right up against .800. Leadoff seems to be to his liking.

And whatever was in the Gatorade, Dominic Fletcher took a sip, too, because he strode up and deposited a back-to-back jack out to put Charlotte up, 2-0:

The battle of Fletchers (brother David plays for Gwinnett) was played close to a draw, as Dominic had just his one hit and RBI, while David went 1-for-5 but knocked in three runs and had a game-high 25.9% WPA for the Stripers.

And another good bit of news that comes from a late bullpen collapse is that the starting pitcher put in a good day’s work; absolutely true for Jake Woodford, who went five innings with four hits and four walks but limited any damage to just one run.

Charlotte will try snapping its six-game losing streak at a more normal time on Wednesday, with a 6:05 p.m. CT start.

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Birmingham Barons 2, Pensacola Blue Wahoos 0 (Gameday box) (Statcast box)
On the other hand, get hyped, people, we got a juggernaut in Double-A! The Barons extended to 20-7 with a win in Pensacola that, yes, saw a Birmingham slugger put a ball in the drink:

Turns out, with Drew Thorpe starting, Elko’s long ball wasn’t even needed, as the best arm in the entire organization (including the South Side) went 5 2⁄3 shutout innings, winnowing his ERA to 1.01 and WHIP to 0.841. It is starting to become irresponsible not to get this kid to Charlotte or Chicago soon.

Everyone else went scoreless as well, of course, ascendant closer Eric Adler standing out best with three Ks to stomp his inning dead.

The Barons are SO MUCH MORE FUN to watch that the White Sox right now. Sure, it’s the winning, but it’s much more: incredible pitching from first inning to ninth, strong defense, aggressive speed and baserunning, offense that gets the job done.

Edgar Quero’s ball stayed dry, but his clout was the game-winning RBI in this one.

Maybe Birmingham is waiting for a 2-for-1 bus ticket deal to send both Edgar and Drew east to Charlotte or north to Chicago. C’mon Greyhound, do a us a solid!

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Asheville Tourists 6, Winston-Salem Dash 5 (11 innings) (Gameday Box) (Statcast Box)
Don’t know about these early brunch games, they don’t seem to be turning out too well for the White Sox system. That said, The Dash played a great game and simply would not let the Tourists pull away.

Down 1-0 with the game getting short, Wes Kath played the hero role:

Again down, 2-1, now in the ninth, DJ Gladney wipes the lead away a second time:

Then in the 10th, down a run once more and also down to the last strike of the game, Shawn Goosenberg knotted the game with a single to drive in Kath from third base:

As alluded above, a play earlier Winston-Salem got hosed by a call, as Loidel Chapelli beat out a double-play attempt that drove Manfred Man Kath to third. Instead, two outs, down to a last strike, and Jacob Gonzalez’s ground out to second ended the inning instead of pushing Chapelli to third base with two outs.

And it got worse, as Asheville scored two in the top of the 11th. With one out, Bryce Willits had already drove in a run with a double that trimmed the Tourists lead to one. Mario Camilletti should have made it runners on first and second after this catcher’s interference call ... but no call was made.

Dash skipper Guillermo Quiroz, already hot from the Chapelli reversal an inning earlier, got tossed.

Camilletti flew out, Kath went down on strikes, Dash lose. Yuck.

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Delmarva Shorebirds 5, Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 3 (Gameday Box) (Statcast Box)
The Shorebirds never trailed in this one, but the CBs woke up in the third inning and made this a tight game for the final seven innings. The one true highlight for Kanny was a Ryan Galanie three-run blast that almost fully erased the early 4-0 advantage Delmarva rushed out to:

The Kanny pitching was solid once Drew McDaniel settled down, with pen men Billy Siedl and Connery Peters keeping things close.

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ACL Mariners 7, ACL White Sox 4 (Gameday box)
Not a great result in the desert, as the Complex Sox fall to 0-2 on the young season. However, we have some footage, highlights from three of the prime players on our Stateside rookie squad.

First, the biggie, quite literally: George Wolkow shook off a tough debut game with a big blast in the seventh inning:

One inning earlier, singles by Angelo Hernández, Leandro Alsinois and Stiven Flores packed the sacks after two runs had already come in — but third-sacker D’Angelo Tejada struck out, ending the threat.

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