White Sox Minor League Update: August 9, 2022

Romy González homered in his return to Charlotte, and Matthew Thompson’s second Double-A start is much better than his first

The Charlotte Knights are horrendous. There’s never much to note here, especially from the pitching staff. So, here’s some updates on the three players to pay attention to.

First, Romy González is back, and doing things again in Triple-A.

Romy was fantastic in the ACL, and he is bringing that power back to Charlotte. The Sox might really need him with Tim Anderson out.

Yolbert Sánchez had a 2-for-3 game today. Both were singles, and he is firmly behind Lenyn Sosa and González in the middle infield depth chart.

Jake Burger went hitless today.

This is the first of two straight bad losses in the minors. For Birmingham, it was a walk-off loss in the ninth. The game started out so well, with Matthew Thompson on the bump. He threw five scoreless in his second Double-A start. He was in line for this first win at Double-A, but the guys after him just were not up to snuff, and an ill-timed José Rodríguez error did not help, either. Félix Paulino allowed two runs in the sixth, the inning after Thompson left, tying the game at two. After regaining the lead, the Barons were on their way to having two outs and nobody on in the ninth, then that Rodríguez error came, and Edgar Navarro walked three straight batters. All of a sudden, the Barons had only a one-run lead, and a couple of batters later, Taylor Broadway allowed the game-winning hit, a single that drove in the tying and winning runs. Just heartbreaking.

Rodríguez did not have a great game overall, going 0-for-5. It was really just a Raudy Read and Ian Dawkins game. They both homered today.

Read was first:

Then Dawkins in the ninth, to take a 4-2 lead.

Second verse, same as the first: A bad loss, thanks to a bullpen meltdown for Winston-Salem. Ty Madrigal, Karan Patel, and Skylar Arias allowed seven runs in the eighth inning to blow the game, 9-6. Madrigal and Patel were tagged with six of the runs, but it was a complete meltdown.

The offense was good enough for the win, and Chase Solesky was great and should have recorded the win. He went six innings and just allowed one run. He was his typical self and attacked the strike zone, with 56 strikes compared to just 15 balls.

On offense, it was a team effort again, with seven of the nine batters getting a hit. The big one was from Adam Hackenberg, who hit his seventh homer of the year in the sixth. Luis Mieses led the team with three hits, while Tyler Osik was right there with two. Both of them doubled today, too, and Mieses has a league-leading 34 now. At the top of the lineup, Duke Ellis, Colson Montgomery, and Bryan Ramos all had something in common: They reached base twice, once on a hit and the other on a walk. Ellis, of course, stole a base, and Montgomery’s lone hit was a double.

A bad start from Jonah Scolaro led to the loss for Kannapolis, but it was not a great offensive day, either. In fact, every run came from one swing, a three-run homer in the eighth by Wes Kath. It was his only hit of the day, and he made sure it counted.

Andy Atwood had half of the team’s hits (three, all of them singles). He is fresh off a SSS weekly MVP, and is off to a good start for a repeat.

Back to Scolaro: He only lasted 3 ²⁄₃ innings, and got burned by two homers. He was tabbed with an unearned run, but we should all count it, as it was his error. Other than that, eight strikeouts is a very good number for less than four innings of work.

The pen was much better, over the next 5 ¹⁄₃ innings. That included two from Rigo Fernández to end the game. It was not overpowering, but he threw two scoreless innings to at least give the impression Kannapolis could come back. But the Cannon Ballers only mustered three runs and lost, 5-3.

It was a tough loss for the ACL Sox in their seven-inning game. The defense was not great (two errors) and the offense was pretty much nonexistent. The lineup only had three hits on the day with, Jacob Burke getting one of them. Manual Guariman drove in the only run, with a double. The offense did get a little more draft classy at least, as Tim Elko made his professional debut. It wasn’t that good, going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, but he is on the ACL roster now.

The pitching was good in the results, but there were far too many walks. The staff combined for five in the six innings it pitched. Martin Carrasco was on the mound for both runs, with the bullpen doing pretty well behind him. Anderson Comas had one of his longer and better outings, 1 ²⁄₃ scoreless. UDFA Ben Buetel and Ethan Hammerberg, the 20th round selection, added more scoreless innings to their total. It seems like the players who played today are the most likely to get up to Kannapolis at some point.

In a seven-inning game, the DSL Sox get the win with some great bullpen performances and just enough hitting. Gabriel Rodriguez started, and was effective. He only allowed two runs and struck out six over his five innings. However, the bullpen was awesome: Fernando Vargas and Daniel Gonzalez each saw three batters, and struck them all out. You cannot get any better than that.

On offense, it was a group effort to get all five runs, with nine hits in all among seven batters. The two hitters in the lineup that came away with multiple knocks were Godwin Bennett, who kept his OPS better than 1.000, and Randel Mondesi, who hit a solo homer today. Loidel Chapelli Jr. added a bases-clearing triple. It was his seventh triple in just 39 games played. Erick Hernández reached base twice, on a double and a walk; he scored both times.