The White Sox farm system had a little bit of everything across July 20-21: a couple of comeback wins, a few lopsided losses, and plenty of offense in the rookie leagues.
Charlotte’s 7-6 win over Norfolk was the cleanest finish of the bunch. The Knights fell behind early after David Sandlin issued a leadoff walk that eventually scored in the first, but the lineup answered in the fourth with a burst that flipped the game.
Rikuu Nishida drew a walk, Everson Pereira lined an RBI double, and Austin Hays followed with a two-run homer to put Charlotte ahead. Norfolk pushed back with two in the fifth, but Charlotte answered right away with four more runs.
Andy Weber homered, Nolan Jones added an RBI, and the Knights stretched the lead to 7-3. The Tides made it uncomfortable late by getting one off Tanner McDougal and two more against Garrett Schoenle in the ninth, but they ran out of outs.
Sandlin allowed just one hit, but he walked three in four innings and struck out two.
Birmingham had the opposite kind of night in a 13-4 loss to Montgomery. Caleb Bonemer gave the Barons a fast start with his 22nd homer of the season in the first inning, but that was about as good as it got.
Montgomery hammered Birmingham’s pitching for 13 runs on 17 hits, and the Barons never found a way to slow it down. The offense did collect nine hits and three walks, but it went just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
Bonemer added another RBI single in the fifth after Jacob Burke and Boston Smith drew back-to-back walks, and Brendon Dixon hit a solo homer in the ninth. By then, the game was already out of reach.
Winston-Salem also got a brief early lift before things slipped away in a 6-1 loss to Greensboro. James Taussig singled to open the second, moved up on a pair of wild pitches, and scored on Ely Brown’s triple.
That was the Dash’s only run. Greensboro answered in the third, took a 2-1 lead, and never gave it back.
The Grasshoppers added four more runs late against the Winston-Salem bullpen to put it away. The Dash managed only five hits, four of them singles, and finished 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
Kannapolis was buried early in a 7-4 loss to Columbia. Gabriel Rodriguez got hit hard right away, allowing six runs in fewer than two innings, and the Cannon Ballers were forced to play catch-up the rest of the way.
Their bullpen held Columbia scoreless for five innings before Choyce Diffey gave up a run in the eighth. The offense finally showed life in the seventh, when Stiven Flores and Derek Cerda singled and Matthew Boughton walked to load the bases.
Alexander Albertus drove in a run, Christian Gonzalez added a sac fly, and Jurdrick Profar doubled home another. Kannapolis tried again in the ninth when Boughton opened with a triple and Albertus doubled him in, but the rally came up short.
Albertus finished 2-for-3 with two RBI and a walk.
At the ACL level, the White Sox dropped a 4-2 decision to the Reds. The offense never really got going, finishing with four hits, two walks, and no damage in eight chances with runners on base.
Leandro Alsinois tied the game briefly with his first homer of the year in the third, but Orlando Suarez gave the lead right back in the bottom of the inning. Frank Mieses added a solo homer later, but both White Sox runs came on solo shots and little else followed.
The DSL White Sox had the most productive day of the group, beating the DSL Blue Jays Blue 9-4 despite collecting only five hits. Toronto’s pitchers handed the game away with seven wild pitches and 14 walks, and Chicago took advantage by scoring in every inning except the fourth.
Ronald Cardoza and Sebastian Romero each drove in a run in the first, Cardoza added another RBI hit in the third, and Felix Lebron delivered a two-run single in the fifth. The pitching staff backed it up by holding the Blue Jays to four hits and two earned runs over seven innings.
There was also a July 20 result in the ACL, where the White Sox rallied past the Brewers 8-7 in a seven-inning game. Down 7-4 early, they started climbing back with Yordani Soto’s RBI double in the second.
Wes Kath, rehabbing, hit a two-run homer in the third, and D’Angelo Tejada tied it in the fifth with his fourth homer of the year, a three-run shot. The go-ahead run came in the sixth after Jefrank Silva walked, moved to second on a passed ball, and Darren Baker, also on rehab, singled him home.
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Murakami has drawn a walk in seven straight games, a small but meaningful marker for a team trying to balance a division race with player development and injury management. The power is still there in flashes, too, which is part of why the White Sox seem to believe the version they are seeing now may be closer to the one they can count on down the stretch. [Read more 🡒]