It couldn’t have gone much better for Charlotte Knights starter Jonathan Stiever, who threw three innings and allowed minimal hard contact, just one Gwinnett hit, one walk and struck out four. The strong start, combined with excellent middle relief work from Tanner Banks as well as fireworks on offense, propelled the Knights to their first win with a 9-6 final.
“We wished Stiever had pitched a little deeper into the game, but we have to be careful with these guys early in the season,” Manager Wes Helms said. “Banks came in after Stiever and pitched great. It was awesome for Stiever and Banks to piggyback like that.”
Stiever threw 69 pitches in his first outing of the year. The quick hook meant there was the potential for a steady stream of Knights relievers to follow, much like last night when seven relievers appeared in the 12-inning game. However, the 29-year-old homegrown Banks pitched so well that the Knights only needed two more pen arms to get this one to the house.
Banks’ stats don’t jump off the box score — four innings, five hits, one earned run, two walks, one strikeout and one home run surrendered — but three of those hits came in his final inning and they were mostly weak bloopers.
Connor Sadzeck and Jacob Lindgren pitched the final two frames, though both struggled quite a bit with control. Sadzeck walked three and surrendered a hit and two earned runs. Lindgren took the ball in the 9th, and after getting an out, gave up two walks and a three-run blast to Johan Camargo. But he settled down and fanned the last two hitters to lock down Wes Helms’ first managerial win.
Meanwhile, the offense looked in mid-season form knocking 16 hits and finished a whopping 7-for-19 with runners in scoring position.
“This offense is going to be electric,” Helms said. “You are going to see some fun things out of this group. They can hit the ball out of the ballpark, but they can spray it around too. There are going to be a lot of nights like tonight.”
Helms credited hitting coach Chris Johnson’s in-game adjustments for the offensive explosion tonight.
“CJ does a good job of seeing how pitchers are pitching us,” Helms said. “He is constantly in the dugout talking to these guys, making adjustments.”
SCANNING THE BOX SCORE
With 9 runs and 16 hits, there were several standouts for the Knights. Clean-up hitter Gavin Sheets had three hits and three RBIs, while Seby Zavala, Joe DeCarlo, Tim Beckham and Marco Hernandez each had a pair of hits.
Beckham had the only homerun for the Knights, on a great at bat against Stripers’ reliever Jasseel De La Cruz.
“He did what he was supposed to do,” Helms said of Beckham’s at bat. “He didn’t try to do too much. He went with it and let it get deep.”
OPPONENT’S STARS TO WATCH
Gwinnett starter Kyle Wright didn’t have his A-game tonight, tossing five innings, giving up eight hits, three earned runs, two walks and eight strikeouts. Wright was once among several highly touted Braves minor league pitchers, but has struggled in 13 major league starts from 2019-21.
MISCELLANEOUS
I counted eight pro scouts in the stands tonight.
NEXT UP
Game 3 in the six-game opening series with Gwinnett is Thursday night, with veteran Mike Wright starting for the Knights.
Photo credit: Sean Williams/FutureSox
Want to know right away when we publish a new article? Type your email address in the box on the right-side bar (or at the bottom on a mobile device) and click create subscription. Our list is completely spam free and you can opt out at any time. Also, consider supporting FutureSox on Patreon! You can get early access to special articles and Patreon-only posts, in addition to more benefits.
Shop our exclusive merchandise! Show your support with FutureSox apparel.