KANNAPOLIS, N.C. – A back-and-forth affair between the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers and Fayetteville Woodpeckers led to a Jose Rodriguez walk-off 8-7 win for the home team.
The White Sox No. 14 prospect had himself a solid night at the plate, going 2-for-6 with an RBI-double in the fifth inning on top of the game-winning single. Saturday night was a shot in the arm for the Dominican as he had gone hitless the last two nights prior with questions growing about his glove work. Rodriguez was able to have a clean night in the field on top of his clutch night at the plate. This might get Rodriguez back on track after he was dealing with some muscle tightness prior to this series.
Before Rodriguez was able to score those runs for Kannapolis, Saturday’s starter Angel Acevedo tossed five innings of two-hit ball while collecting four strikeouts along the way. Acevedo had been flexible as the ‘fill-in’ starter when the rotation pieces of Jared Kelley and Matt Thompson went on the IL. The soon to be 23-year-old had struggled recently, giving up five or more runs in each of his last two appearances. Acevedo’s outing was similar to that of Valles’ on Thursday night where both were quietly shoving, keeping the Woodpeckers off the board. Acevedo and Valles may not be big name prospects, but they’re finally showing what they can do.
Acevedo was looking on target for the win, but things didn’t go quite to plan in the bullpen. Reliever Marcus Evey came in to pitch the sixth inning. The righty was able to come away with a clean frame then, but came back in the seventh where he allowed three runs for Fayetteville on three hits, including a two-run home run for Zach Daniels, and a walk. Evey’s poor outing was followed up by Homer Cruz, who blew the save for Kannapolis and allowed Fayetteville to score two lead-securing runs.
White Sox top-30 prospect McKinley Moore came in a clean up role, but allowed a run himself in his two innings pitched. His strongest inning came in the 9th where he recorded two strikeouts and set down the Woodpeckers 1-2-3 in the inning. He was comfortably attacking the top of the zone with his electric fastball, which topped out at 99MPH tonight. When asked about his strategy to attack up in the zone, Moore said, “that’s been successful the last couple of times I’ve pitched, so that’s been the plan of late.” The righty had been on a roll prior to tonight, recording four saves in consecutive outings across 4.2 innings of work.
The Cannon Baller bats kept them in the game tonight. Someone who led the charge was Luis Mieses, who came in clutch on an RBI single and double tonight. He was the team cheerleader in the dugout in extra innings as he was seen yelling for the batters to come through while jumping around. Other bats that provided tonight was Caberea Weaver, who came through with an RBI single to start the scoring for Kannapolis. Weaver came into tonight a woeful 4-for-28 over his last nine contests, cooling off after his offensive attack in the Carolina Mudcats series two weeks ago.
Bryan Ramos wasn’t in the field Saturday, but was able to record a solid RBI hit at the dish. He also snagged his eighth stolen base of the year. The White Sox No. 12 prospect has shown flashes of his sneaky speed on the base paths behind his 6’2” frame. Samil Polanco was able to extend his hit-streak to 12 games as he roped a double to the outfield, which should’ve been a triple had it not been for a blown call on a tag at third base that wasn’t even close.
Kannapolis will look to secure the series victory against Fayetteville on Sunday with top-five prospect Andrew Dalquist projected to take the mound for a 12pm tilt.