The Kannapolis Cannon Ballers won their seven-game series against the Fayetteville Woodpeckers with highlights and lowlights along the way.
THE RESULTS
7 games, 4-3 (W-L)
Batting: .254/.338/.378 Slash, 40 R, 58 H, 17 XBH, 25 BB, 75 K, 4 SB
Pitching: 56 IP, 4.15 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, .223 OPP BA, 28 R, 47 H, 29 BB, 58 K
THE OFFENSE
A duo of unranked White Sox prospects led the way for the Kannapolis offense. Samil Polanco and Harvin Mendoza combined for over a third of the teams’ total hits this series with 22 combined knocks.
Polanco exploded with a five-RBI night on July 21 that included a three-run home run to help propel Kannapolis to a 15-2 rout of Fayetteville. The Dominican infielder also showcased his ability to get on base in the series opener. He went 5-for-6 with a double, and RBI and scored three times in a 10-8 victory.
Polanco was out of commission for a while at the start of the season after sustaining an injury during opening week. After sitting at a .216 batting average on June 19, Polanco has raised his average by nearly 70 points and shown that he can get on-base on a nightly basis.
On the other side of the coin, Mendoza has been a model of consistency since he joined Kannapolis and that carried over to this series. He was able to hit safely in all but one of the seven contests this week with three of those being multi-hit performances. The first baseman’s strongest performance came in the 15-2 victory on July 21 when he reached base four times, drove in three runs, and scored twice. While he may not have tons of pop, Mendoza can hit for average as his season-to-date .317 average and .417 on-base are third best in the Low-A East division.
Luis Mieses contributed a solid week for himself as well. He drove in eight runs for Kannapoilis and collected nine hits along the way. His solid week propelled him past the .300 mark for his batting average with Kannapolis.
Solid contributions from these three Cannon Ballers made up the struggles of some notable names on the roster. Bryan Ramos struggled for only two hits across his six contests this week. While he wasn’t able to get on base with the bat, his patience allowed him to get on by walking a team-leading five times. Caberea Weaver reached base only five times and struck out a whopping 14 times this week. He has struggled with strikeouts as he had two or more strikeouts in each of the last four contests in the series.
As a team, the Cannon Ballers couldn’t mount much in their losses to the Woodpeckers. In their three losses, they combined for three runs and were two-hit in each of their shutout losses. When the offense is clicking, they can catch fire and run away with games. When they’re off, they can’t mount a charge.
THE PITCHING
This was a bounce-back week for the Kannapolis arms as they were looking to shake off a rough series against the Carolina Mudcats. A sign of a good week was the fact that they didn’t allow Fayetteville to score double digit runs, something that the Mudcats were able to do for a majority of the former series.
The main storyline for the pitching was the return of White Sox No.1 prospect, Jared Kelley. Kelley had been sidelined for over a month with an injury. He returned to the diamond for Kannapolis back on July 21. The rust was very apparent as he walked four and allowed two runs in two innings of work. While the sample size was small, it was good to have Kelley back on the mound. The command is something that he had struggled with before his injury and will be something to monitor as he progresses through 2021.
Matt Thompson, who himself just recently returned from injury, had two goes at the Woodpeckers this week. His first outing didn’t go quite to plan as he allowed five earned across three innings back on July 20. Determined to bounce back, Thompson did just that to close out the series. The top-5 prospect put together five innings of two-hit baseball while striking out five. It’s only his third start back from his lower-body injury, but it was his best of the season by far.
Chase Solesky put together a seven strikeout game in 3.2 innings, falling just one shy of his season high of eight. Unfortunately, he allowed three earned runs and was dealt the loss in a 7-0 contest on July 23.
In the bullpen, Karan Patel had a solid week in his lone outing. He was able to strike out four Woodpeckers across two innings of relief on July 23. The recent call-up from the Arizona Complex League on July 13 has something to carry forward with his outing this week.
The bullpen struggle came behind Ty Madrigal. Madrigal, who had been a stable reliever for the Ballers, was lit up for four runs across 1.1 innings in his lone outing of the week. He’s now allowed three or more earned runs in two of his last three outings. The southpaw has been on or off in his last handful of outings.
LOOKING AHEAD
The Kannapolis Cannon Ballers return to Atrium Health Ballpark for a six-game set against the Salem Red Sox. With the trade deadline looming in five days, there may be some roster shakeups along the way.
Photo credit: Michael Guariglia/FutureSox
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