Reinforcements arrived from Chicago and Birmingham, along with a free agent veteran reliever, and the result was much more competitive baseball last week on the road in Jacksonville. The Knights won three, including Sunday’s 14-7 blowout, and lost three other very winnable games.
The reinforcements included Gavin Sheets and Danny Mendick, who the White Sox sent down to make room for their trade deadline acquisitions. While Mendick was recalled for the Field of Dreams game and again a few days later to replace Leury Garcia (who went on the 7-day concussion IL), Sheets hit the ground running in Jacksonville, with two homers, two doubles, four singles, three walks and seven RBI in 24 plate appearances.
Jake Burger, who was returned to Charlotte in late July to clear a spot for Luis Robert, was placed on the seven-day IL and did not play in Jacksonville. Burger was pulled from a game on July 30 with what was believed to be a minor wrist injury. Apparently, he did not recover as quickly as initially expected.
Two other significant newcomers to the roster last week were Birmingham starters Kade McClude and John Parke. Added to a staff with Mike Wright, Jimmy Lambert and Jonathan Stiever, the Knights now have their deepest and most talented rotation of the year.
(Update: Wright was promoted to Chicago today. White Sox 2016 first-round pick Zack Burdi was designated for assignment to create a 40-man roster spot for Wright.)
All five guys all had solid starts in Jacksonville, though Lambert was limited to 47 pitches and three innings as the team continues to manage his workload so he is available to the White Sox for spot starts down the stretch.
The bullpen had a good week, including two shutout innings for Kyle Crick, a 28-year-old reliever who the White Sox signed recently after he was dropped by the Pirates. The low point was Nik Turley’s inexplicable five-hit, five-run, one-inning implosion in game two of the series that the Knights were on their way to winning.
As has been the case all season long, the Knights’ offense faced some impressive opposing starting pitchers. This week included rehabbing major leaguer Elieser Hernandez, who struck out 10 Knights in five innings; Edward Cabrera, one of the top pitching prospects for the Marlins and in all of the minor leagues, who fanned 12 in six innings; and Nick Neidert, the Marlins’ #9 prospect, who pitched a seven-inning complete game (double header).
The Knights finally caught a break on Sunday when they stood in the batter’s box against soft-tossing lefty, Brandon Leibrandt. And they took advantage of his struggles, erupting for six runs in the first and adding still more runs in every one of the next six innings.
Along with Sheets, several hitters had nice weeks.
Most notable was Blake Rutherford, who had his best week as a Knight, with a home run, triple, three doubles, four singles, seven runs and five RBI in 25 at bats. With five hits, including two home runs, on Sunday, Yermin Mercedes ended the week with some pretty gaudy numbers as well: eight hits in 23 at bats and six RBI.
Mikie Mahtook chipped in two more home runs, upping his team-leading total to 18, along with a double and six RBI. And Micker Adolfo added six hits in 22 at bats, including two doubles and a triple.
And, finally, the two young infielders promoted last month from Birmingham, Laz Rivera and Ti’Quan Forbes, continued to look like they belong in Triple-A despite limited opportunities this past week.
A Quick Look At The Team’s Stat Leaders
Behind Mahtook, Burger and Tim Beckham (out for the rest of the season) are tied for second on the club in home runs, with 11. A bit of a surprise at fourth is Zach Remillard, who is tied with Mercedes with 10.
Rutherford leads the team with 78 hits, four ahead of Marco Hernandez. Rutherford is also tops with 23 doubles, seven better than the next closest teammate, Matt Reynolds.
Mahtook has 42 RBI, most on the team, followed by Rutherford and Sheets, with 40 each.
The team has played 89 games. Rutherford has played in all but 10, tops on the team. No surprise then that Rutherford leads the team with at bats by a hefty margin at 313, followed by Hernandez at 275 and Reynolds at 241. Rutherford also leads the team in runs, at 44.
Few Knights have stolen base totals of note: Remillard leads with seven in nine attempts. Luis Gonzalez was 9 of 11 before he was recently dropped to open a spot on the 40-man roster and eventually claimed by the Giants. And Reynolds has five in seven tries.
Reynolds leads the team with 41 bases on balls. Gonzalez is second at 22, followed by Mahtook and Remillard, at 21. Overall, the team is last in the 20-team Triple-A East in walks, much to the chagrin on the coaching staff.
Burger and Sheets are the team’s top hitters in terms of average, at .319 and .302, respectively. Reynolds has an impressive OBP of .378, best on the team, ahead of Burger (.369) and Sheets (.363). Burger, Beckham, Mercedes, Mahtook and Sheets lead the team in slugging and OPS.
On the mound, Wright has a team-best seven wins, followed by Stiever, with five. In fact, not only does Wright leads the team in pretty much every meaningful stat, he leads the Triple-A East in ERA, innings and WHIP.
Wright has 90 strikeouts on the season, with Stiever on his heels at 88, followed by Alex McRae with 63 and Lambert with 62.
Turley has the most saves, five, in seven chances. Zack Burdi was just two of five and Ryan Burr is two of six.
And in what might make a great trivia question if it holds up for the season, the “hurler” with the lowest WHIP is — wait for it — Reynolds, who was pressed into service for 0.1 inning on May 7 and a full inning on June 3. His 0.75 WHIP is slightly ahead of several teammates (in order): Matt Foster, Crick, Parke, Jace Fry, Wright and Turley.
Up Next
After two weeks on the road, the Knights head back to the comfy confines of Truist Field to face off against the Norfolk Tide, the affiliate of the Orioles. At 37-51, the Tide is 5.5 games ahead of Charlotte in the standings. But they come in on a bit of a roll, having won five of six.
There is a crazy amount of rain in the forecast, but if it can hold off, it will be interesting to see if the Knights’ improved play can continue.
Photo credit: Sean Williams/FutureSox
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