Romy Gonzalez had quite a coming out party in his first game in Triple-A, with two home runs, including a bottom-of-the-ninth, three-run walk-off blast off a 100-mph fast ball for a 7-5 Knights’ win over the Norfolk Tides.
“He’s a professional hitter,” manager Wes Helms said post-game. “He’s a guy who can hit in the middle of most lineups. He has tremendous power to the opposite field and plays a really tremendous shortstop.”
The Knights struggled early against yet another soft-tossing pitching, with just one single in five innings against Tides’ starter Alex Wells. But, down 3-0 going to the bottom of the seventh, the Knights awoke, with a single by Yasmani Grandal, a home run by Yermin Mercedes, a double by Blake Rutherford and the first Gonzalez round tripper.
But the lead was short-loved. Kodi Medeiros came on to pitch the eighth, his first appearance since Aug. 5 after suffering a lower-back muscle pull, and the rust was evident. The Tides took the lead, 5-4, scoring two runs without a hit, relying instead on three walks; two wild pitches, both times with runners on third; and two stolen bases and an errant throw on one of them that allowed the runner to advance to third. Medeiros was only able to record one out before being lifted.
That set the stage for the bottom of the ninth. The Tides brought on Felix Bautista, a closer whose fastball often touches 100 mph. Hitless up to that point, Gavin Sheets opened the inning with a line-shot double that just missed clearing the right-field wall. Next, Mikie Mahtook, also hitless on the day, worked a walk. After a Rutherford fly out, Gonzalez delivered the game winner.
I asked him to walk me through the at bat.
“You got a high-velocity closer out there,” he said, “and I know he is going to attack me. I missed that first one (fastball) and I knew he was going to come back to it. He slipped a breaking ball in there just to show me that he’s got it but I was dead-red on the heater and I got a good pitch and put a good swing on it and that was that.”
He said the pitch was a letter-high fastball just off the plate.
A Well-Pitched Game
Gonzalez stole the show but there was more good news.
After a tough first inning, Jimmy Lambert looked like the top prospect that the White Sox think he is. In fact, he was perfect, retiring nine in a row in the second, third and fourth innings. Lambert needed 25 pitches to get out of the first, but just 41 more for the next three innings. Overall, 41 of his 66 pitches were strikes.
Other than the Medeiros meltdown, the bullpen also did a nice job keeping the team in the game. Matt Foster, Nik Turley and Kyle Crick had seven strikeouts over 4.2 innings, with a solo shot off of Foster the only blemish.
More On The Gonzalez Debut
I asked Helms to tell me more about Gonzalez’ skill set. Helms said he met Gonzalez in 2019 at instructs, but said the shortstop has worked hard to build his body since then and is a different player now.
And he has the confidence to know he belongs in Triple-A.
“You could tell when he walked in the clubhouse last night and when he got here today, he was the first person to come to me to ask about defensive positioning,” Helms said. “You can see it in his eyes, he wants it. Usually, guys are a little timid and a little scared because it is their first Triple-A game, they’re not going to come to the manager right away.”
“But it was almost like he has been here all year. He’s a professional hitter. He didn’t care that today was his first start in Triple-A. He went out there and took it to them and he did not look timid. He was aggressive and he knew what he was doing, his instincts on the field, moving over with two strikes on certain guys. You could see him reading their swings.”
Another Player on Rehab
Today’s game also marked the start of Billy Hamilton’s rehab in Charlotte. Hamilton went on the IL on Aug. 1 with an oblique strain. He was hitless in three trips, with two strikeouts.
Photo credit: Caleb Probst/FutureSox
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