With a great effort from John Parke, the Knights finally had a chance to beat the Durham Bulls. But a power-laden offense couldn’t muster anything more than a lone single in six innings against Bulls’ starter Brent Honeywell, whose screwball was unhittable in a 9-2 loss in Charlotte tonight.
It got a little better when the Rays went to the pen in the seventh and Jake Burger launched a 389-foot, two-run blast over the left-center wall (with an exit velo of 97). That’s four homers for Burger in the last three games, and 15 on the season.
“He missed two weeks with his hand injury and we knew he’d need some time to get his timing back,” manager Wes Helms said. “He is one of those players, with that powerful swing, that just doesn’t just jump back in there. He had a few struggles in some games but we really started to see his timing coming back on Sunday and then last night it showed up (with two home runs). The way he was laying off pitches, his swings in-zone, everything was so much better. Good to see him get back on track.”
In the end, though, the Knights lost their 17th game in 21 tries against Durham, who lead the division with a 63-34 record and a run differential of +197.
Parke Shines Through Five
On a night when there were no other offensive highlights, the other bright spot for the Knights was Parke, whose lone blemish in five innings was a solo homer in the fourth.
Things turned in the sixth, as he surrendered a single, double, walk and single. Then, with the bases loaded, no outs and just one run in, Parke was the victim of some awful luck: He induced a groundball to third baseman Zach Remillard, who stepped on the bag for the force out and then fired the ball home in plenty of time for catcher Yasmani Grandal to apply the tag for a crucial doubleplay.
But Grandal didn’t realize that Remillard had stepped on the bag. So instead of tagging the runner, Grandal simply stepped on home, thinking he just needed a force out. As a result, rather than two outs, runners on first and second and just one run, the Bulls had two runs, one out and two on.
While Grandal was likely shielded by the baserunner from seeing Remillard step on the bag, his teammates are probably the ones at fault here for not yelling out “tag” in a mostly empty Truist Field. On the next play, the Bulls pulled a double steal. Again, the infielders apparently failed to alert third baseman Remillard of the steal attempt, who was far away from the bag in a shift and couldn’t beat the runner to the bag without being in motion early in the play.
After that, the Bulls got a single and two more runs and the rout was on. Durham poured it on against relievers Bennett Sousa and Lane Ramsey, with four more runs in the seventh and eighth.
Parke deserved a better fate. Of the 17 outs he recorded, five were by strikeout and nine were groundouts.
“His fastball tails away from righties and down and in to lefties,” Helms said. “He is a guy who pitches to contact. He wants soft contract. He has to rely on getting those ground balls for his infielders and getting swings and misses down in the zone. And that’s what he does. He’s not a guy who can go up in the zone a lot, especially in a ballpark like this. We rely on our defensive positioning with him.”
A Glance At The Box Score
Mikie Mahtook had a single in three chances, with two strikeouts. Gavin Sheets fanned in all four plate appearances.
Romy Gonzalez also was hitless, but Helms remains excited about his plate approach.
“He’s an impact player,” Helms said. “Even last night. After his first hit, he made some outs. But even in his outs, he’s having good at bats, and that’s what I look at. He chopped the ball to third, but he topped it. He was on time. If he barrels that ball, it is by the third baseman. Then he hit a two-strike ball to second base. His at-bats have been tremendous, even when he’s made outs. He makes our lineup powerful.”
This is Gonzalez’ first year as a middle infielder. I asked Helms how Gonzalez is doing so far.
“I had him at 2019 in Instructs and he was an outfielder being converted to an infielder,” Helms recalled. “He was really raw, just learning shortstop. Now, after being in Birmingham this year, he’s so much more polished. You can see he still has some things to work on, like after his first step, maybe bringing it down a little sooner, or sometimes he’s a little over-aggressive making the play when maybe he doesn’t have to be, especially on our infield, being a faster infield.”
“Right now, I’d say he has shown me nothing but great things at shortstop. He has good instincts, his positioning has been very good. His willingness to work and being coachable are just going to make him better. You’ll see him over the next five weeks as he plays short, and he’ll play some second, too, he’ll get better and better each week.”
A Tough Road Awaits
In addition to Honeywell, a top Rays’ prospect who has suffered through injuries the past few years, the Knights faced three quality Tampa Bay relievers on rehab assignments: David Robertson, Ryan Thompson and Nick Anderson.
And it doesn’t get much easier as the series continues.
On Thursday, Tobias Myers takes the mound for the Bulls, a 23-year-old righty who has a 1.06 WHIP and 105 strikeouts in 83.1 innings this season. Friday is a rare day off to accommodate an NFL game that night in Charlotte, but the teams will play a day-night doubleheader on Saturday.
Both teams will have a bullpen game in one of the Saturday games, with Jimmy Lambert squaring off in the other against Shane Baz, the 20th best prospect in the minor leagues, according to MLB.com.
The series wraps up Sunday with Alex McRae against Tommy Romero, who started and won Tuesday’s game in Charlotte for the Bulls.
Photo credit: Caleb Probst/FutureSox
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