This one had promise, with back-to-back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the first by Adam Engel, Mikie Mahtook and Micker Adolfo. But it went downhill quickly from there, and the Durham Bulls rolled to a 9-5 win in Charlotte Saturday night.
Knights’ starter John Parke came into the game on the heels of three strong starts. And while he wasn’t at his best tonight, he was good enough: six hits and two earned runs over five innings.
Parke handed the bullpen a 4-2 lead in the top of the sixth, but Matt Foster, Tanner Banks and Kodi Medeiros got rocked for seven runs in the next three frames, and the game was out of hand.
It sure didn’t seem it would be so one-sided at the outset. In a span of four pitches, Engel, Mahtook and Adolfo teed off on highly-regarded Bulls’ starter Brent Honeywell. Engel pulled his round tripper over the left-field wall, Mahtook went opposite field and Adolfo hit a 431-foot, 109-mph rocket over the centerfield wall.
But, to his credit, Honeywell settled in and gave up just one more run through six innings. A tough Bulls’ pen stymied the Knights the rest of the way.
With the outcome all but settled, Mahtook added a second homer, his 24th on the year, in the eighth.
Unfortunately, all four Knights’ homers were solo shots. Give credit to the Bulls’ staff, which issued no walks tonight. Conversely, the Knights issued six walks, four of whom went on to score.
Manager Wes Helms and pitching coach Matt Zaleski have preached all year for the Knights’ staff to be more aggressive, walk fewer batters and pitch to soft contact. And they’ve been doing that of late, but not so much tonight, and it came back to bite them.
The Bulls seem to bring out the worst in the Knights. That included yet another baserunning miscue tonight when Mahtook singled into the right-center gap on a ball that appeared headed for the wall. But the play was in front of Mahtook and he should have held up at first after seeing the Bulls’ outfielder cut it off. He never hesitated, however, and was easily thrown out at second. Base running has been a problem for the Knights this year, especially of late.
More Jimmy Lambert
One day after Lambert scattered five hits and one earned run over 4.2 innings, I asked Helms to assess the start. It was Lambert’s first appearance in 10 days, since a spot start in Oakland when he won his first MLB game, and Helms acknowledged that the long layoff was a factor.
“He was good,” Helms said, “but he’d go good for two hitters and then all of a sudden be off for a hitter. That shows me he was probably a little rusty. He wasn’t as consistent as he was in the Oakland game or the previous start for us before that.”
Part of the issue, Helms said, is the 10-day break meant that he was out of his routine.
Helms wanted to let Lambert get the final out in the fifth inning and have a chance for the win, but didn’t want to over-tax his pitcher and ultimately pulled him. “We’ve got to still be careful with him,” Helms said, “because he is still on that call list if something happens (in Chicago). We can’t push him too far. We’ve got to have him ready for Chicago. With the playoffs coming up, the last thing we want to do is try to push him to win a game here and then he suffers and can’t go help the big-league club.”
The Home Stretch
The Knights fell to 7-22 against the Bulls on the year. A new schedule in 2021 in response to Covid dramatically reduced travel among MILB teams and meant that Charlotte played its geographically closest opponent, Durham, 30 times in a 130-game schedule.
And that’s too bad, because the Bulls have the best record of all 30 Triple-A teams at 76-43 and are quite capable of exploiting the Knights’ shortcomings. Mercifully, the series ends on Sunday, which was originally set to be the season finale.
But, in July, major-league baseball added 10 more games to the schedule, presumably to help MLB teams keep additional players ready for the post-season, especially with Covid outbreaks happening. As a result, the Knights will host Norfolk for five games next Wednesday through Sunday and then travel to Memphis for the final five games of the season. Neither Norfolk or Memphis have a winning record, so the Knights have a decent chance to finish the year on a high note.
Photo credit: Caleb Probst/FutureSox
Want to know right away when we publish a new article? Type your email address in the box on the right-side bar (or at the bottom on a mobile device) and click “create subscription.” Our list is completely spam free, and you can opt out at any time. Also, consider supporting FutureSox on Patreon! You can get early access to special articles and Patreon-only posts, in addition to more benefits.
Shop our exclusive merchandise! Show your support with FutureSox apparel.