It’s been a rare occurrence, a White Sox affiliate making the playoffs this decade. And outside of the back-to-back Southern League titles by the Birmingham Barons in 2024-25, there has been scant success in those rare postseasons.
Coming off a 56-74 record last year and with only Single-A and ACL talent to pull from, it was hard to see how the team would get significantly better, thus this Dash turnaround merits plenty of applause.
But on the strength of a second-half push to 35-28, and buoyed by
some of the youngest and best prospects in the White Sox system, the High-A Winston-Salem Dash clinched a postseason berth in the South Atlantic League on Friday night, with an 8-2 win over the Rome Emperors.
They did it — your Dash are in the postseason! And it’s thanks to George Wolkow, who had two hits, three RBIs and a run. Although Nick McLain and Ryan Galvan earned solo trips around the bases, Wolkow outshined everyone in the lineup. The only guys who stand a chance of stealing the game’s MVP are on the pitching side, Grant Umberger and Jake Curtis.
Starter Umberger worked six innings, keeping the Emperors to two runs and five strikeouts. Although one of those runs was a solo homer, the southpaw maintained a steady arm throughout the evening. Curtis took the ball from Umberger and mopped up the Emperors in three shutout innings, only allowing one hit while also recording five punchouts. Having several qualified MVP candidates is a great sign and a symptom, not a cause, of the Dash making the playoffs for the first time since 2018.
Winston-Salem will face off against the formidable Bowling Green Hot Rods, a team 8 ½ games better than the Dash over the full 2026 season, in the SALLY Division Series. The Dash will host Game 1 (before moving to Bowling Green for Games 2 and 3) at 5:30 p.m. ET on September 8. We’ll have, as always, full coverage here at South Side Sox.
MVP
George Wolkow: 2-for-3, R, 3 RBI
Runners-Up
Jake Curtis: 3 IP, H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K
Grant Umberger: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, BB, 5 K HR
Jeral Perez: 3-for-5, RBI, K
Nick McLain: 2-for-4, R, RBI, BB, K
Ryan Galvan: 1-for-4, R, RBI, 2 K
Cold Cat
Kaleb Freeman: 0-for-4, 3 K, SB
Runners-Up
Ely Brown: 0-for-4, R
James Taussig: 1-for-5, R, RBI, 3 K
