Omaha Storm Chasers 11, Charlotte Knights 3 (Statcast box) The Charlotte pitching staff struggled to make it through this one: 15 hits, seven walks and two home runs. To add insult, Omaha left fielder MJ Melendez hit for the cycle. Though four of the 11 runs were unearned, Knights (62-79) bats weren’t able to rise to the challenge, for a third straight loss. The Knights took a one-run lead in the top of the first after manufacturing a run on a sac fly from Andre Lipcius to score Drake Logan, who
led off the game with a double, but that tiny lead didn’t last long.
Righthander Owen White tossed the first three innings, and if not for the solo home run he gave up that tied the game at one, his start was decent: one run on four hits, a hit batter, a walk, a balk, and four strikeouts. Once the ball was handed to the bullpen, however, things got a bit out of control. Evan McKendry took over and and was solid in the fourth, but Omaha tagged him for five runs in the fifth and two in the sixth, making it 8-3. Only three of the seven runs McKendry gave up were earned, but three of the four unearned runs were due to his own throwing error on a pickoff attempt with two outs. The other stemmed from a fielding error from Jacob Gonzalez earlier in the inning. McKendry, unsurprisingly, ended up with his ninth loss of the season, allowing six hits, three walks and two strikeouts.
In an attempt to fight back while down five runs in the sixth, Tim Elko started a brief rally by driving a base hit to center, followed by Andre Lipcius recording his second RBI of the game on a triple to left. Bryan Ramos brought him home on the next at-bat on a sac fly that cut Omaha’s lead in half, 6-3, but those were unfortunately the last runs that the Knights would score. The offense went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position, and left six on base as a team.
Because the Storm Chasers added two more in the sixth, Cam Booser was out for the seventh in an attempt to stop the bleeding. But Booser started the inning by giving up a solo shot to make it 9-3. The southpaw hit a batter then allowed two hits — including the double that sealed the cycle for Melendez — and one more run before Peyton Pallette was selected to get the last out. He was able to do it, but not without walking the first batter he faced to keep everyone on their toes. The eighth inning was nearly the same story, as Jairo Iriarte gave up the 11th and final run after two walks and two base hits, and Tommy Vail came in as the last pitcher for the Knights to secure the last out … and the loss.
Birmingham Barons 7, Biloxi Shuckers 6
The Barons (80-55) blew a six-run lead in the sixth, but Wilfred Veras was able to drive in what ended up being the winning run on a sacrifice fly in the seventh to defeat the Shuckers (72-63), 7-6, a much-needed bounce-back game after dropping the first two of the series. The Birmingham bats went off for 10 hits and went 4-for-9 with runners in scoring position, but left six on base as a team.
Biloxi had taken a one-run lead in the first on a solo bomb off of Barons starter Hagen Smith, but the Birmingham batters got right to work and answered back with four runs in the bottom half of the inning. Rikuu Nishida reached base by being hit, William Bergolla followed that up with a base hit, and Ryan Galanie drove in the first run on an RBI double. With two runners on, DJ Gladney capitalized on the moment and smashed a three-run blast to take a 4-1 lead. They kept it rolling in the bottom of the fourth for two more runs; Jordan Sprinkle accounted for the fifth run on an RBI infield base hit, and Nishida brought in the sixth run on a double out to left to make it 6-1.
Smith had a bit of a weird outing, in that he allowed just one hit in his four innings — the aforementioned homer in the first — but he really couldn’t get a handle on his control and walked six batters … while also striking out six. Smith has stuck out an insane bloc of batters in 2025 (34% strikeout rate) but also walks them at a brutal 16.7% rate — nearly 5% higher than the worst MLB walk rate (12%), if you were wondering. His saving grace really is that he he misses a ton of bats, and working on his control is something he should be focusing on in the offseason.
Righthander Jared Kelley was the first out of the Barons bullpen, and the five-run lead slowly dwindled as he gave up four runs on two hits and two walks, including a three-run bomb that cut the Birmingham lead to one, 6-5. This game started out feeling like it could be a Birmingham blowout, but the Shuckers weren’t going to go down without a fight.
Carson Jacobs was in charge of the next two innings and because baseball is fun and cool, he wound up with the blown save and the win, which seems to be a White Sox minor league specialty this season. Jacobs gave up a home run to tie the game at six, but the Barons were able to take the lead back in the bottom of the seventh. DJ Gladney walked and stole second base to kick things off, and the Shuckers catcher assisted with a throwing error to put Gladney on third. Wilfred Veras pulled through and a sacrifice fly was all it took to steal back the lead.
Thankfully, there were no further bullpen malfunctions. Eric Adler and Tyler Davis shut Biloxi down for the final two innings, and Davis earned his third save with a clean inning and two strikeouts to end the game.
