Before we break down Sunday’s affiliate games, it was announced Saturday
by the White Sox that two top-rated White Sox prospects — Roch Cholowsky and Billy Carlson — will both be shut down for the remainder of the minor league seasons, as reported by MLB’s Scott Merkin.Cholowsky was the top pick for Chicago in this year’s MLB draft, and played nine games with the High-A Winston-Salem Dash (36 at-bats) prior to being shut down with a wrist injury. The shortstop from UCLA hasn’t played since August
15, and because there are just about two weeks left in the Dash’s season, the White Sox are playing it safely to ensure the soreness doesn’t get worse. In those 36 ABs, Roch slashed .167/.326/.333 with a .659 OPS, one homer and 10 RBIs.
As for Carlson, the No. 3 White Sox prospect and the team’s top choice in 2025 will cut his season short with the Low-A Kannapolis Cannon Ballers so he can treat an infection in his left leg. The 20-year-old shortstop was placed on the IL on August 11, and due to the continuing treatment he is receiving, he’ll cut the season a bit short as the Ballers are also set to complete their season September 6. In 57 games with Kannapolis, Carlson has posted a .726 OPS with a .256/.388/.338 slash line, with 15 extra-base hits but no homers.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders 9, Charlotte Knights 5Both the Knights (67-59) and the RailRiders (65-57) posted nine hits, but Scranton/Wilkes-Barre was more productive with runners in scoring position (3-for-6) against Charlotte pitching to earn a split of the series. The RailRiders put up runs in all but three innings, and scored a run off all but one Knights pitcher (Aidan Anderson) in the process.
Righthander Shane Smith made his 14th start of the year and ended up allowing five earned runs on five hits, two of which scored two RBIs in the second, and the other three from a three-run shot in the fourth that put the Knights in a five-run hole. Smith struck out two in today’s outing, but ended up walking five while struggling with his control, ultimately receiving the loss. It seems pretty clear at this point that Smith will be no help to the big club in 2026.
The bullpen wasn’t redeeming after Smith had left the game, and gave up runs in the next three innings while the offense kept mostly quiet.
Rikuu Nishida had the first hit for Charlotte in the top of the fourth, but it didn’t put its first run on the board until the following inning. Andy Weber recorded two of the team’s three extra-base hits on Sunday, the first being a two-bagger that landed him into scoring position, just for Jason Matthews to drive him in on the next at-bat and cut the deficit to 5-1. Weber also homered in the top of the ninth in an effort to spark a last-minute rally, but the RailRiders shut it down after that to snag the final two outs of the game, and the win.
Matthews and Weber were two of the three players with multi-hit days, along with Joey Weimer, who also drove in one of the four runs batted in for the Knights. But nine runs is quite a few to give up across four pitchers, with three also allowing a long ball. Tanner McDougal gave up one of the gopher balls as his only hit allowed, with two earned runs on the day; with the Knights this season, McDougal still holds a 3.76 ERA across 38 1/3 innings, and even without his two runs, the damage was already done and the Knights still would have lost by two.
MVP
Andy Weber (2B): 2-for-3, 3 R, RBI, BB, 2B, HR
Runners-Up
Rikuu Nishida (RF): 1-for-5, RBI, K
Joey Weimer (LF): 2-for-4, RBI, SB
Jason Matthews (SS): 2-for-4, RBI, 2 K
Aidan Anderson (RHRP): 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R
Cold Cat
Shane Smith (RHSP): 4 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 BB, 2 K, HR, LOSS (2-1)
Runners-Up
Jairo Iriarte (RHRP): 1 IP, H, R, K, HR
Morris Austin (RHRP): 1 IP, 2 H, R, K
Tanner McDougal (RHRP): 1 IP, H, 2 R, BB, K, HR
Korey Lee (C): 0-for-4, 2 K, GIDP
Tim Elko: 0-for-4, 2 K
Birmingham Barons 4, Chattanooga Lookouts 2
The Barons (52-58) outhit the Lookouts (52-68), 11-4, and completed the series sweep to win their sixth game in a row and eight of their last 10, 4-2. After a horrid first half with a .377 win percentage (26-43) and -82 run differential, Birmingham has turned it around quite a bit, now one game above-.500 (26-25) with a +21 run differential so far in the second half. Most importantly, the Barons are just one game out of postseason qualification, so it should be an exciting stretch run for the club.
Lefthander Lucas Gordon opened for the first 2 1/3 frames, allowing just one run on one hit with a walk and 2 Ks, but Jake Palisch took his fourth W of the season after 5 2/3 innings of bulk work, only letting up one additional run in the game. Thankfully the offense scored one in the first and another in the third, so they were working with a new ball game and a prepared bullpen. Dylan Campbell has excellent back-to-back games at the plate, putting up another three hits today, though Anthony DePino came through in the clutch not once, but twice: Driving in the second run of the game in the third on an RBI double, tagging on an insurance run just a few innings later on a base hit.
Caleb Bonemer has also been elite this whole series after struggling earlier in the month, and his RBI base hit in the fifth allowed the Barons to take a 3-2 lead before DePino worked his magic. With today’s go-ahead RBI, Bonemer drove in a run in every game of this series except for the opener on Tuesday, and hit a homer in three of the six games. The Good Guys held it down for the last few innings, and Jackson Kelley worked his eighth save of the season.
MVP
Jake Palisch (LHRP): 5 2/3 IP, 3 H, R, 3 BB, 3 K, WIN (4-9)
Runners-Up
Anthony DePino (1B): 2-for-5, 2 RBI, 2 K, 2B
Dylan Campbell (RF): 3-for-5, R, SB
Alec Briley (3B): 2-for-4, R, RBI, BB, K, SB
Caleb Bonemer (DH): 1-for-5,R, RBI, GIDP
Cold Cat
Ryan Burrowes (SS): 0-for-5, K, E
Runners-Up
Jacob Burke (LF): 0-for-4, K
Lucas Gordon (LHSP): 2 1/3 IP, H, R, BB, 2 K
Winston-Salem Dash 12, Greenville Drive 5The Dash (66-53) grabbed their third straight win after the offense posted 16 hits as a team to defeat the Drive (52-65), 12-5, while also taking the series, 4-2. Winston-Salem outhit Greenville, 16-6, only three of which were extra-base hits (two doubles, a triple, and a homer), but they were 6-for-17 with runners in scoring position. And even with 12 driven in, W-S still left 11 on base as a team. Winston-Salem was actually losing the game going into the seventh, but popped off for 10 runs to completely turn the game on its head.
Nearly every single Dash batter recorded at least one RBI (sorry, George Wolkow), though he did at least get one hit, whereas Rylan Galvan was the only one who didn’t in that department. Kyle Lodise, Jeral Perez and Derek Cerda each drove in two runs, though it was Perez and Cerda who led the team with three hits each. The three-bagger was one of Cerda’s three hits, Ely Brown mashed two doubles and drove one in, and Nick McLain mashed his first High-A homer of the season.
As for the pitching, Grant Umberger made his 20th start of the season, and had a hard time with his 4 2/3 innings, letting up a three-run bomb in the bottom of the fifth to cap off a four-run frame that allowed the Drive to take a 4-1 lead. Umberger was likely in line for the loss, but was bailed out by the bats a few innings later, as well as the bullpen, who only surrendered one other hit for the final 4 1/3, leaving Aric McAtee with his fourth win of the season after just two-thirds of an inning tossed.
MVP
Derek Cerda (LF): 3-for-5, 3 R, 2 RBI, 3B
Runners-Up
Nick McLain (DH): 2-for-3, 2 R, RBI, 2 BB, HR (first in High-A)
Jeral Perez (3B): 3-for-6, R, 2 RBI, K
Ely Brown (CF): 2-for-5, 2 R, RBI, BB, 2 2B
Kyle Lodise (SS): 2-for-5, R, 2 RBI, BB, 2 K
Jarold Rosado (RHRP): 2/3 IP, 0 H, BB, 2 K
Aric McAtee (RHRP): 2/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, WIN (4-6)
Cold Cat
Grant Umberger (LHSP): 4 2/3 IP, 5 H, 4 R, BB, 6 K, HR
Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 17, Fredricksburg Nationals 4
The Cannon Ballers (64-56) went out of this series with a bang, dropping 17 runs on 16 hits to take the series over the Nationals (70-49). It certainly helped that the Ballers walked 11 times against just seven strikeouts, and the pitching was efficient enough with the cushion they were provided to secure the win.
Kannapolis entered the eighth frame up by one, 4-3, but exploded for nine runs in that inning, tagging on four more in the top of the ninth. Five of nine Kanny batters racked up multi-hit days, though Alexander Albertus and Clay Burdette led the team with three apiece, with Burdette leading the way with five batted in on the day, thanks to a grand slam in the eighth. Both Grayson Fitzwater and Crew McChesney also drove in three runs, and just four of the 16 hits were for extra-bases, including McChesney who cleared the bases with a pinch-hit, three-run double in the ninth to throw salt in Fredericksburg’s wound, 17-4.
Righthander Alexander Martinez made his 12th start of the season, and though he did relinquish two bombs to the Nationals, they were solo shots, and were the only two hits he allowed in his four innings while striking out five. Fidel Montero took over in the fifth for three, and helped keep Kannapolis in the game with a more narrow lead at the time, and was eventually awarded the win after three solid innings.
MVP
Clay Burdette (RF): 3-for-6, R, 5 RBI, HR (grand slam), SB
Runners-Up
Crew McChesney (PH/LF): 1-for-1, 3 RBI, 2B
Grayson Fitzwater (1B): 2-for-6, R, 3 RBI, SF
Alexander Albertus (3B): 3-for-4, 2 R, RBI, 2 BB
Christian Gonzalez (CF): 2-for-4, 2 R, RBI, 2 BB, 2B
Fidel Montero (RHRP): 3 IP, 4 H, R, 0 BB, K, WIN (1-0)
Cold Cat
Stiven Flores (C): 0-for-5, R, BB, K, E
Runner-Up
Alexander Martinez (RHSP): 4 IP, 2 H, 2 R, BB, 5 K, 2 HR
