Barons Record
4-2 (August 12-18)
60-54 (overall, 4th place of 8)
19-26 (second half, 6th place of 8)

It was another great week for the Barons, going 4-2 against the Tennessee Smokies. Birmingham was well-rounded, with the offense and pitching backing each other up on days they needed support. Jairo Iriarte threw for two solid outings, going six innings each. He now has a 3.76 ERA and is leading the Barons in strikeouts with 110.

Wilfred Veras has been on fire, and blasted two homers last week (the most on the team), rounded out by a 1.021 OPS. Although Jason Matthews had about half the at-bats as Wilfred, he was extremely efficient with them, leading the team in OPS (1.065) and OBP (.429) over the last seven days.

August 13: Birmingham Barons 4, Tennessee Smokies 3
Jairo Iriarte struggled with his control, immediately digging himself into a bit of a hole with two walks in the first, which allowed the first run to score for Tennessee. Iriarte had baserunners almost constantly throughout his six innings, but he worked extra hard to keep runs from scoring, giving up just two earned – the third scored after a throwing error from Jason Matthews in the fifth. Overall, he’s proven to be a consistent starter for the Barons, and is sitting at a 3.96 ERA in 109 total innings, though his 1.28 WHIP could use some work.

Offensively, the Barons were chasing an early 1-0 lead, and after a sac-bunt RBI from Jacob Gonzalez and an RBI triple from Wilfred Veras, Birmingham took the lead back in the third. Mario Camilletti drove in third run for the Barons on a sac fly to tie the game at three, and Terrell Tatum got a hold of one in the bottom of the seventh, blasting a solo shot that would be the game-winning RBI.

The bullpen gave up just one more hit the rest of the game, and was otherwise efficient in shutting the Smokies down, earning the 4-3 win.

Game MVPs
Jairo Iriarte (RHSP) 3-for-4, R, 2 RBI, BB, K
Wilfred Veras (DH) 2-for-4, 3B, RBI
Terrell Tatum (LF) 1-for-3, HR, R, RBI, 2 K

August 14: Birmingham Barons 1, Tennessee Smokies 0
A pitchers’ duel took place on Wednesday, with both teams accumulating just three hits each and all of them coming off of the starting pitchers. Juan Carela shut down the Smokies for all six of his innings, limiting them to just five baserunners; since his promotion to Double-A he has just a 2.00 ERA in nine innings across two starts – a very small sample size, but certainly a great place to be.

The bullpen also was right on the money, as Jordan Mikel, Caleb Freeman, and Garrett Schoenle did not allow a hit, keeping the Smokies at bay to protect the lead while the bats were cold.

Nearly all of the offensive production for the Barons can be attributed to Canaan Smith-Njigba – a free-agent outfielder who was recently signed by the White Sox after being cut by the Pittsburgh Pirates in July. Smith-Njigba had two of Birmingham’s three hits, and drove in the lone RBI on a solo home run in the bottom of the first as his very first at-bat for the Barons. Welcome to the team!

Welcome to Birmingham, Canaan Smith-Njigba!

The outfielder kicks off his @BhamBarons tenure with a long ball in his first at-bat! pic.twitter.com/aAUUPwBXd6

— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) August 15, 2024

Game MVPs
Juan Carela (RHSP) 6 IP, 3 H, BB, K
Canaan Smith-Njigba (LF) 2-for-3, HR, R, RBI
Barons Bullpen 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, BB, 2 K

August 15: Tennessee Smokies 8, Birmingham Barons 6 (12 innings)
The Smokies took a quick four-run lead in the first two innings, scoring one in the first and three in the second off of Tyler Schweitzer (4 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 5 K), who didn’t have the best start. Thankfully, his offense was able to back him up.

Nick Podkul – signed by the White Sox just the day before, after playing most of the year in Triple-A within the Philadelphia Phillies organization – mashed his first home run with the Birmingham Barons, cutting the lead to 4-1. I can get behind the new guys coming in and hitting bombs, keep it up boys!

Nick Podkul, who was also added to the #Barons roster yesterday, hits his first HR with BHam. They trail 4-1. #WhiteSox pic.twitter.com/80TcLVIMyS

— FutureSox (@FutureSox) August 16, 2024

Wilfred Veras had already been having a great week, and he continued on Thursday, tying the game at four on a three-run shot to left in the bottom of the fifth.

3-RUN BOMB FROM VERAS 🤩

Barons: 4 | Smokies: 4
Bottom of 4 pic.twitter.com/T1p8AmRTcd

— Birmingham Barons (@BhamBarons) August 16, 2024

From there, neither team was able to break the tie in the final four innings, so into extras we went! Tennessee took the lead first in the 10th, but Mario Camilletti was able to tie it up again in the bottom of the inning on an RBI double – but they couldn’t push the winning run across.

The two teams traded the lead back-and-forth once again in the 11th, both driving in their run on an RBI single – Birmingham’s coming from Jacob Gonzalez. Unfortunately, Bham’s bats ran out of juice, and the Smokies were able to take a two-run lead in the 12th, and the Barons fell flat, losing 8-6.

Game MVPs
Chase Plymell (RHRP) 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K
Andrew Dalquist (RHRP) 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K
Wilfred Veras (RF) 1-for-4, HR, R, 3 RBI, 2 BB, K
Nick Podkul (3B) 2-for-5, HR, R, RBI

August 16: Tennessee Smokies 2, Birmingham Barons 0
Riley Gowens another great start, keeping the Smokies off of the base paths for four solid innings, striking out six of them in the process. Jake Palisch didn’t have as successful of an outing with a tough inning in the seventh, which is where Tennessee was able to score all of their runs. Anthony Hoopii-Tuionetoa had another efficient late-game performance, giving up three hits in his two innings, striking out two – but it didn’t help that the bats couldn’t get going to back up those two runs.

As we know, the offense was nonexistent on Friday, only getting three hits as a team – two coming from Mario Camilletti. The Barons otherwise went 0-for-5 with RISP, and (clearly) left all three runners on base. A good, old-fashioned shutout, nothing to see here, folks!

Game MVPs
Riley Gowens (RHSP) 4 IP, H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K
Anthony Hoopii-Tuionetoa (RHRP) 2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 K

August 17: Birmingham Barons 7, Tennessee Smokies 2
Birmingham bounced back on Saturday, leveraging an efficient outing from Noah Schultz, and earning the 7-2 win over Tennessee. Schultz continues to prove his reliability, and is now at a 1.59 ERA after 45 1/3 innings with the Barons, and opponents have only been able to bat .191 against him.

Jordan Mikel would ultimately earn the win, however, and was succeeded by three strong bullpen outings from Tristan Stivors, Max Roberts, and Caleb Freeman. Roberts (albeit a small sample size) has yet to give up a run in his time with the Barons.

Wilfred Veras continued his monstrous week at the plate, smoking yet another home run for two RBIs as one of his two hits. Adam Hackenberg and Jason Matthews also drove in a pair of RBIs to round out the offense and confirm the win.

Game MVPs
Noah Schultz (LHSP) 3 2/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K
Wilfred Veras (RF) 1-for-3, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI, BB
Adam Hackenberg (C) 1-for-4, 2 RBI, BB, K
Jason Matthews (2B) 1-for-4, HR, R, 2 RBI, K

August 18: Birmingham Barons 4, Tennessee Smokies 1
To close out the week, we end exactly as we started — a six-inning Jairo Iriarte gem! The Smokies only got four hits against him, and walked once, but Iriarte was able to strike them out five times and earned his fourth win of the season.

Tennessee actually outhit the Barons, 6-5, but the Barons piled it on early in the game, scoring three runs in the second. The Smokies beat themselves a bit, as they walked a run in and let another runner score on a passed ball – only one Barons run was a legit RBI (thank you, Michael Turner!), but we will certainly take the offense where we can find it.

Adam Hackenberg and Canaan Smith-Njigba also accounted for the other two RBIs, otherwise Birmingham wasn’t very active at the plate on Sunday. They went 1-for-12 with RISP, and left 12 on base as a team, but they still were able to get the job done.

Game MVPs
Jairo Iriarte (RHSP) 6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, BB, 5 K
Michael Turner (1B) 1-for-3, R, RBI, BB

Jairo Iriarte photo from the Birmingham Barons.