Record
4-5 (August 6-15)
53-61 (overall, 10th place of 10)
20-20 (second half, fifth place of 10)

At long last, Charlotte is getting to see some of the top talent in the White Sox system, and right now feature Edgar Quero, Colson Montgomery, Bryan Ramos, Tim Elko, Mason Adams and others. But even as the roster strengthens, the hits still come — this week with manager Justin Jirschele getting “called up” to the White Sox (as third base coach)! No worries, though, MLB vet and Knights bench coach Pat Listach has slid over to the Big Chair.

Our shift to these weekly, team-by-team updates and a spacing out of the stories now from Monday-Friday has left Charlotte with an extra long update this week; it’ll be back to normal length, next week.

And for you superfans of our minor league coverage, we’ll have weekend content beginning Saturday, with stats roundups that will highlight the best of the system!

August 6: Charlotte Knights 10, Louisville Bats 5
Charlotte improved to 50-56, close if not a high-water mark at any time but early April, with a good, old-fashioned Kentucky thumping to start the series. The game stood at 4-3, Knights, through four, but at that point the heavy lumber got dragged out, mostly in the form of The Future: Edgar Quero (3-for-4, 2 R, 3 RBI, K, 0-for-1 CS) two-run blast, Colson Montgomery (1-for-5, R, HR, 3 RBI, K) three. Sean Burke (4 IP, 3H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, HR, WP) needed 78 pitches to get through four frames, which ain’t great, but hey, at least the tab was run up partly on those eight strikeouts. Trey McGough (2 IP, BB, K, 18-of-24 strikes, sixth hold), the toss-in from Baltimore in exchange for Eloy Jiménez and bags of Comiskey Cash, was terrific once again.

GAME MVP
Zach DeLoach (CF) 2-for-3, 2 R, BB, HBP, 3 RBI, 3B, HR, 32.0% WPA

August 7: Louisville Bats 6, Charlotte Knights 2
Louisville heard those footsteps behind them in the division race and clapped back at the Knights, Bat-ting in six unanswered runs in the second half of the game. Starter Nick Nastrini (5 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K), Nick Padilla (IP, H, 2 ER, 2 BB, K, HR, HB, loss to drop to 0-1) and Matt Foster (1 2/3 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 2 K) all bore a third of the damage.

GAME MVP
Bryan Ramos (3B) 2-for-4, R, HR, 2 RBI, 19.4% WPA

August 8: Louisville Bats 5, Charlotte Knights 4
For a game that was 3-0, Bats, for the balance, this game ended as tight as it appears, with the two clubs trading pairs of runs from there and Charlotte simply running short on frames. Jake Eder (6 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, pickoff at 1B, loss to drop to 0-3), newly re-maligned since Jake Burger has gone on his first hot streak of the season here in August, pitched well after a rough first of three runs … this feels like a pattern for him, poor first innings but decent starts. Tim Elko swatted a two-run blast, his third at Triple-A, to bring the Knights within one, but they could get no closer.

GAME MVP
Tim Elko (1B) 2-for-4, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI, K, 14.3% WPA

August 9: Louisville Bats 6, Charlotte Knights 4
The tricky trend of Charlotte losing close games on the road to barely-better L-ville continued here, this time with the visitors taking the early advantage, then sputtering out of gas. Johan Domínguez (5 IP, 3 H, 4 R/2 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, HR, loss to drop to 6-5) was not as sharp as he’s been of late and was not helped by his defense (a Rafael Ortega missed catch in center field in the fifth scored a run and led directly to a run and packed the sacks with Bats), but his ERA remains sturdy, at 3.90.

GAME MVP
Carlos Pérez (C) 2-for-4, HR, R, RBI, 0-for-1 CS

August 10: Charlotte Knights 11, Louisville Bats 5
Some consistent sorts of games so far in this series: Tight wins for L-ville, blowouts in Charlotte’s favor. The Knights made it two of five now with this big win, powered by two homers from Tim Elko (2-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 HR, BB). Four other Knights added two hits apiece in the 16-hit attack, with Edgar Quero (3-for-5, 2 R, K, GIDP, 0-for-2 CS) chipping in three. Sox Populi hero Mason Adams (3 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 5 BB, K, 33-of-68 strikes) had an absolutely forgettable Triple-A debut start, but then again, he was trying to pitch through a cranky back (hey Sox, let’s spring for first class from Birmingham east instead of a bumpy bus eh?). Trey McGough (2 IP, H, K, 17-of-23 strikes, win to go 4-0) vultured the win and stays immaculate on the season (1.77 ERA).

GAME MVP
Bryan Ramos (3B) 2-for-5, 2B, R, RBI, 10.1% WPA

August 11: Louisville Bats 4, Charlotte Knights 3
True to form in this series, the Bats wrap it with a tight win — on a walk-off double, no less — to best the Knights this week, four games to two, despite Charlotte outscoring the bad guys, 34-31. Rafael Ortega was the key player in the game, racking up a ton of WPA in a losing cause. Sean Burke (3 2/3 IP, 2 H, ER, 3 BB, 6 K, HR) ran into some pitch-count issues again in return from injury, but as in the series opener some of that came from his relentless strikeout pace. He also continues to chisel his ERA down to a level that will start quickening some pulses on the South Side.

GAME MVP
Rafael Ortega (CF) 1-for-2, RBI, 3 BB, 2 SB, 35.7% WPA

August 13: Charlotte Knights 3, Toledo Mud Hens 1
The Knights gave some serious what-for to Corporal Klinger’s favorite ballclub, in the form of a Nick Nastrini knuckle sandwich. Double-N improved to 2-9 on the season and let’s not sugarcoat it, he’s suffered quite a fall from cracking the rotation out of Arizona to misery at Triple-A. But these last six weeks can right some wrongs and re-set the starter of a spot in the 2025 rotation. The starting arms are coming hard and several (Drew Thorpe, Jonathan Cannon, Davis Martin, Ky Bush) have staked a claim to Nastrini’s vacated space, but let’s face it, the White Sox will never have enough manpower on the mound.

GAME MVP
Nick Nastrini (RHSP) 6 IP, 2 H, ER, 2 BB, 7 K, HR, win to improve to 2-9, 22.9% WPA

August 14: Toledo Mud Hens 6, Charlotte Knights 4 (12 innings)
The powers-that-be (OK, Rob Manfred) must really have hated this one: a meaningless mid-August game between two mediocre teams that taxed the pitching staffs for 12 innings. You can understand fake baseball rules in the minors, where players have to perform and prove themselves but also need some protection given that the only “real” games (through MLB myopia) are in the majors; why Manfred Man games are played in the big leagues, well, someone explain it to me like I’m five. Anyway, the Hens and Knights held firm for two innings, stranding every M.M. starting the frame on second … in fact, Toledo did so thrice. But in the top of the 12th, the Mud Hens broke through for two (sac fly, solo homer) while Charlotte rolled over by not even moving their free runner to third.

It was another rough start of a start for Jake Eder (5 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, WP) and the offense walked three times while whiffing 16, so let’s just move things along to our final (revenge) game, eh?

GAME MVP
Travis Lakins Sr. (RHRP) IP, 5-of-7 strikes, 30.7% WPA

August 15: Charlotte Knights 3, Toledo Mud Hens 2 (10 innings)
Here’s a nice way to wind things up, a well-played win … well, OK, a well-pitched one. The offense was fairly prodigious, but as you’d expect with just three tallies in 10 stanzas it was not terribly efficient (11 Ks, 10 LOB, 2-for-15 with RISP!). Let’s salute Tim Elko (2-for-5, RBI, hitting .323 with a .970 OPS in Triple-A). The Charlotte arms were four, and Johan Domínguez (5 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, HR) set the tone with a game that got that ERA down just a smidge farther; the final four frames from three relievers set the bar even higher, as seen in our MVP …

GAME MVP
Aaron McGarity (RHRP) 2 IP, 2 K, win to improve to 8-1 on a 53-61 club, 44.1% WPA

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Tim Elko photo by Laura Wolff/Charlotte Knights