We’re adapting how we’re going to cover the White Sox minors for the last two months of the season. Each night we will TRY to put together a recap of one of the (likely) four games on the schedule, with possible additional notes about the other games. That will continue to give our faithful readers a bit of a fix each night.

However, at the start of the week, we will run out five weekly updates that will detail the goings-on in the system. On Sunday, I will start with a Charlotte Knights weekly recap, touching on each game and highlighting the best and worst of the week. Monday or thereabouts will see Kristina Airdo weighing in on the Birmingham Barons week, and Joe Resis tapping into the Winston-Salem Dash. Tuesday we’ll aim to wrap the wraps up with Melissa Sage-Bollenbach on the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers, and Joe coming back for a second helping with his Players of the Week.

Charlotte Knights 7, Norfolk Tides 6
Charlotte, a wild mix of the up-and-coming and barely-hanging-on, bristled up on Friday night to claw back and claim a tight win.

The Knights were down, 5-0, before touching a bat at their Truist Park home, as Jake Eder (5 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, BB, 7 K, WP) continues to struggle on the cusp of the majors; if there’s something to grow on here, it’s that his final four innings were scoreless, stemming the Tides and keeping his Knights in the ballgame. Bully, then, to the bullpen, who pinned Norfolk to just one run over the four frames that finished the game; Trey McGough earned his first White Sox org win (and third on the season) with two fabulous innings against his recent Tides teammates.

Can’t have a comeback without the bats, though, and Charlotte did just enough to pile up seven scores and outpace Norfolk by one. The big damage came from the tiny bats at the turn of the lineup, as No. 9 Michael Chavis, leadoff man Mark Payton and 2-holer Wilmer Difo all chipped in two safeties in a 6-of-13 collective effort. And Tim Elko (1-for-4, RBI, BB, 2 K, E), who’d cooled since a dinger in his first Triple-A game, made his second RBI at the level count, pushing a single to right to score Payton in the eighth with the eventual game-winner.

GAME MVP
Mark Payton (LF) 2-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, HR, BB, 28.5% WPA

RUNNERS-UP
Adisyn Coffey (RHRP) IP, 2 K, 2 WP, SAVE (6), 22.6% WPA
Tim Elko (1B) 1-for-4, RBI, BB, 2 K, E, 20.9% WPA
Michael Chavis (2B) 2-for-4, 2 R, RBI, 2B, HR
Wilmer Difo (3B) 2-for-5, RBI, 3 K
Zach DeLoach (DH) 1-for-3, R, 2B, 2 BB, K
Rafael Ortega (CF) 1-for-2, R, RBI, 2 BB, K, CF assist at 2B
Trey McGough (LHRP) 2 IP, 4 K, 18-of-26 strikes, WIN (3-0)

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Mark Payton photo by Laura Wolff/Charlotte Knights