White Sox Minor Keys: May 1, 2024

While Drew Thorpe has drawn the bulk of the attention for his nearly flawless performance since coming over to the White Sox in the Dylan Cease trade, Jairo Iriarte has been a pretty good running mate in the Birmingham rotation.

As I mentioned in Farm Fortnight on Tuesday, Iriarte's control has alternated between encouraging and rickety, and that pattern continued through his morning start against Rocket City on Wednesday. Iriarte walked just one batter and threw 60 of 83 pitches for strikes, which allowed him to complete a career-high seven innings.

His afternoon started with a leadoff single, but once Edgar Quero cut down Nelson Rada with a strong throw at second base, it was smoother sailing.

Birmingham's broadcast plugs Trackman data into its scoreboard, and Iriarte featured a 94-95 mph fastball, low-80s slider, and a high-80s changeup for most of the outing. He was able to throw them in any order, with the changeup getting some rollovers from lefties early in the count. He completed five innings on just 46 pitches, which allowed him to struggle in the three-run sixth and still come back for one more frame. He gave up a leadoff single to open the seventh, but while his fastball had dropped to 92 mph over his final pitches, he still managed to end his afternoon a high note, getting his final strikeout and a pair of flyouts.

On the season, Iriarte has a 1.46 ERA with 28 strikeouts to 12 walks over 24⅔ innings.

Memphis 7, Charlotte 3

• Dominic Fletcher went 1-for-3 with two walks and a strikeout.
• Lenyn Sosa, 0-for-4 with a K.
• Colson Montgomery and Adam Hackenberg both were 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.

Birmingham 11, Rocket City 6

• Terrell Tatum went 1-for-3 with two walks, a strikeout and a stolen base.
• Brooks Baldwin singled thrice, walked and struck out.
• Edgar Quero went 1-for-5.
• Wilfred Veras, 3-for-4 with a walk(!) and a stolen base.
• Bryan Ramos made noise: 2-for-5 with a homer, double and strikeout.
• Tim Elko went 2-for-5 with a double and a strikeout.
• Jairo Iriarte: 7 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 60 of 83 pitches for strikes.
• Eric Adler had a rough Double-A debut : 1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 16 of 27 pitches for strikes.

Highlights:

*Ramos turned around a 98 mph Ben Joyce fastball.

Greensboro 14, Winston-Salem 4

• Loidel Chapelli went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts.
• Jacob Gonzalez went 0-for-3 with a walk, strikeout and stolen base.
• Samuel Zavala, 0-for-4 with a stolen base.
• Wes Kath was 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.
• Tyler Schweitzer: 4.2 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 2 HR, 61 of 91 pitches for strikes.

Lynchburg 7, Kannapolis 6 (Completion of Tuesday's game, 10 innings)

• Rikuu Nishida went 1-for-4 with two walks and a stolen base.
• Eddie Park, 0-for-3 with two walks, a strikeout and a CS.

Lynchburg 5, Kannapolis 0 (Game 2, 7 innings)

• Rikuu Nishida and Eddie Park both were 0-for-3 with a K.
• Ronny Hernandez had half of the Ballers' hits by going 1-for-2.
• Jake Peppers: 5.1 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 1 HBP, 43 of 77 pitches for strikes.