Ky Bush made his third appearance for the Charlotte Knights on Tuesday night, but only his first start. His previous two outings had been in relief of Mike Clevinger for reasons only the White Sox can understand, but Bush was afforded a game of his own against the Nashville Sounds, and he owned it.
He allowed just one run on one hit and two walks over five innings, striking out four. The Knights offense showed up the middle innings and never went away, and Charlotte muted the Sounds, 7-2.
Coming out of the gate, Bush looked like he might not survive the first. After opening his evening with two groundouts, he plunked Tyler Black, walked Brewer Hicklen, gave up an RBI single to Jon Wiemer, and then allowed a steal to put runners on second and third. But he got Owen Miller to hit a harmless grounder to short, which stopped the count at 28 pitches. Bush only needed 55 pitches to complete the next four innings, as he retired the next 10 in a row, and 13 of his final 14.
It was far from overpowering. Bush showed his four-pitch mix, but his fastball and slider were the only things working for him. He threw his curveball 14 times and his changeup twice, but neither pitch generated a called or swinging strike. Also, he didn't record a strikeout until the fourth inning, when Edgar Quero challenged a full-count ball four and the replay showed it clipped the zone by a hair.
But one characteristic of Bush's season is a scarcity of hits despite merely decent peripherals. He allowed just 62 over 89 innings with Birmingham, and this start was the fifth time this season where he's pitched at least five innings while yielding two or fewer hits. He gave up a couple of 360-foot fly balls to the correct parts of the park, but otherwise a leaping catch by Colson Montgomery on a line drive was the only above-average defensive effort needed.
His presence is a little reminiscent of Lucas Giolito, in that he's a sturdy 6'6", but his arm swing is a lot shorter than his wingspan. Give him good velocity -- he held it at 93-94, topping out at 95.7 -- and a slider that he's confident in using against righties, and perhaps that's enough to stay off the barrel even when the curveball and changeup aren't inspiring confidence. Or maybe he'll get pummeled the next time out, and a third pitch will have to step up.
Other notes:
*Matt Foster made his first appearance since restarting his rehab stint, and his fastball was back to 93-94.
*Lenyn Sosa played second and couldn't escape the game without making a mistake. The Sounds attempted a steal of second with runners on the corners, daring Quero to throw through. Quero did, and while it wasn't great, Sosa's responsibility was to make sure the runner on third didn't score. At least Nicky Lopez looked worse.
*Bryan Ramos stole two bases on huge jumps, so much so that the second bag came on a pickoff attempt.
*Montgomery went hitless, and but I'm saving my thoughts for a larger piece about his season coming after the series.
Charlotte 7, Nashville 2
- Dominic Fletcher went 2-for-5.
- So did Oscar Colás, with a double.
- So did Lenyn Sosa, with a double and a strikeout.
- Edgar Quero was 0-for-3 with two walks.
- Colson Montgomery, 0-for-5 with a strikeout.
- Bryan Ramos went 1-for-3 with a walk and two stolen bases.
- Zach DeLoach was 2-for-4 with two doubles and a strikeout.
- Ky Bush's first Triple-A start: 5 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HBP, 1 WP, 51 of 83 pitches for strikes.
Tennessee 5, Birmingham 1
- Jacob Gonzalez went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Terrell Tatum was 1-for-3 with a walk, strikeout and stolen base.
- Tim Elko went 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Wilfred Veras was 1-for-4 with a double and two strikeouts.
- Jacob Burke, 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
- Tyler Schweitzer: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, 2 HR, 49 of 88 pitches for strikes.
Bowling Green 7, Winston-Salem 5
- Eddie Park went 2-for-3 with two walks and a stolen base.
- Loidel Chapelli was 2-for-5 with two strikeouts.
- DJ Gladney, 1-for-5 with a double and two strikeouts.
- Ryan Galanie was 0-for-3 with two walks and two strikeouts.
- Wes Kath went 3-for-4 with a homer and a walk.
- Caden Connor, 1-for-5 with two strikeouts.
- Calvin Harris was 0-for-5 with a K.
- Samuel Zavala, 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Tanner McDougal got blitzed in the third: 2.1 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 1 K, 2 HR, 1 HBP, 38 of 67 pitches for strikes.
Charleston 1, Kannapolis 0
- Rikuu Nishida and George Wolkow both were 0-for-3 with a K.
- Ronny Hernandez went 1-for-3.
- Ryan Burrowes had the other hit, going 1-for-3 with a strikeout.
ACL Dodgers 6, ACL White Sox 5 (7 innings)
- Abraham Nunez singled twice and struck out twice.
- Adrian Gil doubled, singled and struck out twice.
- Angelo Hernandez was 0-for-3 with a strikeout.,
- Javier Mogollon singled, walked and struck out.
- Jimmy Lambert: 1 IP, 1 H,. 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K
- Christian Oppor: 1 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 0 K
DSL White Sox 10, DSL Angels 9
- Christian Gonzalez went 0-for-5.
- Jurdrick Profar came a triple shy of the cycle while going 3-for-5, striking out once. His homer was a walk-off.
- Eduardo Herrera was 2-for-4.
- Jehancarlos Mendez hit his first homer, singled, struck out twice and was caught stealing.
