When the White Sox shortened Peyton Pallette's workload by moving him to the bullpen at the start of July, they could've also shortened his name to PeyPal, because he's been money in relief.
The White Sox promoted Pallette to Birmingham this week, and the start of his Double-A career looks like a mere continuation of his work at Winston-Salem, in the sense that he threw two scoreless innings for the Barons against the Biloxi Shuckers on Wednesday night.
Pallette hung a breaking ball to his first batter, but the resulting Lamar Sparks line drive ended up in Jacob Gonzalez's glove. Afterwards, it was mostly smoke with the occasional mirror. He attacked with a fastball that rounded up or down to 97 on the very precise Birmingham radar gun readings, and he might not have needed anything else, but he seemed to like his changeup the most out of his secondary offerings over the course of 26 pitches.
This two-pitch sequence to Nick Sparks best demonstrates the way Pallette was feeling it. When he didn't get a 2-2 changeup for strike three, he went right back with high heat that Sparks couldn't touch, and Pallette almost looked irritated for having to prove it afterward.
Updating Pallette's line since the move to relief at the start of July: 25.2 IP, 11 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 37 K, 1 HR, 2 HBP.
Memphis 8, Charlotte 7 (10 innings)
- Bryan Ramos went 1-for-6 with two strikeouts.
- Zach DeLoach was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.
- Tim Elko, 0-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Colson Montgomery went 0-for-3 with a walk, HBP and strikeout.
Birmingham 8, Biloxi 2
- Terrell Tatum went 3-for-4 with a double and a walk.
- Wilfred Veras was 3-for-5 with a strikeout and his 20th stolen base.
- Jacob Gonzalez, 1-for-4.
- Tyler Schweitzer: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, 58 of 86 pitches for strikes.
- Peyton Pallette: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, 16 of 27 pitches for strikes.
Aberdeen 5, Winston-Salem 0
- Rikuu Nishida went 1-for-4 with a K. He stole a base and was picked off/caught stealing.
- Caden Connor, 2-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Ryan Galanie went 1-for-4 with a K.
- Wes Kath, 1-for-3 with a strikeout and an HBP.
- Casey Saucke was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Calvin Harris, 1-for-4 with a triple and a strikeout.
- Eddie Park went 0-for-3.
- LUcas Gordon: 4 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 1 K, 39 of 76 pitches for strikes.
Fayetteville 7, Kannapolis 3
- Sam Antonacci was 0-for-2 with two walks and a strikeout.
- Ryan Burrowes and T.J. McCants both were 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Jeral Perez was 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- George Wolkow went 1-for-4 with a homer and a strikeout.
- Ronny Hernandez was 1-for-4 with a K.
- Jake Peppers: 4 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 1 HR, 2 HBP, 44 of 72 pitches for strikes.
Highlights:
*Wolkow got most of it.
