The Chase Meidroth Era keeps churning on, while the affiliates all played doubleheaders, taking two of eight. I’m sorry, no box links today, just summaries of each twin bill.

Chicago White Sox 3, Boston Red Sox 2 the White Sox rallied in the bottom of the ninth to upend Boston for their first win of the season NOT in an opener of a home series: Brooks Baldwin sent Boston closer Aroldis Chapman home sad with a single to win it.

Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 4, Charlotte Knights 3 (opener)
Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 3, Charlotte Knights 1 (nightcap)

The Knights dropped to worse than .500 with today’s doubleheader sweep. Jairo Iriarte was wild, needing 37 pitches to complete just one inning of work (four walks, a wild pitch, two earned, 21 pitches off of the plate). Things got no better in the rotation, as nightcap starter Justin Dunn pitched into the fifth but threw 41 strikes to 40 balls and walked four. Edgar Querowent 1-for-2 with a walk. Meanwhile Kyle Teel saw seven Jumbo Shrimp steal bases against him, with none caught.

Chattanooga Lookouts 4, Birmingham Barons 1 (opener)
Birmingham Barons 3, Chattanooga Lookouts 2 (nightcap)

The opener marked a milestone game, the first start of Noah Schultz’s career  of five innings. Peyton Pallette blew the save (four earned), taking Schultz’s first career win off of the plate.

On the other hand, Hagen Smith could not escape the first inning of the nightcap (2/3 IP, two earned, two walks, two Ks). However, three pitchers combined to no-hit the Lookouts over the final 19 outs of the game, ensuring a split of the twinbill and a move back to a winning record on the season (4-3).

Opener: Greensboro Grasshoppers 4, Winston-Salem Dash 0
Nightcap: Greensboro Grasshoppers 4, Winston-Salem Dash 3

The Dash managed just three singles and two walks in the opener, while starter Lucas Gordon  had a strange game: Grasshoppers contact against him was loud (three earned runs and a homer over just 3 2⁄3 innings) but the southpaw missed plenty of bats (seven Ks and 17 swings-and-missed, tied for most in High-A today).

The nightcap was slightly more productive (four singles, seven walks) but a loss is a loss. The reeling Dash dropped to 2-6 on the heels of this sweep.

Opener: Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 16, Lynchburg Hillcats 13
Nightcap: Lynchburg Hillcats 8, Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 2

Finally, a fun game writeup, as in the opener the Cannon Ballers hung 16 on the Hillcats with some relentless station-to-station offense (13 hits, 11 of them singles and the pricier ones just doubles). That included 11 RUNS in an endless top of the fifth inning that saw 16 Cannon Ballers step to the plate (Braden Montgomery 2-for-2 with an RBI, Lyle Miller-Green 2-for-2).

Sadly, Kanny was stifled to five hits in the nightcap, and an overall hit to the run differential with a six-run loss. Jordan Sprinkle did his part, with the only two-hit effort of the game for the CBs, raising his outrageous eight-game average to .529 on the season. Kannapolis fell to 4-4.

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