Omaha Storm Chasers 8, Charlotte Knights 3 (Statcast box)
As the season began hot in Charlotte, and even as the Knights rebounded at midseason to make a re-run at .500, it seemed improbable that the club would finish buried in the International League, some 20 games short of the even mark. Well, with another loss — five straight, now — the Knights have fallen to the brink of just that, at 62-81.
To Charlotte’s credit, this game was much closer than the final score indicated, given four Chasers runs in the garbage time of the eighth inning. That said, the Knights held the lead for about half of this game — the wrong half. Duncan Davitt had a solid start (first four innings, three hits) … until he didn’t (an abominable fifth and sixth, knocking him out of the box). The offense consisted mostly of two near-MLBers who seem destined to have their pro journeys realistically end at Triple-A, Tim Elko and Bryan Ramos.
The Barons (81-56) are in the final throes of postseason prep, but played it cool on Saturday with a loss to the Shuckers. And to be fair, though not as formidable as Birmingham, Biloxi is pretty darn good as well, at 73-64.
Riley Gowens started, and as per usual for him, got a bit ripped off with a loss. Holding a foe to two runs and four hits over five innings should be good enough to sidestep a defeat, if not win. But the Barons didn’t take the bats out of the humidor tonight, with just six hits and two walks, smashing together for 1-for-11 with RISP (and two of the hits were triples, so it took some work to not put up at least two ticks on the board, yeah).
Phil Fox continued his September dominance, now with a second two-inning shutout appearance since being promoted to the Barons on September 10.