{"id":797251,"date":"2026-09-05T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T12:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/797251\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T12:00:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T12:00:27","slug":"dash-win-8-2-to-qualify-for-the-high-a-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/797251\/","title":{"rendered":"Dash win, 8-2, to qualify for the High-A playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _174s0un6 _174s0un5 _1mt21p01\">It\u2019s been a rare occurrence, a White Sox affiliate making the playoffs this decade. And outside of the back-to-back Southern League titles by the Birmingham Barons in 2024-25, there has been scant success in those rare postseasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Coming off a 56-74 record last year and with only Single-A and ACL talent to pull from, it was hard to see how the team would get significantly better, thus this Dash turnaround merits plenty of applause.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">But on the strength of a second-half push to 35-28, and buoyed by some of the youngest and best prospects in the White Sox system, the High-A Winston-Salem Dash clinched a postseason berth in the South Atlantic League on Friday night, with an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.milb.com\/gameday\/dash-vs-emperors\/2026\/09\/04\/821860\/final\/summary\/keyMoments\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">8-2 win over the Rome Emperors<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">They did it \u2014 your Dash are in the postseason! And it\u2019s thanks to George Wolkow, who had two hits, three RBIs and a run. Although Nick McLain and Ryan Galvan earned solo trips around the bases, Wolkow outshined everyone in the lineup. The only guys who stand a chance of stealing the game\u2019s MVP are on the pitching side, Grant Umberger and Jake Curtis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Starter Umberger worked six innings, keeping the Emperors to two runs and five strikeouts. Although one of those runs was a solo homer, the southpaw maintained a steady arm throughout the evening. Curtis took the ball from Umberger and mopped up the Emperors in three shutout innings, only allowing one hit while also recording five punchouts. Having several qualified MVP candidates is a great sign and a symptom, not a cause, of the Dash making the playoffs for the first time since 2018.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Winston-Salem will face off against the formidable Bowling Green Hot Rods, a team 8 \u00bd games better than the Dash over the full 2026 season, in the SALLY Division Series. The Dash will host Game 1 (before moving to Bowling Green for Games 2 and 3) at 5:30 p.m. CT on September 8. We\u2019ll have, as always, full coverage here at South Side Sox.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">MVP<br \/>George Wolkow: 2-for-3, R, 3 RBI<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Runners-Up<br \/>Jake Curtis: 3 IP, H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K<br \/>Grant Umberger: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, BB, 5 K HR<br \/>Jeral Perez: 3-for-5, RBI, K<br \/>Nick McLain: 2-for-4, R, RBI, BB, K<br \/>Ryan Galvan: 1-for-4, R, RBI, 2 K<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Cold Cat<br \/>Kaleb Freeman: 0-for-4, 3 K, SB<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Runners-Up<br \/>Ely Brown: 0-for-4, R<br \/>James Taussig: 1-for-5, R, RBI, 3 K<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a rare occurrence, a White Sox affiliate making the playoffs this decade. And outside of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,138,49,66755,3208,2561,4,396,2562],"class_list":["post-797251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-white-sox","tag-baseball","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chicago-white-sox-prospects","tag-chicago-white-sox-news","tag-chicagowhitesox","tag-mlb","tag-white-sox","tag-whitesox"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117218326851197496","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}