When we saw Mike Wright during spring training, he divvied up his four outings between ugly innings and scoreless ones. Little distinguished him from other Triple-A veteran depth the White Sox have invited to spring training over the years, except for the fact that he'd been useful to the KBO's NC Dinos for 29 starts during a 2020 season that was shortened for just about all of his stateside peers.
He was supposed to fill a role as an innings-eater in Charlotte rotation, but he wasn't supposed to be starring in it.
Wright threw seven scoreless innings in the Charlotte Knights' 1-0 victory that ended the Nashville Sounds' 15-game winning streak. He lowered his ERA to 2.10 by allowing just two hits and a walk. He induced three double plays, and he also struck out eight.
He's 31, so it wouldn't normally register as noteworthy, because the former International League has plenty of Wright brothers trying to hang in the game. But this particular performance is notable for a couple reasons:
No. 1: Charlotte played at home. Wright's home-road splits are negligible from a run-prevention level.
- Home: 17 IP, 12 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 HR, 3 HBP, 5 BB, 23 K
- Road: 13 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 HR, 0 HBP, 2 BB, 14 K
No. 2: He's getting a lot of ground balls. He carried a 57.1 ground-ball rate into Friday's start, a year after a rate of 53.7 percent with the Dinos. He'd never come close to getting that frequency of grounders after his time in the low minors.
Wright has a 6.00 ERA over 110 games at the MLB level to suggest he might be a true Quadruple-A talent, but as long as he's outpitching Jonathan Stiever, Jimmy Lambert and Reynaldo López in a different fashion than he had before, he might end up as a candidate for a start with the White Sox at some point. If he maintains this form, it won't be as laughable a notion as it looked in February and March.
For the time being, his effort his appreciated in his clubhouse.
Charlotte 1, Nashville 0
- Adam Engel went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts and three stolen bases.
- Blake Rutherford struck out his first two trips, then got plunked.
- Brian Goodwin hit for Rutherford his last time up and struck out.
- Jake Burger was 1-for-3 with a walk.
- Jace Fry: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K
Birmingham 6, Tennessee 1
- Romy Gonzalez went 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Micker Adolfo, 1-for-4 with a double and two strikeouts.
- Carlos Pérez was 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Ti'Quan Forbes went 0-for-3 with an HBP and a K.
- Blake Battenfield: 6 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K
Greensboro 17, Winston-Salem 3
- Lenyn Sosa went 1-for-5 with a strikeout.
- Luis Curbelo, 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Yolbert Sanchez was 2-for-3 with his first homer and a walk.
- Duke Ellis went 0-for-3 with a walk.
Fayetteville 7, Kannapolis 2 (Game 1, 7 innings)
- José Rodriguez went 2-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Chase Krogman was 0-for-3 with an HBP and a K.
- Bryan Ramos went 1-for-3 with a double.
- Luis Mieses went 0-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Harvin Mendoza, 1-for-3 with a strikeout.
- Caberea Weaver singled and struck out twice.
- Lency Delgado was 0-for-2 with a walk.
- Andrew Dalquist: 3.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 5 K
Fayetteville 2, Kannapolis 1 (Game 2, 7 innings)
- José Rodriguez went 2-for-3 with a stolen base.
- Chase Krogman singled, struck out twice and stole a base.
- Luis Mieses went 1-for-3.
- DJ Gladney went 0-for-3 with a strikeout.
- Harvin Mendoza and Lency Delgado both struck out all three times at bat.
- James Beard went 1-for-2 with a walk.
- Yoelvin Silven out of the bullpen: 2.1 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HR
(Photo by Laura Wolff / Charlotte Knights)
