Brandon Drury's would-be place on the White Sox Opening Day roster was effectively canceled by a left thumb fracture suffered while manning first base in an infield drill at the end of spring.
With that in mind, his return to playing first base on Thursday with Triple-A Charlotte after eight games at DH is a meaningful benchmark in his readiness to return to the majors.
"He's getting really, really close," said Knights manager Sergio Santos. "I do not think he's far off. In however much time, he's going to find it. Even when he gets out, he always puts together a five or six-pitch at-bat. He spits on really good pitches and he swings at pitches that he should be swinging at."
The contextualization that Drury's results are coming from a sound process is necessary, because after his Cactus League performance did plenty of talking, the 32-year-old's Triple-A numbers through nine games look like...well, a hitter working his way back from a broken thumb. Drury is hitting .194/.326/.306 with a homer, seven walks and nine strikeouts in nine games with the Knights. He hit .410/.439/.821 in spring.
"When I saw him in spring, I was extremely impressed," Santos said. "Holy cow, this guy is definitely a professional hitter. You see it in his prep work, you see it in his batting practice. The guy is always working on something and you can tell why he's had success at the major league level."
Charlotte 4, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 1 (7 innings, rain)
- Colson Montgomery went 1-for-4 with a double and a strikeout.
- Tim Elko was 1-for-3 with his seventh homer, a walk and a strikeout.
- Kyle Teel and Bryan Ramos both were 0-for-2 with a walk, strikeout and stolen base.
- Justin Dunn: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 1 WP, 44 of 74 pitches for strikes.
Birmingham 5, Rocket City 2 (Completion of Thursday's game)
- Rikuu Nishida struck out thrice during an 0-for-5 game.
- William Bergolla was 2-for-5, and was caught stealing.
- Wilfred Veras went 1-for-3 with two walks, a strikeout and two stolen bases.
- Jacob Gonzalez was 1-for-2 with two walks.
- Noah Schultz: 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K, 47 of 78 pitches for strikes.
- Peyton Pallette: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, 23 of 28 pitches for strikes.
Birmingham 6, Rocket City 4
- William Bergolla went 2-for-5 with a stolen base.
- Wilfed Veras, 3-for-5 with a strikeout.
- Jacob Gonzalez was 1-for-5.
- Rikuu Nishida pinch-ran for him and scored.
- Riley Gowens: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 1 HR, 59 of 81 pitches for strikes.
Rome 4, Winston-Salem 1
- Sam Antonacci went 0-for-4 with a walk and two stolen bases.
- Jackson Appel, 1-for-3 with a walk.
- Samuel Zavala went 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
Kannapolis 6, Myrtle Beach 3
- Caleb Bonemer left after getting hit in the helmet with a pitch. He was 0-for-1.
- George Wolkow replaced him, going 1-for-3 with two strikeouts.
- Braden Montgomery went 1-for-4 with a walk, two strikeouts and a CS.
- Lyle Miller-Green and Ronny Hernandez both were 1-for-4 with a triple, walk and strikeout.
- Javier Mogollón was 1-for-4 with a double, walk and strikeout.
- Ryan Burrowes, 1-for-5 with a strikeout.
