White Sox Minor Keys: July 5, 2026

7:00 AM CDT on July 6, 2026

White Sox pitching prospect Pierce George — Pierce George
|Jim Margalus / Sox Machine

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- If you cut your walk rate in half while increasing your strikeout rate more than 50 percent, you're probably going to make progress.

Possessing high-90s fastball with a hammer curveballs helps, too.

That's the overview as to why Pierce George is pitching for his third White Sox affiliate in three months. He made his Birmingham debut on June 23 after two sensational months at both levels of A-ball, over which he posted a 2.35 ERA while striking out 46 batters against 10 walks over 30⅔ innings.

It hasn't always been so simple despite the stuff. Control problems limited him to 12 appearances during his junior season at Alabama in 2024, and after the White Sox selected him in 13th round, he proceeded to issue 60 free bases over his first 53⅔ innings with Kannapolis between his draft year and a full season there in 2025.

The improvements involve a little bit of everything. It starts with a slight mechanical tweak, as he's holding his hands higher before breaking them to rear back.

"It's kind of like when you throw a punch," George told Sox Machine at Regions Field on Friday. "I'm kind of just like loading up and just pretending like I'm throwing a punch up there on the mound, just trying to stay through my target, stay linear."

George also expanded his arsenal this season, as he's added a low-90s cutter as a bridge pitch to keep hitters off the fastball during the times he's not landing his curve.

Tying it all together, he credits offseason work with a mental sports coach, as well as his faith, for giving him a newfound fearlessness to apply to the physical changes.

"One of the biggest things we talked about with my mental sports coach is not pitching defensively," George said. "We are on defense, but pitching on the attack, pitching offensively, so not giving the hitters a chance to breathe. Just starting with that first pitch, it's a pitch-to-pitch focus kind of thing."

Over his first two weeks in the Southern League, Double-A hitters are testing these developments in a way A-ball hitters couldn't. He's struck out just five batters against four walks, although the sample size is small enough that his two-inning outing on Saturday accounts for the majority in both columns with three apiece.

He came out missing arm-side with his fastball and cutter, issuing two walks and throwing just eight of 20 pitches for strikes. Jorge Corona erased the first walk by cutting down a stolen-base attempt to help prevent the inning from snowballing.

But after issuing a one-out walk in his second inning of work, his control clicked into place. He won a seven-pitch battle against Jadher Areinamo, who fouled off four 0-2 pitches before chasing a cutter well out of the zone for strike three. Similarly, he got ahead of Theo Gillen 0-2 before eventually freezing him on a fastball on the outside corner, which George punctuated with a few screams on his way to the dugout.

That sealed an outing that offered a sampler of his present state at his present level -- a good fastball that needs at least one secondary to keep hitters honest, control that can occasionally go wayward, but an ability to correct course in a way that usually eluded him last year.

Memphis 2, Charlotte 1 (11 innings)

Ryan Galanie went 1-for-5 with two strikeouts.
Rikuu Nishida was 0-for-3 with a walk.
Edgar Quero was 0-for-3, then was lifted for a pinch hitter in the ninth.
Mason Adams bounced back: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, 44 of 63 pitches for strikes.
Wikelman González: 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 1 WP, 10 of 15 pitches for strikes.

Birmingham 6, Montgomery 1

Caleb Bonemer was 0-for-1 with three walks.
Anthony DePino wore the collar and silver sombrero.
Boston Smith went 2-for-4 with a homer and a strikeout.
Colby Shelton was 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
Samuel Zavala, 1-for-4 with a K.
Gabe Davis: 4 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 HR, 32 of 49 pitches for strikes.