Knights baseball digest: Luis Robert swinging a hot bat in Charlotte rehab assignment

On Saturday, during a home game against the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp at Truist Field, the Charlotte Knights fell victim to one of the best defensive plays you’ll see in all of baseball this year.

In the second inning of a game the Knights would lose 10-4, Charlotte catcher Deivy Grullón sent a ball soaring toward the left-center field warning track. Jacksonville center fielder Monte Harrison, unsure of where the ball would land and wanting to rob a homer, used his best Spider-Man skills to scale the outfield wall.

But the ball wasn’t going into the stands. Harrison noticed just in time that the ball was coming in lower than anticipated and made the change, resulting in a spectacular catch.

The Knights got clobbered that game and didn’t fare much better the rest of the series, but at least fans can say Harrison had to make the play of the year to stop Grullón from getting the hit.

KNIGHTS-STRIPERS SERIES AT A GLANCE

After a string of midweek losses to the Jumbo Shrimp, it became official — Charlotte was the worst team in the Triple-A East’s Southeast division, finally being leapfrogged by the Norfolk Tides. With a weeklong series against the Stripers on the horizon, that hole could grow even deeper.

Over the season, the Knights are 1-11 against the Stripers. Their most recent series saw Charlotte drop six straight games at home, with the Stripers scoring 10 or more runs four times during that span.

It’s not like the Stripers are coming into this week in bad form, either. After some mixed performances early in last week’s series against Memphis, the Stripers bounced back to win the last three games in a row. While the Stripers are nowhere near the best team in the division, there’s still a gulf of games between them and the last-place Knights.

Meanwhile, the Knights are coming off a series against the Jumbo Shrimp that they’d rather forget. In a seven-game series, the Knights only won two games, never scoring more than five runs.

Both wins came as a result of weird circumstances, with the first coming on the back end of a Thursday doubleheader, while the other came in the form of an extra-innings walk-off RBI sac fly Sunday. If the Knights hope to stand a chance against the Stripers, everything from pitching to hitting to fielding needs to be better — a common theme for the Knights this season.

WHITE SOX PROSPECTS TO WATCH THIS WEEK

Luis Robert, CF

If you’re not watching Knights baseball this week for the play on the field itself, then you should be watching to follow the last stages of Luis Robert’s major league rehab assignment.

After tearing his right hip flexor completely in May, the 2020 Gold Glover has been able to return to baseball activities over the last few weeks on rehab assignment — first with High-A Winston-Salem, then with Triple-A Charlotte beginning last week.

During his time in Charlotte, Robert has gone 5-for-13 over the plate with a double, a run scored, a stolen base and three base-on-balls walks. White Sox manager Tony La Russa said that Robert wouldn’t be ruled out from making an appearance during Chicago’s series against Kansas City this week, but he was probably still “a few at-bats short” of returning.

With his ability to plate runs, steal bases and exhibit brilliant defensive performances, Robert’s return to Chicago will be a welcome one — when La Russa thinks the time is right.

John Parke, LHP

This is cheating a bit here, because 26-year-old lefty John Parke is technically with the Double-A Birmingham Barons as of Monday morning. But when the Knights needed a starter for the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader, Parke got the call-up — and he was excellent.

Earning the win in his first-ever Triple-A start, Parke tossed five of the game’s seven innings, giving up two unearned runs and one walk and notching three strikeouts. He also had his own defensive highlight, catching a liner headed right for him in the top of the second for the out.

It’s not like Parke’s been spectacular in Birmingham, with the South Carolina product sporting a 3-4 record with a 4.66 ERA and .249 batting average against over 58 innings pitched. He’s exhibited good control and discipline, though, only hitting one batter and allowing just five home runs all season. If he can keep improving the way he has, he could see himself to a more permanent roster spot in Charlotte.

Nate Nolan, C

To put it bluntly, catcher Nate Nolan has hit poorly this year. Over 99 at-bats, the Nevada native is batting .172 with six home runs, 13 RBIs and a .607 OPS — worst among the team’s regulars.

Last week, Nolan played a crucial role for the Knights against the Jumbo Shrimp. In the second game of the series, an RBI single from Nolan in the bottom of the seventh evened the score at 1-1, though the Knights would eventually lose 2-1. Then, in Friday’s game, Nolan’s fifth homer of the season gave the Knights a 1-0 lead in the second, which the Knights relinquished in the sixth inning and never take back.

His best performance came during the series-closing game Sunday, when the 26-year-old homered again in the sixth inning. Then, with the game tied at 3-3 in the bottom of the tenth, a sac fly from Marco Hernández drove Nolan in for the walk-off win. Nolan might not be having his best season ever, but he can still show out when it counts.

Triple-A East Southeast Standings