Folks, the Charlotte Knights went up to Buffalo, dropped the first one, and then did what good teams do in June. They took the series, four games to two. They closed the first half on a shutout. And they are coming home.
Let me back up. When we last checked in, the Knights had just lost the opener at Sahlen Field, 9-5, on a Tuesday night where Charlotte hit three balls out of the yard and STILL lost. Kyle Teel went deep. Michael Turner went deep. Nolan Jones went deep. Seven Buffalo walks and a couple of rough innings out of the rehab arms undid all of it. One of those innings belonged to Jordan Hicks, the big-league reliever working his way back, who got tagged for a three-run homer and recorded just two outs. Remember his name. We come back to him.
Because that opener did not sink the trip.
Charlotte answered with a 4-0 win the box score cannot explain on its own, played in 24-mile-an-hour wind and rain off Lake Erie. Dustin Harris put the Knights ahead for good with a two-run homer in the first, and Mason Adams threw five scoreless innings into the teeth of it. Five scoreless. In that weather. And here is where we come back to Jordan Hicks, who two nights after surrendering that three-run shot walked back out of the bullpen and threw a perfect inning with two strikeouts. Same guy. Same week. That is what a rehab assignment looks like when it is working. Charlotte had its second straight win and a 2-1 series lead, and that, folks, is how you steal a series on the road. You win the ugly ones.
Then the bats woke all the way up. The Knights piled up eighteen hits in a 10-5 win, more than Buffalo had given up in any game all season. Kyle Teel had FIVE of them by himself. Five hits in one ballgame. Ryan Galanie drove in runs in bunches. It was the kind of night where you stop counting the rallies and just enjoy them.
Buffalo got one back on Saturday, and they got it the hard way, on a Sean Keys two-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Walk-off. Down to their final out. Those ones sting, and there is no use pretending otherwise. Galanie kept a quiet streak alive even in the loss, running his hitting streak to thirteen games, which is the sort of thing you file away for later.
And then Sunday, the finale, Father's Day, and the Knights ended the first half the way you draw it up. Five runs in the first inning. Andy Weber cleared the bases with a three-run double, Caden Connor knocked in a pair, and Charlotte cruised from there. Final: 5-0. A shutout to close the series, a series win to close the first half.
Here is the thing about all of it. The winning first half was already clinched back home during the Oklahoma City homestand, and the run differential that has carried this team since the six-game Durham sweep was built weeks ago. So the Buffalo trip was not about the standings. It was about who this team is when the pressure is off, the weather is bad, and the other guys are good too. The answer: they take the series anyway.
The Knights open the second half at home, back at Truist Field, with a six-game homestand against Rochester running June 23 through 28. First half is in the books. Second half starts Tuesday.
So remember Jordan Hicks, tagged on Tuesday and perfect by Thursday. That is the whole road trip in one arm.