For two nights, Oklahoma City came into Truist Field and did whatever it wanted.
The Comets are the Dodgers' Triple-A club, and they played like it. Tuesday they spotted the Knights a 3-0 lead, shrugged it off, and scored the next six to win 6-3. Wednesday was worse. Charlotte put ten hits and five walks on the board and pushed exactly one run across, stranding SIXTEEN runners, while Oklahoma City turned a double steal and a throwing error into a five-run sixth and a 10-1 walkover. Two games, two losses, nothing to argue about.
Here's the thing, folks. This Knights team has spent the whole first half answering. And they answered again.
Thursday night they were trailing into the eighth when Andy Weber came off the bench and doubled home two to tie it. Then in the ninth, Korey Lee laced one to left field, and the Knights walked it off 9-8. Caden Connor had homered earlier to keep them close. One swing, and a homestand that had been all Oklahoma City was a series again.
Friday they didn't bother with the drama. Ryan Galanie went 3-for-4 with a home run and five RBI, Charlotte piled up fourteen hits, wiped out an early 3-0 hole, and ran off with it 12-7. A week that opened 0-2 was suddenly even.
Saturday got away from them. The Knights led 5-1 after one inning and then watched the Comets score the next eight to win 11-7. Back to square one. Even series, one game left, and Charlotte needed it to take a winning week out of the homestand.
So Sunday they handed the ball to David Sandlin, and the kid gave them six innings and two runs. A quality start, right when it counted. Galanie homered again for a 1-0 lead. Then in the fifth, Weber drove in a pair with the bases loaded and Rikuu Nishida dropped a safety squeeze that scored the run that won it. Knights 4, Comets 3. Series split, three apiece.
And here is what that one run actually bought: a winning first half. Charlotte is 38-31, and Sunday's win clinched a winning record for the first half of a season the International League splits in two. The Knights did it against a Dodgers affiliate that took the first two going away, and they did it after getting punched to open the week.
I wrote last week about the six-game sweep they hung on Durham, and before that the Jacksonville homestand they split three-and-three. Different opponents, same fingerprint.
Two nights of getting it handed to them. Three wins in the last four. A winning first half in the book.
That's not nothing.