The Charlotte Knights, the Chicago White Sox' Triple-A affiliate, were down 1-0 on the last afternoon of their season when Riley Unroe hit a two-run homer over the right field wall. They never trailed again. Knights 7, Norfolk Tides 4, Sunday at Harbor Park, and that is the end of 2026.
Final record: 81-68. The club called it the fourth-best mark among the 20 teams in the International League, and the league's standings bear that out, with one footnote: Syracuse finished 81-68 as well, so Charlotte shares the spot.
Let me tell you something about that number. Eighty-one wins did not get this ballclub a single postseason game. Charlotte was eliminated from playoff contention last Wednesday at Norfolk, four days before the season ended. Both things are true, and the reason is how the playoff spots get handed out.
The International League does not send its best full-season records to the postseason. It sends two clubs: the one with the best first-half record and the one with the best second-half record, measured across the whole league. Charlotte went 42-33 in the first half and clinched a winning half back in June. By the club's own account, that left the Knights a few games behind the Memphis Redbirds, who took the first-half spot. The second half ended 39-35, ninth-best of 20. Winning records in both halves. The best in NEITHER.
Sunday. Unroe's homer was his 12th in 45 games with the Knights, who added him in July. Junior Perez hit a two-run homer in the top of the fourth, and a few batters later Korey Lee hit his 17th of the season to make it 6-1. Dru Baker drove in Charlotte's final run of the season with a sacrifice fly in the sixth.
Tanner McDougal opened with a three-inning spot start. Jaden Woods, Mathias LaCombe, Peyton Pallette and Garrett Schoenle covered the rest, with Woods getting the win and Schoenle the save. Eight of the nine starters got a hit, and Caden Connor added one as a pinch hitter.
Saturday. Win number 80. Knights 10, Tides 6. Jake Cave singled in a run and Mario Camilletti hit a three-run homer before Norfolk ever came to the plate, and Charlotte led 4-0. Cave led off the third with a solo homer, and RBI hits from Andy Weber and Lee made it 7-2. Camilletti and Perez drove in two unearned runs in the fourth, and Perez singled home one more in the ninth.
Norfolk scored two unearned runs in the first, one in the third, one on a solo homer by former Knight Bryan Ramos in the sixth and two more on Sam Huff's homer in the eighth. Shane Smith struck out two in the ninth to finish it.
The winning pitcher was Pierce George, in his Triple-A debut: two scoreless innings, one hit, two walks, three strikeouts. The club says George pitched at all four minor league levels of the White Sox organization this season. All four.
The club says Saturday was the first time the Knights reached 80 wins since 2012, and only the second time in the last 20 years. That's not nothing.
The rest of the week. Tuesday, a 4-2 loss. Wednesday, the 5-2 loss that ended the playoff chase. Thursday, a 5-1 win, with Shane Murphy, who went seven innings against Buffalo on Sept. 11, holding Norfolk to three hits over five. Friday, a 3-1 loss. Then the two wins, and a split of the six-game series.
The 2027 season opens March 26 at Jacksonville. The home opener at Truist Field is March 30, against the Memphis Redbirds. The same Memphis club that took this year's first-half spot.