Matt Scalzo
KNOXVILLE, TN – After 131 games, the end is in sight for the Knoxville Smokies as they finish out the regular season against the same team they started it with, the Birmingham Barons. A lot has changed since a 9-6 win on Opening Day; the Smokies clinched the first half, giving Knoxville its first taste of postseason baseball since 1999. As for Birmingham, this series carries more pressure and presents the chance to flip the script after posting the worst record in the Southern League during the first half of the year.
This past week, the Smokies locked up another series win, their ninth of the season, taking four of six from the Lookouts. After the 12-3 win on Tuesday, Knoxville officially eliminated Chattanooga from playoff contention in a disastrous second half. Despite the breeze in the opening contest, the Lookouts snapped back to take games 2 and 3, including a 10-run seventh inning on Thursday, the most runs the Smokies have allowed in an inning this season. As Labor Day weekend hit, Knoxville staked control and rattled off wins in the final three games. As a team, the Smokies hit .281, the second-best mark in the Southern League, with five home runs and drove in 32 runs; on the mound they posted a 3.33 ERA, lowest in the Southern League and fourth-lowest in Double-A, with a .195 opponent batting average, second-lowest in the Southern League and third in Double-A.
This season, the Smokies have owned the series against the Barons with a staggering 15-6 record on the year. In their lone trip to Birmingham in 2026, Knoxville took five of six to kick off the second half of the season from June 23 to 28, but the two sides have not faced off since. In that series, Owen Ayers torched the Barons with a .529 batting average, while Andy Garriola drove in a team-best 8 RBI over the course of the week. Additionally, Jace Beck struck out 11 Barons in his start, a career-high for the right-hander.
The next week in Birmingham carries monumental weight in the Southern League North playoff race to decide whom the Smokies will face in the first round. It is a three-horse race for the second-half crown in the North; Knoxville sits at the top with a 1.5-game lead on Rocket City, with Birmingham a game adrift there. With the Smokies winning the division in the first half, it comes down to the Barons and Trash Pandas for who faces the Smokies in a best-of-3 series next week. Rocket City is in Chattanooga, taking on the last-place Lookouts.
The Barons bring seven of the White Sox's top-30 prospects per MLB pipeline, led by their No. 2 prospect, Caleb Bonemer. The 20-year-old has developed as the season has trudged along, slashing .252/.371/.541 for a .912 OPS in 65 games with the Double-A club, smashing 18 home runs and driving in 48 runs. The other names to note for Birmingham are RHP Mathias LaCombe (No. 18 prospect), RHP Pierce George (No. 19), 1B Anthony DePino (No. 22), INF/OF Ryan Burrowes (No. 23), INF Colby Shelton (No. 24), and OF Samuel Zavala (No. 29).
For the Smokies, they have four of the Cubs' top-30, spearheaded by Kane Kepley at No. 5. The 22-year-old out of North Carolina was scorching with a line of .283/.484/.522, good for an OPS of 1.006, collecting 13 hits, three doubles, a triple, two home runs, and driving in 11 RBI, including an impressive .600/.733/1.500 in 15 plate appearances with RISP. Across his last 11 games, Kepley has mustered just five hits, with his batting average plummeting to .207, and has zero RBIs in his last 10. After a strong finish to the Chattanooga series, a gear shift could occur in the final week for Kepley.
For most of the season, clubhouse talk has revolved around Knoxville's dominant pitching. The Smokies possess the second-best ERA in Double-A at 4.21, eighth across all levels of Minor League Baseball. They lead the Southern League with 1277 strikeouts and lead all of Double-A with a .230 batting average against, eighth in all of MiLB. However, this week was a stronger example of complementary baseball for the Smokies, with the offense supporting their pitchers.
Offensively, Alex Madera led Knoxville with a .450 batting average and was tied for the team-high with nine hits this past week. In his first season of professional baseball, the North Carolina product has found his best since August, leading the team with a .420 batting average, a .485 OBP, a .996 OPS, and 37 hits. The 25-year-old has hits in four straight games and holds a seven-game on-base streak. Madera currently has a .307 batting average with Knoxville; if he finishes strong, it would mark another year above .300, something he has done every year since his college days at North Carolina and Arcadia. The last time he did not was in 2020, as a freshman, when he played in 12 games with Division III Arcadia.
On the mound, Dawson Netz solidified himself as one of the marquee starters for Knoxville. On Saturday night, he matched his career-high with 9 strikeouts across five innings of work, and Tyler Schlaffer matched him on the backend out of the bullpen with a four-inning save and 7 punchouts, tying his season-high, for a shutout. Among Smokies with double-digit starts, Netz holds the lowest ERA of the bunch at 2.85, stifling opponents to a .171 batting average, racking up 97 strikeouts. Schlaffer has transitioned from a starter to a reliever. In his 18 games out of the bullpen, the 25-year-old has a 2.59 ERA in 41.2 IP, notching two saves, collecting 46 strikeouts, and holding opponents to a .214 batting average.
First pitch for the series is set for 7:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday night.
Players to Watch
While Alex Madera led the Smokies in batting average, his first-name twin, Alex Ramirez, matched him with nine hits for the team-best mark. Ramirez was the most productive Knoxville hitter, blasting a pair of home runs and plating nine RBI to the tune of a .333/.357/.667 slash line, and stole two bags. The Southern League’s leader in hits extended his margin at the top with 136 on the season; Jesus Made is the next closest with 129. The 23-year-old holds the longest active streaks on the Smokies with an 11-game hitting streak and a 12-game on-base streak.
The Barons went 2-4 this past week against Biloxi, who sit last in the Southern League South. While a lot did not go right in a crucial final stretch of the season, Anthony DePino found his swing, batting .333 with two long balls and four runs driven in. DePino has been with Birmingham since May 12, and since that point he has been one of the top bats in the order. With the Barons, the 23-year-old is batting .260 with 19 wall scrapers and 60 RBI.
Probable Pitching Matchup
9/8 Tuesday, 7:00 p.m. ET
RHP Kevin Valdez (1-1, 4.30 ERA) vs. RHP Connor McCullough (1-7, 4.29 ERA)
9/9 Wednesday, 12:00 p.m. ET
RHP Brody McCullough (1-4, 3.90 ERA) vs. RHP Riley Gowens (0-1, 3.27 ERA)
9/10 Thursday, 8:00 p.m. ET
RHP Jake Knapp (0-2, 5.59 ERA) vs. RHP Juan Carela (2-3, 5.67 ERA)
9/11 Friday, 8:00 p.m. ET
RHP Luis Martinez-Gomez (1-3, 4.98 ERA) vs. LHP Lucas Gordon (3-7, 5.18 ERA)
9/12 Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET
RHP Dawson Netz (6-4, 3.04 ERA) vs. RHP Dylan Cumming (4-9, 6.02 ERA)
9/13 Sunday, 2:05 p.m. ET
RHP Connor Schultz (5-4, 4.85 ERA) vs. RHP Connor McCullough (1-7, 4.29 ERA)
Wrap Up
Knoxville heads into the final week of the regular season with a chance to win the Southern League North outright across the entire season. These next six games will also decide whom the Smokies face in the postseason, which begins on September 15, with Covenant Health Park serving as the venue for Game 2 on September 17 and, if necessary, a winner-take-all Game 3 on September 18.
The Barons look to defend their crown and continue their quest for a three-peat with another Southern League Championship, but are on the outside looking in as it stands. Birmingham is one game back of the Rocket City Trash Pandas. Both sides will be keeping a watchful eye on the happenings in Chattanooga as the Lookouts host the Trash Pandas.
Tune in all week against the Southern League’s two First-Half Champions at https://www.milb.com/knoxville/fans/audio-listen-live and buy tickets to upcoming Smokies’ regular season and playoff games at https://www.milb.com/knoxville/tickets/single-game-tickets