Galanie extends hit streak to 13 as Charlotte falls in Buffalo

Ryan Galanie kept his bat hot even as Charlotte’s night ended with a blow to the scorebook at Sahlen Field, where Buffalo won 4-2 on a two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth. The Charlotte Knights had already taken two of the first three games in the series, and the loss left them one game from a series win heading into Sunday’s finale.

David Sandlin gave Charlotte a chance to keep the game in reach. The right-hander worked 5.0 innings, struck out five and allowed one run, a line that matched the kind of compact, useful Triple-A start that can matter as much as a box-score result. Buffalo never broke the game open until the final swing, and Charlotte was still within striking distance when the ninth inning began.

Galanie’s hit streak, though, kept moving. The 25-year-old third baseman ran it to 13 games, continuing a stretch that has been one of the clearest signs of life in Charlotte’s lineup during the trip. Galanie, a 2023 13th-round pick by the Chicago White Sox out of Wofford, entered the game with 42 hits in 170 at-bats, nine home runs and 30 RBI in 2026. Even in defeat, his run of contact stood out as the one individual marker that kept trending up.

The bigger picture around the series still favored Charlotte despite the ninth-inning loss. The Knights had already beaten Buffalo 5-1 on June 17 and 4-0 on June 18, then answered a 9-5 loss on June 16 with a 10-5 win on June 19, when Kyle Teel had five hits in a Major League rehab appearance. By the time Charlotte dropped the Saturday game, it was carrying a first-half record of 42-33, nine games over .500, after a stretch that had shown both power and run prevention.

That is what made the loss feel more like a pause than a collapse. Buffalo got the final swing, but Charlotte still had Galanie’s 13-game streak, Sandlin’s steady five innings and a first-half record that suggested the club had built real traction before the series reached its last game.