Series Preview: Smokies vs Trash Pandas
Published on September 2, 2025 under Southern League (SL)
Knoxville Smokies News Release
The Rocket City Trash Pandas will come to Knoxville for the last time in the regular season this week. This series could be pivotal for Knoxville's chances of making the playoffs this season. Rocket City has been the worst team in the Southern League this year and has been especially bad in the second half.
Knoxville is currently 8.5 games behind Birmingham for the lead in the Southern League North, but a dominant series against the worst team in the league could slingshot Knoxville back into the playoff conversation with 12 games remaining.
Birmingham plays Chattanooga, who haven't been great in the second half, but won the Southern League North in the first half. Knoxville has had some opportunities to climb into the playoff conversation and potentially overtake Birmingham a few times in the second half, but they have been unable to do so. This may be their only chance to do so with the regular season coming to an end in a couple of weeks.
Game One will start September 2 at 7:00 p.m. at Covenant Health Park.
Knoxville just finished a series against Birmingham which they won four out of six, not moving them very far in the standings. Knoxville won three of the last four, including the last two games of the series. The strong finish to the series could provide a little extra momentum to their series against Rocket City this week.
Knoxville's offense looked strong in their series against Birmingham, especially considering that Birmingham has been one of the best pitching staffs in the Southern League this season with a league-best 2.86 ERA. Rocket City's team ERA is the worst in the league at 4.21. Rolling into this series with hot bats could make this a very strong week for Knoxville.
Rocket City is coming off of a series split against Columbus. While some of their wins were strong, including two shutout wins and a great comeback win on Wednesday, their losses were pretty bad, including a shutout loss in their game on Sunday.
Although Rocket City has been weak this year, Knoxville hasn't had too much success against them. On the season, Knoxville is 13-10 against Rocket City, which is one of their best winning percentages against any opponent this year.
Players to Watch
Knoxville's offense has been on fire in the last week. During that time, they have had five players hitting over .300 and five players with an OPS over .900, including four with an OPS over 1.000. Those leading the charge for the offense are Jaylen Palmer, Pablo Aliendo, Pedro Ramirez, and Jordan Nwogu. Aliendo was the big bopper last week, driving in seven runs on five hits, including hitting two home runs.
Palmer played his best baseball over the weekend. On Saturday he only went 1-3 with a walk and a stolen base, but his one was a two-RBI double to tie the game in the seventh. On Sunday, Palmer went 3-5 with another RBI and two more stolen bases. Nwogu also had a great day on Sunday, going 3-4 for two RBIs, two runs, a home run and a walk.
Ramirez's big day came in the comeback win on Thursday. Over the 10 innings played on Thursday, he went 4-5 with an RBI and a run scored. The plethora of hits contributed by these four guys throughout the order helped lengthen the lineup and give Knoxville a lot of opportunities to score all week.
Knoxville's pitching had some positives as well. For starters, Jaxon Wiggins looked strong again in three shutout innings. The rest of the staff seemed to largely follow his lead as well. Only four pitchers had an ERA over 3.00.
Unfortunately, Grant Kipp looked rough in his start last week. Over just three innings, he allowed five earned runs on four hits and three walks. Kipp will look to bounce back this week against Rocket City.
Rocket City hasn't had anyone really stand out over the last week on the offensive side of the ball except for Matt Coutney. Coutney has the highest OPS on the team over that span (.820) and the only one over .700. Coutney had three doubles and as many walks as strikeouts to give himself some strong numbers despite only collecting three hits last week. Korey Holland also hit two home runs but only collected two RBIs as the rest of the team couldn't get on in front of him.
Rocket City's starting pitching was very strong this past week with just one starter having an ERA over 3.00 and three of them having not allowed a single earned run.
Sam Aldegheri was the most impressive, tossing eight shutout innings while also racking up six strikeouts. Mitch Farris and Walbert Urena were not far behind either. Farris went 6.2 shutout innings while notching 13 strikeouts, and Urena went 7.1 innings and only allowed one run on three hits.
Rocket City has leaned on their starters, especially over the last week. During that span, the bullpen has five arms with ERAs over 3.00 and four over 5.00.
Probable Starters
9/2 Tuesday, 7:00 PM ET
TBD vs RHP Walbert Urena (4-8, 4.90 ERA)
9/3 Wednesday, 7:00 PM ET
TBD vs RHP Joel Hurtado (5-6, 2.97 ERA)
9/4 Thursday, 7:00 PM ET
TBD vs RHP George Klassen (5-11, 5.86 ERA)
9/5 Friday, 7:00 PM ET
TBD vs LHP Sam Aldegheri (8-8, 3.78 ERA)
9/6 Saturday, 7:00 PM ET
TBD vs TBD
9/7 Sunday, 2:00 PM ET
TBD vs RHP Walbert Urena (4-8, 4.90 ERA)
Apart from the usual promotions like All-You-Can-Eat Wednesdays, Thirsty Thursdays, and the Firework series games on Friday and Saturday, the Smokies will have an Old City Night on Thursday, Chick-fil-A Family Herd Night on Friday, and Fan Appreciation day on Sunday.
Thursday's Old City Night will have local businesses from Old City participating to give fans the opportunity to win prizes from those businesses.
Chick-fil-A Family Herd Night will give fans the opportunity to buy some Chick-fil-A for cheap when they buy tickets to the game. The tickets will come with Chick-fil-A coupons.
Sunday's Fan Appreciation Day is all about celebrating the fans as the season comes to a close. Fans will have the opportunity to earn prizes and enter raffles to win some sweet memorabilia.
Even if you can't make it to Covenant Health Park for the Smokies' final home series of the year, be sure to tune in to 92.5 FM/1180 AM WKCE or watch live on MiLB.tv or the MLB App from wherever you may be.
Southern League Stories from September 2, 2025
- Biscuits Extend Winning Streak to 10 Games in 11-3 Win over Clingstones - Montgomery Biscuits
- Ureña Dazzles as Rocket City Blanks Smokies - Rocket City Trash Pandas
- World Series Champion Ian Anderson Joins Columbus Clingstones Roster - Columbus Clingstones
- Series Preview: Smokies vs Trash Pandas - Knoxville Smokies
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
