They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. When the University of Miami football team creates a turnover that player gets to wear the Turnover Chain. Following suit, whenever a White Sox hitter smacks a home run, they get to rock the bling. Nicky Delmonico, Tim Anderson, and Adam Engel passed the Home Run Chain around as their dingers helped the White Sox power by the Minnesota Twins, 7-3.
It wasn’t the best of starts for Carlos Rodon. Against lead-off hitter Logan Forsythe, Rodon allowed a single on a 90-mph fastball. Against Eddie Rosario, Rodon was able to induce a ground hit to the first baseman, Nicky Delmonico. A low throw from Delmonico to Tim Anderson was able to get the first out at second, but Anderson couldn’t get his feet in position to make a good return throw to complete the double play.
With a runner on first and falling behind in the count 2-0 to Jorge Polanco, Rodon’s belt high fastball landed in the White Sox bullpen as Polanco’s third home run of 2018 put Minnesota up 2-0. Compounding the problem further, Rodon walked both Tyler Austin and Miguel Sano. As his pitch count was approaching 30 in the first inning, Mitch Garver hit a line drive right at Yoan Moncada covering second for the easy double play ending the threat.
Then the White Sox offense started to help Rodon as Delmonico hit a solo shot in the second inning to make it a 2-1 game. In the fourth, Tim Anderson hit a swag bomb to tie the game, 2-2.
Meanwhile, Rodon got back into rhythm keeping Minnesota to just one hit after the second inning. After allowing two hits and two walks in the opening frame, Rodon finished the day going six innings allowing only three hits, two runs, striking out five to three walks. Not the sharpest of starts for Rodon, but his season ERA is now 2.71.
The dam burst for Twins starter Kyle Gibson in the fifth inning. After allowing the dreaded lead-off walk to Omar Narvaez, Gibson gave up a two-run homer to Adam Engel giving the Sox a 4-2 lead. In his post-game interview, Engel said he was looking to bunt the first pitch, but it was outside. The rally continued as Yolmer Sanchez walked and Avisail Garcia singled to set up a good scoring situation for Daniel Palka with one out. A hard hit ball right at Forsythe at second base bounced off his glove for an error that scored Sanchez. Anderson struck out for the second out, and the Twins decided to intentionally walked Delmonico for Gibson to face Matt Davidson.
On a 2-2 pitch, Davidson singled to left field scoring Garcia and Palka capping off a big inning to give the Sox a 7-2 lead. Minnesota added a run in the seventh inning, and threaten in the ninth with runners on first and second with no outs. Hector Santiago was able to get out of the jam and slammed the door by striking out Polanco.
Game Notes:
- Yolmer Sanchez had a good OBP day by going 1-for-2 with three walks.
- Tim Anderson has 17 home runs in 2018, tying a season-high for him.
- The White Sox have hit a home run in 14 consecutive games.
- Team record in August is 11-9. Just one win shy of tying the most wins in a month this season (12 in June)
Record: 48-78 | Box Score
At the game, after tough start Rodon buckled down. Sox had some timely hitting and long balls which was great to see without Jose in the lineup. Also for all those who think that the Sox are fielding challenged, the twins play would change your mind. With the Sox having a man trapped between 3rd and home trying to score , and the runner from second advancing to and touching 3rd place …twin fielders were unable to get one out… including the runner from first advancing to second. It will be probably highlighted tonite somewhere . It was the most inept example of brain farts by multiple fielders I have ever witnessed at a ballpark and I watched baseball for 5 + decades.
Don’t look now, but Engel’s OPS is at a whopping .609. A strong-ish September and he might finish about where we figured he needed to be to post average value (~2 WAR) as a center fielder.
Well, he’s at 0 fWAR right now. So that September better be really strong
.8 bWAR. They disagree on his defense. Fangraphs says it’s worse than last year. B-Ref says it’s better.
StatCast says he has a smaller gap to average than last year. But a lot of the change is wrapped up in what looks like a change to their model (or just variance)–the top players mostly have higher expected catch percentages than they did last year which, even without a decline in actual catch percentage, reduces how much value the model credits to them.
Why does god hate the White Sox?! First Kopech, now Cease. Had an absolute gem going tonight.
I’m thinking he was done anyways. He was at 103 pitches. It takes a lot of pitches to strike out that many guys.
Probably. This horrible weather just pisses me off.
What did he do? MILB.com just shows the game as suspended.