Indians 4, White Sox 0: Dylan Covey good, Corey Kluber better

White Sox pitchers got to face Cleveland’s B-team.

White Sox hitters couldn’t stay the same.

Corey Kluber, Andrew Miller and Cody Allen combined to strike out 15 White Sox over a four-hitter. Kluber contributed seven innings and 15 strikeouts to the cause, picking up his 20th victory and lowering his ERA to 2.83 for his effort.

Dylan Covey’s six shutout innings went to waste. Granted, he faced a lineup missing Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez, Michael Brantley and Jason Kipnis. The Indians played extra innings in Boston the night before, so Terry Francona gave them all a rest in what a meaningless game for everybody but Kluber.

Regardless, Covey throwing six shutout innings in consecutive starts against the same team is impressive, especially considering he has started against Cleveland in every series this season. He scattered six hits while striking out seven, working around a couple of threats by missing bats. He froze a runner at third with one out in the second by getting a groundout and a strikeout, and he nullified a pair of inning-opening singles in the fourth with a strikeout and a double play.

Covey at least avoided his 14th defeat on the season. Instead, the loss went to Ian Hamilton, who gave up a solo shot to Brandon Guyer in the seventh. He almost surrendered back-to-back shots, but after coming up short on his leaping attempt on Guyer’s fly, Daniel Palka came down with Erik Gonzalez’ drive for robbery on his second try.

Nate Jones couldn’t keep it a one-run game. He gave up Adam Rosales’ first-homer of the season to make it a 2-0 game followed by four consecutive hits that chased him from the game.

Bullet points:

*The Sox were 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position. All three of the outs were K’s.

*Nicky Delmonico gets a gold star for contributing half of the Sox’ hits and none of their strikeouts.

*Tim Anderson almost pulled off the defensive play of the month with a ranging play up the middle and a spinning on-target throw so good, it surprised Matt Davidson, who wasn’t standing on first base for some reason.

Record: 61-95 | Box score

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Patrick Nolan

COVEY BACK

karkovice squad

I’m beginning to doubt Palka’s All-American basketball abilities.

PopeDonnPall

2018 was good for learning Matt Davidson can’t play 1st base.

lil jimmy

I am wondering, do they pick up Jones option?

oljeto

Please don’t. Showing the ball to hitters and then having no movement is the perfect recipe for failure.
Only interesting point about him is that he got his velocity back, whereas Giolito and others didn’t. Huge ??? For Kopech,
.

oljeto

Booth discussion with Madrigal shows how brain dead Sox management remains.  Obviously, his comments on gaining more power means he drank the Kool-Aid of hitting coach’s selective aggression approach.  Everyone swings from the heels and no one gets on base.  Even Hawk knows you have to set the table–something the Cubs’ first two batters showed brilliantly in the series.
Rebuild should have started with coaching staff.

jorgefabregas

I’m not commenting either way on the staff, but he’s going to have to learn to walk or hit for some power to be a successful major league hitter. .280/.310/.330 with some steals isn’t going to cut it.

karkovice squad

Or he could just hit .300+ with a couple handfuls of doubles like he’s done in his first 150 PAs above rookie ball. Which he managed even with the early struggles in W-S.