Rays 5, White Sox 1: Snell ya later

The score margin from this game actually felt much larger than the result, as the White Sox were down early and weren’t able to claw back into it in the later innings.

Here’s your rundown of the game, by way of the tried-and-true “Followed the game from work bullet point recap”. If I missed anything, please feel free to add on in the comments:

*Carlos Rodon started for the White Sox, and had struggles with his fastball command out of the gate. The first inning saw a total of 39 pitches, three walks in the inning, and a 3-0 Tampa Bay lead. Engel made a nice running catch in center to save additional runs, so it could have been worse.

*Avi Garcia exacted some measure of revenge in the second, singling home a run to give the Rays a 4-0 lead.

*Rodon was able to make it through 4.2 IP despite the high pitch count (65 pitches through 2): he exited with 111 pitches, 9 Ks, 5 BBs. 20 swinging strikes overall, with 16 of those coming off 54 sliders thrown.

*Blake Snell, unsurprisingly, continued his dominance over the Sox and had a very strong start for the Rays. Last year’s AL Cy Young looked in form, striking out 5 of the first 6 Sox batters. He finished with 11 total strikeouts, no walks over 6 IP.

*Jose Rondon got the White Sox on the board with a solo home run to left off Snell, and was 2-2 against him (infield single, as well).

*The Sox had their best scoring opportunity against Snell in the 6th. Leury Garcia doubled down the line in left, and Tim Anderson hit an infield single to put runners at first and third, nobody out, down 4-1. Snell dug deep, though, and struck out three straight to end the threat.

*Fulmer looked pretty good through 2.1 innings in relief, then had problems in the 8th, giving up back-to-back singles to start the 8th, walked Daniel Robertson to load the bases, then walked Austin Meadows to force in an run. Total line: 3 IP, 3 H, 3 K, 2 BB, ER. He was optioned to Charlotte after the game, presumably to make room for Ervin Santana.

Bullet Points

  • Leury Garcia had another nice day, 3-4 with a double out of the leadoff spot.
  • Eloy Jimenez went 2-4 with 2 Ks.
  • Nate Jones looked better, 1.1 IP, 2 Ks, 1 BB.
  • Each team struck out 14 times.
  • Avisail Garcia returned to Chicago, going 2-5 with 1 RBI, 3 Ks.

Record: 3-6 | Box Score | Highlights

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NateDPT12

Why keep up Ruiz instead of Fulmer? Why keep up Palka instead of Cordell? 

I hate so many aspects of this organization. Everyone needs to go, from ownership to the front office to the coaching staff to player development.  All of them need to go. 

Patrick Nolan

Answers to both of your questions:

Fulmer, in the history of his career, has been dogshit. He needs to prove that he is not dogshit before getting the nod over others. Particularly, he struggled badly even after a demotion to AAA last year. One game of (frankly mediocre) relief pitching doesn’t change that.

Cordell, in 2018, was dogshit. He needs to prove that he is not dogshit before getting the nod over the single most exciting player on the 2018 White Sox. 6 (six!!) plate appearances doesn’t change that.

I’m not saying Ruiz is good, or that Palka is good, but both of them absolutely deserve a spot on the major league roster over the two people you just mentioned.

NateDPT12

Fair enough, and to be clear my second paragraph isn’t due to my thoughts in the first paragraph. It just seems obvious that Palka is the 2018 version of Josh Fields.  He’ll linger on the roster though no matter how shitty he is this year because the Sox are only interested in tanking and don’t care to actually use these roster spots on either compelling or, perish the thought, good players.  Palka to me is a constant reminder of 2 things,first, this roster is horse shit. Second, it didn’t have to be.

Patrick Nolan

I’m not sure I buy the comparison, or that the White Sox won’t demote a struggling player because they’d prefer to tank.

Palka showed some promise last year and that earns him more than 23 plate appearances of leeway. They’ve been 23 pretty terrible plate appearances but the decision to keep him around for now is rational.

karkovice squad

that earns him more than 23 plate appearances of leeway.

“We’ve established that, now we’re just haggling over price.”

What’s the cutoff? Because the Sox should absolutely be cycling through the bottom of their roster faster than their traditional rate.

Patrick Nolan

Mid-late May at least. I don’t think it’s good to send the message that seven games or whatever can undo some substantial built-up goodwill.

The situation would arguably be different if they had someone interesting to try out.

PauliePaulie

I thought it took 80 PA’s for #’s to normalize. Any fewer really should be dismissed as sss.

karkovice squad

Exit velocity stabilizes around 40 balls in play, K rate around 60 PAs. Both are problems for Palka right now.

karkovice squad

1.5-2 months seems like a long time to let someone flail. Palka’s not just unlucky right now like Melky was in ’15 or Jesus Aguilar is right now.

Palka might benefit from some Lisle time much sooner than that.

PauliePaulie

This might be a tough week.

PopeDonnPall

Thoughts on this one:

– This is why I’m not on board the “Rodon’s an ace” train. Injuries are a big part of his story, yes. But are command issues. He talks about how much he hates walking guys yet continues to struggle with it. Today, coming off two short performances from our starters, the Sox needed their ace to be economical and soak up innings. Instead he put them in a hole early and bowed out before he could get through 5IP. Sh** or get off the pot, Carlos.

– I thought Fulmer looked good. I thought Sox would pull him after his first full inning and end on a high note. They had another chance to the next inning with a lefty coming to bat and left him in both times. The post game comments imply he was told he’d have to absorb some innings and accept his stay will be brief but thought he showed well and it was nice to see Renteria second that.

– I’m waiting for the Eloy explosion and think it’s coming soon. On the topic of his D and nutrition, while I don’t think those were valid reasons to keep him in the minors, I do think they are issue. If you look at clips of him even from the prospects game a year and a half ago or whenever it was, he looks leaner and quicker. He’s pretty plodding in left so hope the contract doesn’t change his commitment to improving those things.

PauliePaulie

I think Eloy looked leaner and quicker because he was 19.
No amount of training and nutrition is going to stop him from growing into his adult body, slowing down and ending up at 1B/DH.

knoxfire30

100%

lil jimmy

That picture of Eloy’s dad… The guy looked carved out of granite.

karkovice squad

This is Rodon’s first major league April since ’16. Let’s give him more than 3 starts to get through the normal deadarm phase, yeah?

knoxfire30

With completely punting on free agency / spending the amount of things that are gonna have to go right even from now til 2021 is a shocking list. You will need the continued success of Moncada and Anderson playing at near all star levels. You will need Eloy to be an all star. You will have to have Kopech come back and Cease come up and both out pitch everyone you are currently running out there, slotting Rodon, Lopez, Giolito into more of a 3,4,5 position in the rotation. You will have to completely remake your bullpen or resign guys like Herrera and Colome. And you will need probably 2 more near all stars to come up in the system out of Robert, Madrigal, Collins, etc…

I mean this thing isn’t even close.

GoGoSoxFan

This. And even if all that came to pass the Sox would need to sign at least two or three free agents (and we know how that will go).

Soxfan2

Yup. Two offseason’s in a row in which we added no long term pieces or at least guys with potential. A guy I talked about here a bunch is Domingo Santana. Only 26 and a year removed from a 3.3 fwar season and was traded to Seattle for a 4th outfielder. Could have hid him for practically nothing, has tremendous upside but instead we’ll roll out Palka, Engel, Rondon etc. Sucha shame.Â