Royals 11, White Sox 0: A new low

Dylan Cease stopped embarrassing himself after the first inning, but his teammates saw it through to the end.

Cease worked through some early fastball problems, runner mismanagement and an early spike in his pitch count to throw six innings, which is a step in the right direction. As for the rest of the White Sox, when they weren’t running into each other, throwing wildly and diving in vain, they were getting shut out by a guy named Glenn.

Indeed, Glenn Sparkman, who entered the game with an Albany area code ERA (5.18) threw a five-hitter for the first Royals shutout in more than two years. All five hits were singles, which accurately represented the quality of contact, and Sparkman became the second Royals pitcher to set a personal high in strikeouts in as many nights.

Cease was on the losing end of it from the first inning on, and he’s responsible for the early problems. The Royals pounced on his fastball, and it was an omen when Eloy Jiménez had to leave the game after one Kansas City batter when he ran into Charlie Tilson on the warning track. The White Sox called it elbow soreness requiring further evaluation.

Tilson made the catch, but he had no chance on Adalberto Mondesi’s lined single to center. In the first of two humiliating trips around the basepaths, Mondesi scored before Alex Gordon completed his plate appearance. He made it to second when Cease’s pickoff throw got past Jose Abreu, stole third when Cease wasn’t paying attention, and scampered home when Yoan Moncada failed to catch James McCann’s on-target throw. Gordon eventually singled, then scored on a Hunter Dozier triple for a 2-0 lead.

Two innings later, Mondesi forced the Sox into more ugly defense. After leading off with a single, Gordon hit a chopper to short. Leury García tried firing across his body for the out, but he threw it well wide of second and into right-field foul territory a la Jose Rondón in Oakland two days before. Mondesi scored, Gordon made it to third, and while Yolmer Sánchez saved one run with a great throw home to nab Gordon on a grounder that shot between Cease’s legs, Cease gave up two more singles to score another run before the third out was recorded. Both runs were unearned.

Cease then allowed two more runs in the fourth, both of which should’ve been unearned, but end up inflating Cease’s ERA due to scoring standards. First, Tilson broke in and right instead of back and right on a Cam Gallagher line drive that went over his outstretched glove for a one-out double, and then Ryan Cordell made another ill-advised diving attempt on Whit Merrifield’s sliced drive down the right-field line. It rattled around the corner as Cordell regrouped. Gallagher scored easily, and Merrifield followed him home, where a relay from Sánchez originally nailed him. Upon further review, Merrifield got his hand inside McCann’s attempt to block it. McCann, who caught the ball on the first base side of home, probably should’ve led with his mitt instead of his foot, but knowing the Sox’ luck, he might’ve separated his shoulder doing so.

Despite all the terrible defense behind him, Cease ended up striking out seven over six innings, throwing 67 of 108 pitches for strikes. He and McCann might’ve figured out a way to foil scouting reports by going to his breaking ball sooner in a game. After dropping to 0-5 and being outscored 37-7 to start the second half, there are a lot of bigger problems.

Record: 42-49 | Box score | Highlights

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iowasox1971

Tough to listen to Jason and Stone trying to defend this crapshow. Jason saying, “Well, what happened in the first half still happened, and it’s a sign of great strides …”

What nonsense. Stop it, guys. The team was still under .500 in the first half. And just because you have some highlights in the first half doesn’t mean a team should totally surrender after the break. This year, instead of the white flag trade, we have a white flag rest of the reason. When the Cubs started making strides in 2014, they actually improved in the second half, by a lot. This team is just quitting.

As for Cease, it would be nice if one of our hyped prospects could come up and actually, you know, play or pitch very well right away. Atlanta has guys come up ranked lower than ours and they start their careers on fire, while our guys seem to take a season or two or three to learn how to play the game. That is, if they even stay healthy. Why is that? Maybe our guys aren’t all that good after all.

By the way, send Tilson down. Rule No. 1 for center fielders should be: Don’t run into Jimenez. Yeah, with most teams you would try to catch the ball, but this team doesn’t want to win anyhow, so what’s the point of getting one of your few gate attractions hurt?

PauliePaulie

I’m surprised by that statement from Jason because he’s been honest in talking about the team’s expected win/loss record on a few occasions.

mikeyb

Anyone who expected Cease to come up and be lights out right away, with all of his control issues at Charlotte, wasn’t being realistic. Most likely, the org simply felt there was nothing left for him to learn down there with the environment, and the best place for him to continue his development is Chicago. But he is extremely far from a finished product. Enormous upside, and I still think he will be fantastic down the road, but he still has a ton of development left before he approaches that point.

knoxfire30

Completely agree.

Sox have had big problems with getting young players acclimated it seems like for whatever reasons our prospects take a little extra time to get it together. Cease wasnt gonna learn much at AAA its time he take his lumps in the 2nd half of 2019 so he is ready to roll in 2020.

PauliePaulie

A reality check for just how thin this roster is.

Trooper Galactus

And it just got thinner.

Trooper Galactus

Well, A.J. Reed had two of their five hits…so there’s that, I guess.

Patrick Nolan

Cease rallied pretty well at least. Can’t wait until I don’t have to watch Tilson or Cordell anymore

NorthSideSouthSider

One day, I hope we can get to a point where we don’t have to say this every single year. They still have a hole in RF for next year so we may not be out of the woods yet.

MrStealYoBase

I really don’t understand how Eloy got hurt on that play. Nicompoopery communication aside, they didn’t collide very hard. I don’t understand how a 23 year old doesn’t just walk away from that. Whoever the new training staff are have really done a shit job the last couple of years.

Also, to iowasox’s point: this team’s player development is horrid. Sure, Cease had question marks as a starter when they acquired him and put those to rest last year but I doubt that had anything to do with coaching.

I really feel for the players. They are flying blind against teams who do all they can to put their guys in the best position to maximize their talent. This clown show of a front office is still stuck in the 90’s.

mikeyb

Just to be clear, you think the training staff is responsible for injuries that arise out of collisions? How exactly would you like them to have prevented that? Put skateboarders’ elbow pads on Eloy?

MrStealYoBase

Flexibility and dexterity help prevent injuries, which is in their purview.

knoxfire30

Their run differential is catching up to them. Its still a team with a lot of holes and the 2nd half may even out some of the positives we saw from the 1st half.

You have 1 starting pitcher right now you can assume will give you a quality start. You have maybe 3 bullpen arms you can trust late in a game. You have 4 or 5 bats in the lineup capable of being better then average. Thats not a ton to work with, throw in that your other 4 starters, your other bullpen arms, and your other guys in the lineup are more dead weight then even below average and I have no idea how this team hovered around 500 as long as they did except for luck.

The shopping list this off season seems to go as follows, 1 front end starter, 1 mid tier starter, 2 bullpen arms, 1 bat. I estimate it takes around 80 mil to make that happen. With Castillo, Nova, Alonso, Jones, Santana, off the books and not a lot of big arb raises due to anyone thats really only net 30-40 mil more on payroll. PONY UP JERRY

roke1960

I don’t even know where to start. These last 5 days have been a complete and utter embarrassment. Every single aspect of their team has been horrid. That has to stop now. Iowasox is right. It looks like a white flag rest of the season. If this continues, all the strides they made in the first half are for nothing.
Changes need to happen now. They need a legitimate cf. That is Robert. Leury needs to be removed from short. They need to try another high leverage righty in the pen because the league has figured out Evan Marshall. Tilson needs to go. The Reed experiment should not last much longer. He is not a major league hitter.
If Hahn is content to just ride out the rest of this season, then he is a bigger moron than I thought. Do something Rick. 2020 is not far away. It’s time to get ready now.

WBWSF

Hahn is the worse GM in the modern history of the White Sox franchise. This is the 7th year of the Rick Hahn dynasty era. This will be the 7th year without a winning season and he still keeps his GM job.

35Shields

The White Sox have been the worst team in baseball by win-loss since he took over. Rick Hahn sucks at his job.

Trooper Galactus

But they were the sixth most profitable team in MLB last season. You think ownership is eager to move him with that on the books?

Yolmer

Time to sell. Colome and Jay should have some appeal to a playoff team, maybe the Phillies now that Jay Bruce is hurt. Spencer Howard seems like an interesting piece. The Sox could probably get him and a lottery ticket or two. Colome has been great, but I’d like to see how Bummer could do as a closer, and there will be Colome level relievers available in the off season for similar money.