White Sox 4, Tigers 1: A slam’s worth of solos

White Sox win

Lance Lynn went six, Casey Mize went seven.

The White Sox hit four solo homers, the Tigers hit one.

That’s about all you need to know from a game so straightforward, it wrapped up in a season-brief two hours and 29 minutes.

I could leave it there, but I may as well add some details.

Mize kept the Sox in check, except when he didn’t. He allowed just five hits, but three of them left the yard. Yoán Moncada went the opposite way in the first inning to make Josh look smart. An inning later, Jake Lamb launched a ball deep into the Goose Island to make me look smart. In the seventh, Yasmani Grandal added to his team-best average exit velocity against fastballs 94 mph and hotter when he sent 95 mph from Mize 110 mph and 457 deep to right center. That one restored the Sox’s two-run lead, which Willi Castro temporarily reduced with the one deep drive off Lance Lynn in the fifth.

And because A.J. Hinch loves a show, he sent one of his Detroit lefties to face Tim Anderson, who did what he does to Detroit lefties with a solo shot to center for his first homer since May 13.

The only uncertain aspect of this game was the status of Lynn, whom James Fegan said headed down the tunnel with a trainer after six innings and 89 pitches. Lynn endured some loose command and lengthy innings early, but eventually tightened it up and appeared to be a good bet to go seven. Instead, Aaron Bummer handled that inning by working around a two-out infield single, while Evan Marshall and Liam Hendriks each pitched two-strikeout innigs to close it out. Hendriks’ inning wasn’t perfect because Niko Goodrum reached on strike three in the dirt, overturning what appeared to be the closest of reviews to keep the inning alive.

But only briefly. Hendriks ended the game two pitches later by getting Castro to ground out to third.

And hey, just as I’m about to close this up, Fegan provided an update on Lynn:

May no loose end go untied.

Bullet points:

*The two teams combined to go 0-for-1 with runners in scoring position. The Tigers were the the team that did that by itself.

*Anderson was caught stealing in the third inning at first base, which he tried to retreat to after Adam Eaton missed a hit-and-run sign. Anderson actually beat the throw back, but couldn’t hold the bag with his hand.

*José Abreu extended an inning by not pouncing on a Nomar Mazara chopper that spun foul, but Mazara popped out two pitches later. Again, nothing really lingered.

*Yermín Mercedes fell to 0-for-22 after going hitless in three at-bats with a strikeout and two groundouts.

*Lucas Giolito was ejected as the top of the ninth was about to start for barking at Will Little’s gross called strike three of Moncada to end the eighth. Time to see if Tony La Russa is double-dipping and still getting a paycheck from the league.

Record: 34-22 | Box score | Statcast

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Shingos Cheeseburgers

There are cats that Tony respects more than his own players

ParisSox

I could see the ump seeing that as showing him up. “I’m wrong? Well your ejected!” Not saying it’s right but I don’t think the ump actually expected Giolito to look up whatever it was.

metasox

What did Giolito expect? an apology? It is a one-sided relationship. That is how it works.

BenwithVen

Lynn basically reiterating basic classroom management. Don’t challenge a student to do something you don’t actually want them to do. You’ll always be the one that looks like a jackass.

craigws

There aren’t that many instances where I miss Ozzie, but that’s one of them.

juicecruz

Hendriks ended the game two “pitches” later…?

vince

American League Reliever of the Month Liam Hendriks has built Lego sets of ‘‘Friends,’’ Baby Yoda and Darth Vader in the clubhouse, which he said teammates don’t mind seeing because it keeps him quiet.

Tim Anderson has been calling me Lego Liam,” Hendriks said. “Everybody is really relieved I put headphones on and do my Legos, so they don’t have to hear me talk

anymore. It’s a bit of a break for everybody, not just for me.”

I’m having a tough but amusing time visualizing this scene painted by the Sun-Times.

Holland23

It helps him lego off stuff occupying his thought… I’ll see myself out

Foulkelore

Dang it, I already have so many guys on this team who could be my favorite. Add another to the list, I guess.

Holland23

I wouldn’t mind this version of Jake Lamb batting second more often.

670WMAQtheElder

I was at the game and watching on Gameday. Will Little, the HP umpire, had a terrible strike zone. The called third strikes in 8th inning, not just Moncada’s, were bad calls. TLR watches this all night, right, and then he decides Giolito’s wrong? This team is tight and they stick up for one another. So TLR is going to stick up for the umpire? TLR already ruined Mercedes over nothing. Giolito too?

dwjm3

Was LaRussa joking around a bit with that comment? It sort of felt like he was roasting the umpire for having rabbit ears.

“But umpires are very careful about listening to complaints”

That quote feels like subtle umpire mocking to me

Last edited 2 years ago by dwjm3
burning-phoneix

The quote seemed pretty natural to me. He didn’t want to admonish his players too much but doesn’t want to get on the bad side of the Umpires. Those guys are petty and sensitive as fuck.

Basically its “Gio, please don’t rile up the umps. We don’t need to be on their bad side. Don’t worry Umps union, the kids were just having a bit of fun, honest.”

DuhSox

I agree, and in addition, TLR went on the field to talk to Will Little and we have no idea what he said to him, he wasn’t animated, but he could have been politely telling Little that when he takes a look at those pitches he may agree they were low. So in his own way of sticking up for his players, and not wanting to piss off the crew for the rest of the series, he made these quotes to the media.

Root Cause

This is the problem with those unwritten rule books.

We can’t see what it says about taking a job for self-indulgence, but detrimental to the team.

Is there anything about nepotism? It seems like hiring your dentist for a managerial position would be a no-no.

I’d like to see what it says about protecting the opposing team and the umps above protecting your own players.

If I only had a copy!

calcetinesblancos

Pretty lame that the TA play mentioned counts as a CS.

TLR has to sit Yermín tonight, no? We could use a lineup without him or Eaton for one night. How about we try Sheets in RF, Lamb in LF, Collins at DH, see what happens.

dwjm3

Ozzie advocated for sitting Yermin for a couple games on the post game show last night. I think he needs it.

Malkatraz

Yeah. I think once Yermin started stepping out of the box to scream at himself (a few games back) because he missed a cookie should’ve been Tony’s first clue…

Greg Nix

Lance Lynn’s out here leading the AL in ERA by 0.78 runs like it’s no big deal.

(And if he had enough innings to qualify, Rodon would be second.)

dwjm3

If had a better right fielder and Eloy and Robert were healthy we would probably be talking about a deep playoff run on here. As it currently stands there is still a lot of reason for optimism.