Perhaps everybody in the White Sox dugout saw a lineup card with no José Abreu, no Tim Anderson, Yoán Moncada at DH and Andrew Vaughn playing second and understood the objective was to head home to Chicago and meet their new teammates.
Or maybe they had higher ambitions, but then they stepped out onto the field at Kauffman Stadium and realized what Ichiro Suzuki meant about Kansas City in the summer.
It’s July, not August, but there was an excessive heat warning, and the White Sox regardless, and so the Sox decided to conserve their energy. Carlos Rodón gave up a first-inning homer to Salvador Pérez and a second-inning homer to Michael A. Taylor to start four underwhelming innings. On the other side, the White Sox offense tallied just five hits and a walk while grounding into two double plays.
As for Vaughn at second, La Russa picked the right day to try it. He ended up handling more balls in the air (one popout, one lineout) than grounders, and even then, he started a 4-6-3 double play with a glove flip for the last two outs White Sox pitchers recorded. It’s unfortunate that we never got to see him on the pivot, although perhaps that also kept him ready to fight another day. Hopefully the White Sox can say the same.
Bullet points:
*Leury García committed a throwing error by firing high across the diamond after making a backhanded stab behind third base on a hot shot by Jorge Soler. It’s the kind of error that almost should reflect positively on his record.
*If Danny Mendick played his last game for the White Sox for a while, well, he went 0-for-3 with a strikeout.
*Reynaldo López and Ryan Burr each fulfilled their objective of pitching two innings, helping to get the game over in two hours and 46 minutes.
Record: 60-43 | Box score | Statcast
Overall, a very successful day for the White Sox!!
I refuse to believe that game took any less than 6 hours
I know the offense looks like crap, but even great teams go through bad streaks. In 2005, they lost 7 in a row in August, and then had a 4-10 stretch in September where they almost blew the lead they had all year. Their pitching was what carried them that year, it’s the strength of this team.
Anyway we can all feel good about Tepera and Hernandez, as well as Sheets, Burger, Kelley and whoever else people were concerned about remaining with the organization. I still hope they get one more reliever because their pen is pretty awful, but kudos to Hahn for 2 very solid improvements.
For all of the talk about the pitching carrying the team, the White Sox have scored the 4th most runs in baseball and have the 4th highest team wRC+.
I didn’t see the game. Did Rodon look ok? His last start, Stone had brought up the question of velocity and the fact Rodon had not pitched much the last couple seasons. I haven’t seen that topic mentioned much
It took him a while to get going again. He was sitting in the low 90’s on his fastball the first 2 innings. I’d like to see them skip him in the rotation a few times in the second half if possible.
He looked disinterested like the rest of the team. Velocity seemed down a bit.
Would you have been interested with that lineup behind you?
This team is not trending in the right direction.
Thankfully, the next time Rick Hahn says “blah blah needs to spend more time in the minors working on their defense,” there’s a few easy replies.
That said, I’d like to see him get to Joe McEwing level of positions in a season, just for fun.
I remember reading all those Vaughn scouting reports:
We don’t even need Leury anymore!
I don’t know if we don’t need him anymore, but like Yolmer a couple of years ago, next year his value may not match up with his expected salary and he is not tendered an offer.