Royals 9, White Sox 1: Walk away from this one

Facing one-time, one-month teammate Ervin Santana leading off the ninth inning, José Abreu swung over a slider well out of the zone for strike three. He instinctively turned to return to the dugout, then glanced to his left, where he saw Cam Gallagher hustling all the way to the backstop to retrieve it.

Abreu kept on walking, and that was characteristic of the effort of this game across the board. Point a finger at one guy, and even a better effort there wouldn’t have been enough to reverse the tide.

Lucas Giolito didn’t have a breaking ball, which is kinda necessary when the Royals bring one of their contact-oriented efforts to the plate. They notched their share of BABIPpy singles, and they fought off his fastball and changeup until he threw worse versions of the same pitches they saw in the same at-bat, turning those into three homers over four innings. (They added a fourth off Jose Ruíz.)

But even if he pitched better, it would’ve been for naught. The White Sox were limited to an Abreu solo shot over nine innings, and Carlos Hernández picked up the win against the Sox for the second consecutive start. He survived some line drives, but he also missed more bats, resulting in six strikeouts over five innings.

White Sox hitters struck out 10 times against just two walks. The Royals also only drew two walks, but they struck out thrice.

Abreu’s solo shot was the only moment of offensive life, but he looked uncharacteristically flat in other areas. Besides the dropped third strike he didn’t heed, he also whiffed on Cesar Hernández’s perfectly fine throw from second base. It’s hard to say he needs a day off considering the homer, but considering Eloy Jiménez went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts while Andrew Vaughn had the only stellar night — 2-for-2 with a walk — it might be worth rotating him off the field, if nothing else.

Bullet points:

*Tim Anderson made two nice plays in the infield — backing up on a hot one-hopper from Hunter Dozier and recovering with his arm, then making a spinning throw after ranging to his left to get Emmanuel Rivera.

*Cleveland lost, so the White Sox still lead by 9½ games.

Record: 63-45 | Box score | Statcast

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NateDPT12

The Sox are in this weird place where even though they’re a first place team they’re hard to watch right now. They’re so far ahead in the standings the result of the game isn’t compelling, and they’re playing so poorly they’re not remotely entertaining.

Cleveland and Kansas City are not good baseball teams. They should be burying these teams and they squeaked out a series win against Cleveland and have lost 4/6 against KC. Blegh.

Jimenez’s struggles make me want to bring up Robert sooner rather than later if it’s just a timing and reps issue at this point. Let these guys get as many MLB plate appearances as possible before the playoffs so they can work things out.

seattlejay

What’s BABIPpy?

Joliet Orange Sox

It’s either:

An adjective used to describe a hit that wasn’t hit all that hard but ended up being a single. The etymology of this word shows it is derived from the stat BABIP (batting average on balls in play). The OED lists one of the first uses of this word in print as August 4, 2021 on the Sox Machine site. The man who threw out the first pitch at Wednesday’s game would call many of these hits Kansas City Specials.

or

The name of the song Buddy Hackett sings in the The Music Man.

Last edited 2 years ago by Joliet Orange Sox
To Err is Herrmann

BABIPpy, or BABIPPEE, was one of the earliest advanced baseball metics developed by Bill James, shortly after he watched Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In for the first time.

texag10

I’m really hoping these are just “I’ve been out of the game for 5 months and I’m just getting used to major league pitching” because Eloy better get used to DHing real quick and knock off these 0fers.

Brett R. Bobysud

I know he’s a rookie, but since Vaughn’s the only guy hitting the ball consistently from game-to-game, might it be worth seeing how he does in a higher spot in the batting order for a game?

jhomeslice

I wouldn’t mind seeing him hit third and Abreu moved down 2 or 3 spots, personally. He has been the best hitter on the team for the past month. Maybe wait a couple games to see if Abreu’s homer last night was the start of something, but otherwise why not shake things up. Or put Vaughn 4th, Eloy 5th.

polishwith

I’ve felt like the sox have looked like a good team in a bad division. But lately they’ve looked like a mediocre team in a bad division. They have not hit RPs well all year, and are not hitting at all since the ASB. I’m worried that there may not be a rebound, or that if they do turn things around, it won’t be that significant.

jhomeslice

Their offense will surely be better with Grandal and Robert, but will it be great? Abreu has the lowest OPS he has had in his whole career with the Sox, 200 points lower than a year ago. Moncada is like 150 points lower than in 2019. Those two in particular are just not having good years hitting compared to what they can do, and need to step it up also.

Root Cause

Abreu has given a lot so he deserves a pass but if he is mentality defeated, the whole team needs some help. If I had an office, I would know what to do so hoping LaRussa saw the sign.

Esteban

White Sox has a poor offensive, Abreu alone can´t do much, he has no backing. Moncada is an unfulfilled promise thus far, many skills frequently misused. There´s much optimism that baseball players coming from injury list, e.g. Robert, Eloy and Grandal will return fully able to hit hard the ball. Eloy is an evidence, not yet ready to play at this level now. It seems they will do the same with Luis Robert. Ah, but the praises have been enough for the GM, particularly from the White Sox associated press. In my opinion, he didn´t do much, an average second baseman, an acceptable reliever and a five-star closer, Bravo!! Every day was the talk about Joe Gallo, Mitch Hanniger, Trea Turner, Eduardo Escobar, Adam Frazier, all this like the past stories of Manny Machado, Bryce Harper and Trevor Bauer, fairy tales for fans entertainment. I wish I am wrong and to see this team winning in the play off, but hitless you go nowhere not to mention world series. I’m living 4400 miles away from Chicago, but keep on as a fan of Miñoso’s team.

dwjm3

Lance Lynn looks sharp in the throwback uniform…

Field of Dreams Game uniforms (mlb.com)

joewho112

Is the lack of a division race detrimental to the Sox? Iron sharpens iron and the Sox don’t have an iron it sharpen them