The White Sox are better than this, but after a miserable three games over two days in Cleveland, they shouldn’t expect such benefit of the doubt.
The Guardians completed the sweep of the Sox with another game the Sox never led. In fact, the Sox were never even able to tie any of the three games after Cleveland staked early leads. Dylan Cease misplaced a few too many breaking balls to carry the load himself, and nobody looked capable of picking him up.
The offense? It scored three runs, but both innings involved sub-professional performances to get it done.
The defense? It only committed one error, including the fourth on Tim Anderson’s tab, but another misplay by Anderson and line drive through José Abreu’s five-hole put two “earned” runs on Kendall Graveman’s tab in the seventh.
The managing? Well, even if you hold the players accountable for the defense, Leury García batted third again, and while he drew a walk, he nullified it with terrible baserunning. There was also that ALDS thing going on where a bunch of grounders went where the White Sox weren’t standing.
Oh, and Luis Robert broke out of a slump with a couple hits, only to pull up gingerly after running down the first-base line grounding out in his final at-bat.
All in all, the White Sox’s line for the series shows more errors (six) than runs (five), which just about sums up the quality-control issues.
Bullet points:
*Cease gave up eight hits over 5⅓ innings, including five on his slider. A contact-oriented Guardians lineup kept him honest, and he elevated a few too many of them for real success.
*Joe McEwing had another runner cut down at home plate for a second consecutive game, but he had to send Robert to his death because García was right behind him coming into third. Robert had tagged up on José Abreu’s deep drive to right while García was 20 feet from the bag. Both were correct to that point, because the ball glanced off Franmil Reyes’ glove, so Robert was correct to think it was catchable. The problem is that García didn’t give Robert room to check up, so another first out had to be made at home plate.
*The White Sox scored their other two runs in the seventh because Trevor Stephan threw wildly to first on what should’ve been Adam Haseley’s inning-ending chopper, which scored Gavin Sheets. Then Ernie Clement threw wildly home in an attempt to get Sheets, and Jake Burger scored behind him. The two errors were the only way the White Sox could mount a crooked number this weekend.
*The White Sox had six of the seven hardest-hit balls of the game, but Robert’s 112-mph drive off the left-field wall was the only one that went for extra bases.
Record: 6-6 | Box score | Statcast
It would not surprise me if Leury batted 3rd again tomorrow. Tony is just stubborn enough (and secure in his job) to do the unthinkable again.
I’ve never seen any manager do something that blatantly self defeating 2 straight games. They’ve scored 24 runs in the last 9 games. They are lucky to have gone 4-5, they aren’t going to win many averaging less than 3/game.
It’s one thing if the team has an early hitting slump due to a couple injuries and bad weather. But another to throw stupid lineups out there that give them way less than an optimal chance to score or win.
It seems Jerry hired the only manager who is enough of an assclown to potentially ruin a season for fans and a very talented team. TLR is just a complete tool, as is Reinsdorf for hiring him.
Well said.
This series turned me into the Joker.
I’m so tired of seeing people cite the exit velocity numbers as optimism that the offense is going to just suddenly turn around, or that they are getting unlucky. At a certain point you need to adjust your offensive approach to the scoring environment and the results you are seeing.
Swinging at first pitch balls, chasing breaking pitches below the zone with less than two strikes, and pulling off the ball to try and put it 500 feet into center field are not sustainable approaches, especially when you are going entire series without hitting a single home run with that approach.
The offense wasn’t good before this current losing streak. The razor thin margin of error just happened to be kept intact by relatively stout defense. When the defense goes, you get what we saw the last two days. Pitiful and a complete failure to adjust.
Wanting guys to hit the ball as hard as possible does not mean wanting them to use poor means to get there. Robert, Abreu, and Burger in particular are all truly getting ridiculously unlucky to this point given their batted ball data, it is worth giving them more than 12 games to pass judgement
My disdain for Leury is starting to enter Nick Swisher level. And I kinda feel bad for him because it’s Tony’s fault for putting him in the positions he shouldn’t be.
This team deserves to be in 2nd place. Playing some very uninspired ball.
The ground balls going where the D ain’t has been a real killer. It will be interesting to see if it’s bad luck or if the Sox are still a laggards on defensive shifts.
Whatever positive vibes there were from winning the first 3 series, TLR killed them.
89 wins is enough to win the division and the Sox are still the most likely team to get there. That’s not to say they have pretty glaring deficiencies but I’m confident those hard hit balls will start falling.
However I’m ready to go full ‘burn it all down mode’ if they look like ass in Minneapolis.
No need to burn it all down. They just need to get rid of a completely dysfunctional manager. He is a vibe killer, and vibe does matter. He is conducive to slumps, lethargy, and losing.
And then what? We get the usual Jerry non existent interview process and then a another mediocre hiring. They won’t hire an elite manager.
Anybody who isn’t close to 80, and a complete douchebag in cognitive decline would be an improvement. I don’t care about elite, I’ll take average.
Last time Jerry did something like that, we got Terry Bevington.
Oh boy. I remember. Unfortunately.
I hope they keep this window of contention open as long as possible. I want to the next rebuild to be under a new owner and front office.
The dour is strong with this one.
The 2022 Sox sorta remind me of the Cleveland Indians in ‘Major League II’.
Except we didn’t add the big free agent before the season (Parkman) or the Japanese outfielder. Although, to be fair, Isuro Tanaka was acquired via mid-season trade, so there’s still a chance there.
Do we have the most fragile outfield in baseball?
The ideal Sox outfielder
Once I had a glove and it was a gas,
Soon turned out it had a hamstring of glass
“Real White Sox fans have no issue with Luery hitting third” — anonymous baseball person
Please tell me this will be a T-shirt…