Davis Martin couldn't quite follow up Johnny Cueto's sterling debut because he had the gall to allow a single run over five innings Tuesday night, whereas Cueto was one run and one inning better on Monday.
Considering Martin didn't have Cueto's wealth of experience to draw upon, his start looks like the bigger triumph. He could've been thrown off by the hard contact and multiple extra-base hits that led to the Royals grabbing a 1-0 lead in the second, but instead he stuck to attacking the strike zone and forcing the Royals to bury him, and he instead subdued their offense into the middle innings with increasing efficiency.
Some of this is certainly a function of the Royals' league-worst offense, but a major-league debut is a major-league debut, and an MLB offense is an MLB offense. Martin might've taken the loss, but he wasn't defeated.
What's surprising is that Martin was the one who stuck on the 26-man roster, even though he won't be available for another five days. The White Sox indeed returned Kyle Crick to Charlotte after he fulfilled his 27th man duties.
Martin deserved another look, but the White Sox are long on starters right now, especially with Lucas Giolito coming back from the COVID-19 list and starting tonight. Tony La Russa outlined the rotation plans through the weekend, and he named six starters who weren't Martin:
- Tonight: Lucas Giolito
- Thursday: Vince Velasquez
- Friday: Dallas Keuchel
- Saturday: Michael Kopech (if back from paternity list)
- Sunday: Dylan Cease or Cueto
My guess is that Velasquez's outing against KC might inform what the White Sox plan to do with him the next turn through, but after staring down the barrel of a pitching well gone dry, the Sox welcome the temporary surplus, even if they have to guard against KC making it a bit of a mirage.
The Royals aren't playing terribly gripping baseball and their record reflects that, but they're dealing with a couple of issues that the White Sox might have to confront if their offense continues to run on sad parallel tracks.
At the front office level, the Royals decided to fire hitting coach Terry Bradshaw. Sam McDowell of the Kansas City Star says the move is a reflection of a reorganized management hierarchy that has Dayton Moore letting J.J. Picollo have a more active role in day-to-day operations.
Moore has shown a tendency to stick with players and coaches — to stand by people. He’s loyal to a fault. In his new role, he has taken on the global outlook the organization, as he’s referred to it. He’s stepped away, however slightly, from the day-to-day operations of the Major League team.
That job belongs now to Picollo, who felt it necessary to begin these difficult conversations weeks ago. I don’t point that out to recognize Picollo as cold-hearted — that’s not it — but rather to say he has just fulfilled one of the hardest requirements of his new role.
At the manager level, Mike Matheny irritated Royals fans with his defense of playing Carlos Santana, who isn't doing anything besides walking these days (.127/.289/.203). His explanation was reminiscent of Ozzie Guillen with Adam Dunn in 2011, although Guillen seemed more intent on embarrassing Kenny Williams.
Speaking of Guillen, he threw himself into the current White Sox's struggles by criticizing the absence of Tim Anderson in the Game 2 lineup, which prompted Anderson to criticize the criticism.
Anderson has started 31 of 36 games this year, or 31 of 34 where he wasn't suspended. That's a 147-game pace, which would represent an improvement over his last two full seasons (123 games apiece). At an individual level, Guillen's criticism is misguided.
But with the White Sox scoring seven regulation runs over the first three games against one of the league's worst pitching staffs, it's only natural to see heightened scrutiny of who is and isn't playing, and who's playing and hitting where. If Guillen is the one leading the charge, it'll be a uniquely White Sox development, because a sort of loyalty that incorporated accountability would result in neither him nor La Russa being employed by the team. The White Sox have had chain-of-command issues since they won the World Series, so if it gets to a point where heads need to roll, it's hard to trust that anybody will be empowered to do so.
