Yankees 10, White Sox 4: Lopsided pitching matchup, lopsided score
Vince Velasquez vs. Gerrit Cole seemed like a mismatch on paper, and it turned out that way in practice.
The Yankees homered four times for the second straight night, and Velasquz served up three of them. Giancarlo Stanton hit another two-run shot in the first inning to set the tone. Velasquez pitched five innings and was scored upon in four of them.
Yet it could’ve been worse, because at least Velasquez went five. He and the White Sox trailed 5-0 after two thanks to RBI doubles by Aaron Hicks and Josh Donaldson around a DJ LeMahieu RBI groundout, and Velasquez had thrown 59 pitches through two. With Tanner Banks working hard the night before and Reynaldo López’s last outing interrupted by a back issue, the White Sox didn’t have an ideal long man ready.
Velasquez wasn’t much better at keeping the Yankees off the board, but at least he was efficient. He tossed three more innings on a more reasonable 40 pitches, with Aaron Judge and Joey Gallo taking him deep for solo shots in the fourth and fifth innings.
The White Sox had a chance of making it a slugfest early against Cole, loading the bases with one out after a Tim Anderson leadoff double, a José Abreu walk and an error by Isiah Kiner-Falefa on a Luis Robert roller, but Cole ramped up the heat and struck out Gavin Sheets and AJ Pollock to end the threat.
(There was the threat of a shoving fight between Anderson and Josh Donaldson, as Donaldson came down hard on Anderson after receiving the throw from the catcher on an attempt to pick him off, shoving Anderson off the bag. Anderson came up shoving Donaldson, with third base umpire Chris Guccione correctly ruling that Donaldson’s push was illegal, then defusing tensions as players ambled toward that corner.)
The Sox did more damage against Cole than last year’s matchup, when Cole threw seven scoreless innings in a 7-0 victory. He balked home a run in the fourth, and then Sheets turned on a hanging changeup for a two-run shot in the sixth that made it a 7-3 game.
The White Sox bullpen tried to keep the Yankees at bay, and were successful through the eighth thanks to two scoreless from Bennett Sousa and one from López. Then came Matt Foster, who gave up five hits over the course of 24 pitches for a three-run ninth, including the fourth Yankee homer by Donaldson. Still, at least it only required three relievers, two of whom needed the work.
The Sox tepidly answered that run via a single to the outfield, a single to the infield, and a Reese McGuire single in between. The rally got Aroldis Chapman warming, but he just might’ve needed the work.
Bullet points:
*Anderson made a sensational play to take a base hit away from Gleyber Torres, but then he waited back on a Kiner-Falefa grounder before rushing a throw high and wide. Somehow it wasn’t ruled his 10th error of the year.
*Likewise, Leury García bobbled the carom off the side wall on Aaron Hicks’ RBI hit, giving up an extra 90 feet, but the scorer called it a double. At least the White Sox can say they won the error column, 2-0.
*Pollock’s progress stalled by going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, stranding a team-high five.
Record: 15-16 | Box score | Statcast
Author
Maybe the moves the Sox made the past two offseasons aren’t going to work out that well after all.
I wouldn’t mind someone putting a fastball in Donaldson’s back. He deserves it.
He’s always deserved it, he’s a tool.
Was Matt Foster in need of work? Why in the world did TLR not bring Lopez back after he breezed through the 8th on 10 pitches?
Didn’t Lopez just return from some injury
White Sox keep treating highly paid athletes with silk gloves, and yet, the injured list of players piles up. I have been a fan of the White Sox for years, and I have never seen this team treating their players like fragile Fabergé eggs. If Lopez can’t pitch more than 2 innings, then put him on the IL and call up someone that can pitch.
I am tired of seeing players not in the IL been treated like they are in the IL. If a player is ready to play, he should be ready to play.
The talk about Ray Ray vs. VV was, who was going to start and who was going to long relieve. It centered around the thought that if one faltered as the starter, the other would be stretched out enough to jump in. Right now, they can’t even send a consistent message about their plans, let alone implement them.
I think a big difference between this season and last is that last year, TLR cost them home field. This year, he will likely cost them the division.
They are 8 games behind the Yankees and 6 behind the Astros already. Good luck with all that. This team is just not that good, as we’ve seen since July of last year. And their manager just torches their chances.
The Sox are 12th in runs scored, 11th in ERA, and dead last in defense. They’ve scored 113 runs and given up 140. They are quite lucky to be anywhere near .500 actually.
They have scored more runs than only two teams. Their hitting is atrocious. They can’t afford to have a bottom third of a lineup with Harrison, Garcia, McGuire and hope to win games against major league teams. Garcia and Harrison should absolutely NEVER be in the same lineup.
The hitting is just amazingly bad. Last in walks; 13 or 14th in OBP. Abreu is .202 and batting third, but there’s nobody better to move up! Last night 1-10 RISP, so they had chances, but…..this is just a bad roster. ‘Nuff said.
I think we can now say it’s not early anymore, and things don’t seem to be getting better. Abreu and Grandal are a liability at the plate, their bullpen is inconsistent, their defense sucks and the back end of the rotation can’t be trusted. Plus they have the worst manager in baseball. Otherwise, things are great! I have a hard time seeing this team anywhere close to .500 by July 4, since the schedule is pretty brutal between now and then. Fortunately, no one in the division is any good, so they at least won’t be buried by then. Things have to change soon, but I don’t think they will.
Nope. Nothing will change as long as job security is based on loyalty to JR. And JR, well, he makes money for his partners. After JR, the team will be sold and then we fans will be at the mercy of the latest billionaire who wants an ego trip.
Yeah, they’re a few games from being 1/5 through the season. It isn’t early anymore, you are right. Time to start making changes. Starting with getting a competent damn manager.
20% through the season is early. The list of teams that turned it around well after the 20% mark is long. And all of their fans at the 20% mark were proclaiming that it was no longer early. They were wrong. But the concern about the manager is not only legitimate but understated. He might very well be the main factor that screws up this season.
So, you’ve got to wonder, would Rick fire Tony if he could? If all of us see how bad he is managing this team, you’ve got to think Rick and Kenny notice it too. But of course their opinion doesn’t matter, and there’s no way Jerry is firing him. Our only hope is that Tony himself sees how much the game has changed and says he can’t do this anymore and resigns. But I don’t think there’s a chance that happens either. So it’s up to the players to win in spite of their manager’s incompetence.
The embarrassment, to both LaRussa and Reinsdorf, if he resigned would be overwhelming. I also don’t think that LaRussa is self-aware enough to know how badly he is performing. But if I’m wrong, expect a “health-related’ resignation.
You’re right- I’m pretty sure Tony and Jerry would rather torpedo the season than admit that Tony has lost it as a manager.
Unfortunately, the headline — Lopsided Pitching Matchup, Lopsided Score — would also have worked for Thursday’s game.
Quite possibly today’s as well.
I can’t wait to see what sort of terrible in season trade they make to try and prop this team up.
I wonder if it will be a run of the mill Cesar Hernandez dud or a James Shields alter-the-course-of-the-franchise level screw up.
They might be sellers if this keeps up. The window closed last October with this bunch. I see too many aging veterans who can’t hit anymore: Abreu, Grandal, Pollock, Harrison. Turn it over to Sheets, Vaughn, Perez, Sanchez, Cespedes, Burger and see what happens.
Nobody else in this division is probably going to win 85 games. The Sox are too talented to fall completely out of it where they would be sellers. I would like to see them get Brad Miller to play 2nd against righties. He’s hit righties well his entire career. I had them adding him in the off-season plan.
Being in AL Central probably keeps them competitive for a division title into 2023 but it’s pretty clear that’s their ceiling. In the new playoff structure there’s no chance they get the bye into the DS.
At the very least given the rotation the Sox have they have a chance of winning a three game series at home if it’s set up properly heading into the series. The problem is they may be playing a team that is 10+ games better than them.
And if they do win that Wild Card series as the AL Central champions that would be the first time they win a playoff series at home in 116 years.
I’d like to see Perez immediately. McGuire’s OPS is .320. Even if he can catch, if he basically can’t hit AT ALL he isn’t much good on a team whose primary issue is lack of scoring. Time to call up Carlos unless Grandal can play every day. McGuire may be the worst hitter they’ve had in the past 20 years who has played with any regularity. I can’t think of anybody worse. Even Palka in 2019 had a slightly higher OPS.
Even if there was somebody worse, McGuire has been epic bad so far. Give Perez a shot, why not.
For the last two seasons, posters yelled about how they didn’t care if the backup catcher could hit so long as he could catch and handle the pitchers. They got what they wanted. And now you want to give the backup slot to a completely unproven minor leaguer. Why not? Because it’s a terrible idea.
There is a chasm of difference between what it normally means to say that a player can’t hit and what they are getting from McGuire. Both Collins and Zavala were bad hitters, and both had an OPS about twice what McGuire is doing. Nobody with an OPS of .320 belongs in the major leagues.
They’ve got league worst production at 2b and can’t afford to have even worse production at catcher for 1/2 their games. Among the reasons why they’ve given up 20 percent more runs than they’ve scored so far this year.
Your “solution” is not a solution.
Sticking with McGuire if he does not start to hit a lot better isn’t a “solution” for a team near the bottom in runs scored, either.
I don’t buy that Perez with a .900 OPS at AAA has no chance of being better than someone on pace to prove himself to be the worst offensive catcher in Sox history, and so far has played in 1/2 their games.
If their hitters start to hit the lineup can carry McGuire in something like one-third of the games. A number of teams do something like that often with a catcher, sometimes with a shortstop. Focusing on McGuire is deflection. The guys that are supposed to hit have to hit.
Yep- I don’t think the Astros are dumping Martin Maldonado anytime soon, he of the .181/.179/.359 slash line. And he’s their #1 catcher.
Astros can afford the whiffle bat Maldonado brings because they are hitting and pitching well. The White Sox, right mow, can’t afford it
the weather finally warmed up this homestand and shockingly they’ve scored 6 runs per game during the homestand. the more pressing problem is that the bullpen is exhausted right now
Their other guys need to hit a lot more than they need to improve what they get from McGuire, I’ll give you that. Other than Vaughn and TA7, all their hitters are either slightly or way below their averages. But I also don’t see why a guy with a .900 OPS at AAA is out of the question for a call up with how poorly RM is doing. I know Perez isn’t great defensively, but if he is a massively better hitter he might be an improvement net-net. Grandal hasn’t been on the DL yet and probably will be at some point with his history, I’ll bet we see Perez before the year is out one way or another.
I think most likely this team is just going to disappoint even if some of their hitters come around. The manager situation is such an albatross that nothing great is going to come with this team until TLR is gone.
The thing is, for a backup catcher, McGuire surely plays like a regular.
I could tell you what would happen. If the team did what you suggest, you would be calling for their heads before the end of the season.
After they went down 5-0, I watched “Sentinelle” on Netflix. It’s a French film about a soldier who is out for revenge on the Russian tech mogul who raped her sister. 80-some minutes long. I thought, “This could be a tight, little thriller.”
Let’s just say I wished I had watched the Sox. Slow, improbable, and grotesquely violent. The movie, I mean.
Sheets is putting a little bit of pressure on Hahn to address the DH logjam. Once Vaughn and then Eloy come back this will be interesting to watch.
At that point I would sit Abreu against righties.
A lineup against righties should be Timmy, Yoan, Robert, Vaughn, Eloy, Grandal, Sheets, Pollack, Leury/Harrison. Hopefully, Abreu gets it going and makes it more difficult to sit people.
Abreu needs to starts to hit like his old self, or he should not be re-signed. He’s been so reliable for so long that it’s hard to give up on him yet, they have had only a week of decent weather after a shortened spring training. There are some very good players who are struggling, most notable Marcus Semien who has been worse than Garcia.
But man, their hitters need to start to hit, for real. Luis Robert has been better than just about everybody other than TA7 but even he isn’t hitting up to his potential. Nobody other than Tim and Vaughn is hitting well.
I love Josè – he was a bright spot on some very bad teams and there’s clearly mutual love between him and the org so I have no doubt that he’s going to be resigned, likely to the Sox’ detriment, so he can finish his career in Chicago à la Konerko.
But given his current trajectory they might end up having to retire 6-4-3 instead of 79.
The Russa referring to game highlights, “The other one was the exhibition of infield defense we put on, including the catcher.”
Apparently he doesn’t think getting the second out of 2 blown, tailor made, dp’s is important.
Sounds like Eloy could be back much sooner than expected. Hector Gomez tweeted that he would be back in a couple weeks. He is already running and taking swings in early batting practice, supposedly.
I’m sure they won’t rush him but he might be back before Lynn. At least moderately positive news.
Okay, we’ve got a talented team that’s severely underperforming. Their window for winning is finite and we’re approaching Memorial Day in the 2022 season. Many teams over the years have used a managerial change at this point to try to salvage the season. Any chance that happens with the Sox? As a 58 year Sox fan I know the answer, but imho Larussa’s not cutting it. Rewind to when Renteria was fired, Larussa was brought in to take this group to the next level. It ain’t happening, folks.
I think everybody who thinks this team cannot win with TLR is correct. I can think of 4 guys who would be an enormous improvement. Ozzie would be my first choice, Ned Yost my second. Both have won a World Series and would be no-brainer improvements.
Literally anybody with half a brain and not on their last legs could do better than TLR. For those with no experience, I’d take AJ or Paul Konerko in a heartbeat. AJ is certainly sharp and others have suggested him. Konerko has enjoyed coaching his son, even if it is only in little league. The tactics of managing a game are not rocket science, I would give either of them the reigns over a guy who will cost them several games in the standings at minimum as well as destroy any good vibes or positive mojo. AJ or PK would command immediate respect from the players, either they would be moderately better than TLR or more likely massively so. There are probably other former managers who would be better than those two, just get rid of TLR. No matter who his replacement would be, it can’t be worse, literally.
I read about Paulie, and I flash back to Ventura. What’s Terry Bevington doing these days?
What happened to paper bag guy? I think definitely appropriate for last night’s game!
He has been over used and Sox Machine is giving him some games off to avoid the IL
Maybe Sox Machine has it’s own non-conformist Sunday lineup?
Somebody call Tucker Carlson.