Dodgers 4, White Sox 1: Trailing from the moment lineup cards were exchanged
Johnny Cueto showed how tough it can be to win for this White Sox team when the effort on the mound falls short of Michael Kopech-like dominance.
And that’s no slight at Cueto, who did the job asked of him by throwing a quality start. It took a different shape compared to his other outings, which tended to unravel as he wended his way into the third time through the order.
This time, he gave up a two-run homer to Will Smith in the first inning, followed by a Cody Bellinger solo shot in the second inning. He needed 41 pitches to get through two, but then he only needed 49 pitches to get through his next four. He allowed just one more hit and one walk the rest of the way.
Normally, you’d say he kept the Sox in the game. Instead, once Cueto fell behind 2-0 in the first, the Sox seemed out of it from their very first trip to the plate against Tony Gonsolin. Maybe even before.
It didn’t help that Leury García took that very first trip to the plate. He carried a .199 OBP into the game. After an 0-for-4 night, that OBP is down to .193.
The at-bats were ghastly, too. He set the tone by popping out to the catcher on the first pitch, and Gonsolin retired the side on nine pitches. He struck out the other three trips, including one that quashed the White Sox’s best opportunity of the game.
The White Sox had Gonsolin on the ropes in the fifth. Jake Burger led off with a homer on a full-count slider, and Gavin Sheets followed it with a double. AJ Pollock needed to watch six pitches out of the zone before he was awarded a walk, but home plate umpire Jerry Meals finally gave it to him. Danny Mendick then hit a weak chopper to the left side that was only good for a force at second.
Up came García with runners on the corners and one out, and he struck out on four pitches. He first swung over a good curveball that darted low and in, but then he fouled back a roller before whiffing on a splitter that stayed thigh-high. Luis Robert then flied out to center, which wasn’t productive.
The Sox couldn’t threaten after that, partially because José Ruiz gave up a solo shot to Trea Turner opening the ninth, which pushed the game outside a bloop-and-a-blast range. Therefore, when Yasmani Grandal achieved said bloop with a two-out single to keep hope alive, Burger came to the plate with the tying run still on deck. Burger, who was responsible for half of the Sox’s four hits, struck out to end the game.
It’s hard scoring runs for the White Sox these days, so it’s baffling why Tony La Russa makes it so much harder oby batting two guys with sub-.500 OPSes in front of the batters anybody actually wants to see at the plate. This pretty much sums it up:
Bullet points:
*Cueto dropped to 0-3 despite posting a 3.23 ERA and becoming the first White Sox pitcher to go at least six innings in each of his first five starts of a season since Chris Sale in 2016.
*The White Sox actually earned more free bases than the Dodgers, 2-1 (both walked once, Robert got plunked), and they also had seven times as many at-bats with runners in scoring position. They just went 0-for-7, whereas the Dodgers were 0-for-1.
*Mendick and Yoán Moncada had a nice night on the left side of the infield, but Robert and Gavin Sheets collided in right center.
Record: 26-28 | Box score | Statcast
Off topic: The numbers look less than ideal. Any early reports on Lynn’s game for Charlotte?
He did throw a lot of strikes, so control was there. He got hit hard, so command wasn’t there or maybe it wasn’t meant to be.
It makes no sense to sit Vaughn, your best hitter not on the IL, one game after a day off.
https://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20220608/lynn-roughed-up-in-rehab-start-next-outing-with-white-sox
The way he broke down last season, can understand wanting to rest him some this season
TLR is not a manager. He is a grandfather.
Well, the way things are going, “at the end” won’t matter.
Good to know we’ll be well rested and 10 games out of the playoffs come september.
I agree the lineups he puts out there are horrible gives the team no chance. Moncada should bat 7 he hasn’t hit since 2019 he isn’t aggressive like he was that 1 year never swings at the 1st pitch poor approach all the way around. Grandell also move down Bad bad A new hitting coach has to come in because the Sox haven’t hit nothing since 2020 also a new trainer and staff too many players hurt all the time. Bring back Herm lol
Yoan hit last year. wRC+ of 122
Girardi fired, Maddon fired. Meanwhile in Chicago, Sox mgmt is scared to suggest to Tony that maybe he should give the guys who hit well more at-bats than the ones who can’t. Pathetic.
TLR is Jerry’s hire so he is untouchable by anyone other than JR. And, yes, that is pathetic.
What tough luck to play the Dodgers while Kimbrel is on paternity leave.
Hahn might not be able to fire LaRussa, but he can certainly DFA Harrison and Leury and at least remove his ability to compound existing problems.
Leury has a contract through 2024. If LaRussa used him properly—-plays twice a week, never bats above 8th——a DFA would not be a subject of conversation. He is paid twice what he should, but that’s on Hahn.
Hahn will DFA Harrison but I don’t see him swallowing his pride and DFA’ing Leury after giving him a three-year deal. Maybe next year.
Ive said it before and I will say it again, Rick Hahn is an absolute coward. The moment he saw that lineup it was time to fire LaRussa or get yourself fired telling your boss its enough.
Imagine letting this clown take the ship down with him, Garcia leading off absolutely criminal, Moncada 3rd, Grandal 5th…. WTF is going on… oh and of course back to a random Vaughn benching. Has grandpa been asleep the last 2 plus months. The whitesox lineup by WAR had 3 of the 5 worst 537 players in all of baseball in and you had them in spots 1,5, 7 the guy who is like 490th worst was hitting 3rd…..
That lineup was designed to lose, designed not to score, and you wasted a perfectly good opportunity to take a winnable game AGAIN.
The immediate recognition that the game was pretty much over in the top of the first says to me fans have pretty much checked out for the time being and/or the holes on this roster are so glaring and have been so obvious for so long that pretty much all fans know what to expect from the team at this point.
Im about ready for the “Change of scenery” Moncada trade but i dont know what you would even get for him.
I haven’t liked the frequency of rest days since TLR implemented them. I will grant the occasional need for resting regulars, in particular in case of return from injury.
Resting Vaughn was almost criminal given Sox were left with what was legally a lineup; as was stated in this article, they had scant chance to score from the beginning. Vaughn was off with the rest of the team Monday, played well Tuesday and then needed rest? How much effort would it have been to DH, 4 ABs and hopefully a little running the bases?
If you really buy into the extreme rest philosophy (as TLR apparently does, he generally won’t even PH guys resting), wouldn’t it be smarter to do so considering who is out of the lineup for other reasons? Tim coming back fairly soon, Eloy also fairly (hopefully) soon. Wait until they are back, then rest the Vaughns of the world 2 days in a row if you really feel he needs it.
I would prefer to describe that incident as “Sheets ran into Robert as he caught a fly ball.” I don’t know for certain that Robert called it but that was obviously the centerfielder’s ball.
Attendee last nite. Great crowd of 25k on a cool Wed nite. But line up disappointing and at bats extremely blah. When you are not hitting don’t you want to see more pitches. I mean that’s little league 101. Seems like half of the Sox inning half’s lasted about 3 minutes.
People keep point to the “easy” schedule in the 2nd half, but considering how poorly they’ve played against a dreadful AL Central, I’m not really sure why anyone would expect different results.
Like, White Sox Talk Pod put on an entire podcast trying to make connections to 1983, and it just came off as desperate (Copium as the youth call it).
The process isn’t changing, and there definitely doesn’t seem to be a sense of urgency from Hahn, TLR or the players to change anything. The line since April has been “we have to work harder”. Well, maybe if your hard work isn’t producing results maybe it’s time to make some changes.
The wave went around the lower bowl 4 full times during the 8th inning of a 2 run game. Fans were not entertained. But, the rainbow cone was good and the line was super short since it was a cool night
If you were a statistician looking at what The Russa does on regular basis, the only logical theory you’d muster would be sabotage. That’s how completely inept this man has become.
Fire Hahn first. He signed Tony’s security blanket Leury to a three year deal, where there was no market. Then he doubled down with Harrison. Then he breaks camp with 5 DH’s and scrap metal from the Kimbrell trade in.
Hopefully grandpa Simpson walks away at the end of the year, but Hahn needs to go just as bad.
Yeah the hard on was already apparent, so Hahn should have acted accordingly. Such a boring move, I was really hoping they would just go with Romy and then sign a legit RF.
There is a part of me that gets more excited about seeing the wild-and-crazy lineups than the actual game. It makes me feel kind of dirty, but there it is – I have said it.
We all have our kinks.