First Pitch: White Sox at Twins
Target Field (Sox Machine photo)
TV: NBC Sports Chicago
Lineups:
Author
TV: NBC Sports Chicago
Lineups:
Writing about the White Sox for a 16th season, first here, then at South Side Sox, and now here again. Let’s talk curling.
View all posts Writing about the White Sox for a 16th season, first here, then at South Side Sox, and now here again. Let’s talk curling.
Luis Robert doesn’t make that catch.
Archer at 50 pitches through 4. They usually stop him 75 pitches, so we’ll see what they do. Two pitches two outs to start the fifth is not a good way to get into the bullpen though.
The Sox had Archer just where they wanted him.
Great job by Tim adjusting to that fastball up and away.
If that side wall were about 6 inches higher, it would be 3-0. Tough luck.
Impressive two out rally here.
Don’t stop now boys…we need moar..
There’s a reason Archer is a strict five-and-dive guy.
Four runs for the Sox, considerably less offensive action for the Twins offense. Looking pretty good so far.
How about this OF defense? How about this hitting with RISP?
in Old Frenemy news: Sale exited his second start coming back from a rib injury due to a 106mph line drive off his throwing hand. Glad he got paid by Boston right before he broke down.
https://twitter.com/JuanRecioM/status/1548730235927117826?t=IUl37j-OpAMsike7iRQWQg&s=19
Man…Chris Sale fractured his pinky. Awful luck. Probably out for the season.
Damn, that new Cease slider is hard. 90-92 on the that thing now.
One thing I noticed the other day is that Kopech is also apparently throwing the harder slider, 88-90, compared to his previous 83-86 two-planer. It’s really unfair for something that hard to break that much.
Look at these guys laughing and having a good time in the dugout. The Sox have such a good clubhouse culture.
Can’t remember the last time Leury got a hit
Well, at least he’s stealing them on D today
Wow, Moncada just destroyed that baseball. He’s looking good again.
Moncada’s OPS is now 0.607. That’s bad but it has been a long climb from being stuck below 0.400. Moncada’s OPS was 0.386 at the end of the game on June 12.
For those not watching the home broadcast, Vaughn just did something that hasn’t been done since Frank Thomas in 1997: get 2+ RBI in each game of a 4 game series.
I love crushing the Twins
I went out to do some yard work with two outs in the 5th. Did I miss anything? Holy cow, where did all these runs come from?
Hah, if that’s true, I’m sorry to say, but you must now do yard work forever. The rest of us thank you for your service, and just think how pristine your yard will be while the Sox mash other teams.
To be specific, I was picking up dog poop. I guess my dogs will need to do a lot of pooping this summer.
I think it would be bad for your dogs’ health to take any steps to make them do more business. I suggest that instead you just invite other dog owners in your neighborhood to use your yard for their dogs to do their business.
The Twins have also been doing yard work: picking baseballs out of the center field shrubbery!
Easily, this is my fav game this year
Impressive one out rally here.
So, do we start calling Josh Harrison a good signing now that he is almost a league average hitter playing good defense at 2b?
He’s turning in a solid year yet again. Given the array of less than perfect 2B options out there— Cesar has been sub-replacement level, Semein has been only a little better for 6x the money, etc— he seems like a pretty good signing.
To be fair, I think it was more than just us who had him on the verge of a DFA before he turned it around.
This is a nice game. Winning 3/4 in dominant fashion is what they needed.
Yep. It’s not just winning 3 of 4 but how they did it. This team looked good. Even in the rough pitching matchup on Saturday, they looked better.
Cease not being an All Star just gets dumber and dumber.
It’s gotta be a historic snub frankly
It’s an all-timer for a non-injured player.
Are the pitchers still selected by their peers?
Probably to our advantage….we need him as fresh as possible for the second half
He wouldn’t have pitched. Just let the man fulfill a dream and have an experience of a lifetime—not to mention have more leverage in arbitration discussions. He deserved it.
Leury came off the base early.
Lol Leury is brutal
Everyone talks about Cease being a brutal ASG snub (looking at you, lone A’s rep Paul Blackburn) but Pito also should have been in. He’s been better than injury replacement Ty France via equal hitting but w/ better defense and more PAs, and he’s been better than injury replacement JD Martinez too. He’s been keeping the team afloat both in the clubhouse and at the plate; making such a sea change in plate discipline at age 35 is unheard of, and he’s gonna turn in one of his best seasons to date in this contract year. Sheets and AV are good but they’d be crazy to let Abreu walk.
Is Sheets good? Editing to make it clear that I’m agreeing with these great points: Abreu is a snub and his plate discipline improvements have been incredible. The question about Sheets backs up what you are saying about resigning Jose. If he stays successful the rest of the year, I think the Sox will resign him for 1 year, and start going year-to-year with him.
What do they do with Grandal? He has trouble staying healthy when he plays catcher, and the team has a couple of decent defensive catchers. He’ll makes $18M or so next year, so he’ll be hard to trade. The easy answer is give him playing time at first base and let Abreu walk. I don’t think the Sox will do that, but they probably should.
Abreu is on pace for a 4.5 to 5-WAR year via very ‘sticky’ plate discipline improvements, and he’s one of the clubhouse pillars of this team. He’s been the best 1B in the American League, and the 3rd-best overall after only Goldschmidt and Freeman; by xWOBA, he’s 2nd to Freeman.
It’d be outright stupid for both on-field and off-field reasons to not resign Pito, who’s going to handcuff himself to Hahn’s office door until given a contract by the Sox this offseason anyways. I just don’t care about spending $18M on Grandal; that same amount is coming off the books via Keuchel next year anyways.
If they can somehow keep both McGuire and Zavala around– or if they think Carlos Perez is ready to be a credible third catcher– there’s no reason to not just spend the regular season conserving Grandal’s legs, so he can play like the star catcher he is when healthy when it really matters.
https://twitter.com/ESPNStatsInfo/status/1548517336218419202
a prime example of #ThatsCub
This is good
I never thought .500 would feel this good. Congrats White Sox, on pantsing the Twins.
Too bad the 108/Sox machine get-together wasn’t today. We could have taken credit for this showing.