White Sox 5, Tigers 3: Three in a row, three over .500

White Sox win

The White Sox were finally to return to three games above .500 since April 17, courtesy of their first sweep since the successful trip to San Francisco at the start of July.

The rotation produced another quality start, the lineup delivered another persistent effort, and consequently, the Sox were able to dispatch one of baseball’s worst teams without an extraordinary effort.

As was the case with Lucas Giolito on Saturday, the White Sox had to erase an early deficit, but they had that recent history to lean upon. Lance Lynn fell behind 2-0 in the third inning due to a combination of unflattering defense and wonky luck — an infield single that Lenyn Sosa couldn’t handle, a double-hit Riley Greene single, Adam Engel and Andrew Vaughn almost colliding on a Javier Báez RBI single — but there wasn’t particular reason to panic assuming the offense could figure out Tyler Alexander.

Slowly but surely, they did, and AJ Pollock was at the center of it. He homered off Tyler Alexander in the third, then started the go-ahead fifth inning with a leadoff double. Eloy Jiménez doubled him home two batters later to tie the game at 2, and a José Abreu singled moved Jiménez to third.

Andrew Vaughn then hit a grounder to the hole on the left side, but Báez gloved it and made an on-target throw to second. Willi Castro then fired to first with time to get Vaughn by two steps, and while it wasn’t a perfect throw, Kody Clemens still should’ve come up with it. Instead, it rattled in and out of the edge of his mitt, and the go-ahead run crossed the plate.

Vaughn then capped off the fine weekend for himself in more authoritative fashion with a solo shot off Wily Peralta in the eighth inning. Josh Harrison followed with a single, then scored all the way from first on Seby Zavala’s one-out double when Eric Haase slipped and booted the ball in left.

The insurance runs proved welcome when Kendall Graveman, with Liam Hendriks saving the first two games of this weekend, gave up a solo shot to Harold Castro with one out in the ninth. The tying run eventually came to the plate, but he got Clemens to bounce out to first to lock down his sixth save in seven real opportunities.

(The official count says he’s 6-for-11 in save opportunities, but four of those “blown saves” occurred before the ninth inning in games he wouldn’t have been expected to close out.)

Graveman’s brief stumble interrupted what was otherwise an easy coast to the finish line after the clumsy third inning. Lynn allowed just one single over his remaining three innings, and he erased it with another strong double play started by Yoán Moncada, who handled a hot hop from Akil Baddoo and started a 5-6-3.

Lynn completed six innings on just 88 pitches, with the two runs allowed on five hits. He issued no walks, kept the ball in the park, and struck out seven.

Jimmy Lambert took it up a notch, striking out all four batters he faced. Jake Diekman gave up a single to his first batter, but then struck out the other two batters in the eighth.

All in all, White Sox pitchers struck out 14 batters without a walk, or a hit batter that matter. It’s the seventh time that’s happened in franchise history, but the third time since May 2021, to give you an idea of how much the environment has affected this stat.

Bullet points:

*Adam Engel was the only member of the lineup who failed to reach safely, but he did steal a base when he was on.

*The Guardians won, so the Sox still trail by 2.5 games.

*The White Sox finished the 19-game stretch against under-.500 teams 11-8. Now a four-game set against the Astros looms.

Record: 59-56 | Box score | Statcast

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28 Comments
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soxygen

Big win, if for no other reason than that none of us wanted Paris Sox to give up on this team yet because we enjoy his company.

ParisSox

I would have given up on the team but not this blog.

The wife asked me if they won the three in a row and I said they did. She said, “See? They are good!” I replied “yeah but …. Oh nevermind.”

As Cirensica

“Yeah but….oh nevermind”

White Sox 2022 season summary.

soxfan

Five games over in July. Two games over half way through August.

The first half of the season is better off forgotten and the aesthetic is lacking, but the last six weeks have basically given us the team we expected at the beginning of the season.

abehickock

Let’s see how they do against the Astros. I hope they play hard and smart.

funkerdan

if not, then 59-60

We’re #2! We’re #2!

While the Sox have the Stros, Cleveland gets DET again and the Twins get KC. The next 4 days look pretty big.

Nellie Fox

The Houston series will be a good test to the success of this season. Win 3 of 4, the series with Cleveland becomes huge. The last games of the season is against the twins, Cleveland plays kc at home . A may be a stretch,but the Sox could win this division by 5+ games.

a-t

Tuesday will be a marquee matchup, Cease vs Verlander.

Right Size Wrong Shape

It would be nice if the boys could go win Cease a Cy Young on Tuesday.

Last edited 1 year ago by Right Size Wrong Shape
As Cirensica

last time we faced Verlander, he didn’t go far. Let’s hope for a repeat.

charlie

I’ll be sitting near the on deck circle tomorrow and will encouragingly tell Moncada to ‘be aggressive’ and ‘solid contact’.
Any other suggestions?

Right Size Wrong Shape

Sell your ticket.

ShorewoodWhiteSoxFan

I forgot there are SO MANY Pathetic White Sox fans on this thread like you.

I have other suggestions. That was the nicest one.

soxygen

Tell him that a lot of Sox fans aren’t worried about his wRC+ of 66 this year because of his 122 wRC+ from last year.

Last edited 1 year ago by soxygen
texag10

Be honest: you have an alert set up for any mention of Moncada in a comment section don’t you?

soxygen

No need to set an alert!

upnorthsox

No need for an alert, just flash the curveball sign.

calcetinesblancos

Good game for the offense. Take the walks if they give them to you, otherwise put the ball in play. Good cuts.

Lynn is such an easy guy to root for when you see how fired up he gets. Definitely no questioning his fire.

charlie

Bulldog

Right Size Wrong Shape

Rebel, actually.

Edit: In high school he was a Bulldog.

Last edited 1 year ago by Right Size Wrong Shape
jorgefabregas

The Barons are still playing. 12th inning, 3 run lead, and JJ Muno is coming in from second base to try to knuckleball them to victory. It is his ninth pitching appearance.

jorgefabregas

He failed, but can’t blame him.

soxygen

I love it when a position player throws a knuckler…

snoopy369

So 1-3 this week is a win, right?

ParisSox

Yes. If they go 2-2, start printing World Series tickets.