First Pitch: White Sox at Guardians

(Erik Drost / Flickr)

TV: NBC Sports Chicago

Lineups:

Author

  • Jim Margalus

    Writing about the White Sox for a 16th season, first here, then at South Side Sox, and now here again. Let’s talk curling.

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GrinnellSteve

Hunter Gaddis, White Sox killer.

a-t

Hunter has become the hunted. Thankfully not the bunted, Cairo’s worst habit

As Cirensica

Another day game…ugh. I will hear it from the office.

As Cirensica

White Sox defense doing White Sox stuff

soxygen

This team is the “gang who couldn’t shoot straight”

As Cirensica

That reminds that great Grandaddy song “The Group Who Couldn’t’ Say”

upnorthsox

So Moncada batting second again, brilliant.

As Cirensica

Already with a homer.

upnorthsox

28 pitch 1st for Lynn, ughh.

As Cirensica

Counterpoint: No runs allowed…yeah

upnorthsox

Countercounterpoint: Just wait.

As Cirensica

Are you rooting for the White Sox? I am confused.

upnorthsox

Nope just a dark cloud kinda day. The HR’s are breaking out the sun though.

upnorthsox

Now Grandal, I’m going to have to run out to the car and grab my sunglasses.

roke1960

There’s still hope!!

upnorthsox

Now Andrus, it’s a party line!

upnorthsox

Can’t believe he’s going to make it 6 innings. Way to get frugal with it.

roke1960

Lance is in peak form now. Hopefully he pitches meaningful games the rest of the season.

As Cirensica

Good for Sheets…he has been a bit off

As Cirensica

Back to Back? What is this?

HallofFrank

Don’t stop now boys. Let’s effectively make this a bullpen day for Cleveland. That’d be a gift that keeps on giving for a few more days.

roke1960

I don’t get why McKenzie didn’t start. He would have been on normal rest. Maybe they feel sorry for the Sox and want to drag this out a little longer.

Last edited 2 years ago by roke1960
HallofFrank

If McKenzie started today, he’d get the last game of the Twins series and wouldn’t pitch in next week’s Sox series. If McKenzie starts tomorrow, he starts the first game of the Twins series and pitches in next week’s Sox series. In terms of lining him up vs. the White Sox or Twins, it doesn’t really matter whether he starts today or tomorrow—he’ll get the Twins and Sox either way.

I suspect Francona realizes that the greatest danger to the Guardians over the next ~10 days isn’t the Twins or the White Sox: it’s fatigue. I haven’t looked closely at the Guardians pitching situation, but I assume that was the biggest factor in Francona’s decision. And that strikes me as wise.

Plus – if you’ve got to start a no-name AAA RHP, you won’t find a much better matchup than vs. the White Sox.

roke1960

Yeah, those are good points. I just hope it gives the Sox momentum moving forward. And as much as I hate to say it, for the next 4 days it’s “Go Twins!”

HallofFrank

Absolutely. I’d love a Twins sweep but I’ll take 4 of 5!

roke1960

I think 4 of 5 would be ideal. If the Twins win all 5, suddenly they would be ahead of Cleveland and we’d have different things to worry about.

Right Size Wrong Shape

Minnesota doesn’t scare me at all. I’ll take my chances with a sweep.

roke1960

Ideally, Cleveland goes 1-8 in the next 9- 1-4 against the Twins and 0-4 against the Sox. That would put the Sox in first as long as they take care of business against the Tigers.

HallofFrank

Agreed. I was more afraid of the Guardians even when the Twins had a 3 game lead.

soxfan

Looks like Gaddis is going to wear it – which isn’t surprising considering Francona essentially conceded the game. The interesting thing is that we didn’t return the favor.

roke1960

I’m still not sure why Francona punted this game. But I’ll take it!!

soxfan

Said, they had bigger things to worry about – double header, bullpen management, no off days, etc.

roke1960

But this would have just about buried the Sox. And again, McKenzie and Bieber would have been on regular rest today and tomorrow. Is he more worried about the Twins than the Sox?

As Cirensica

I hope the White keep the lead…lately they get scored upon the next inning after they scored some runs.

soxfan

I suspect Gaddis is going to have to wear it. Franconia already essentially conceded the game so the only interesting part is that we didn’t return the favor.

As Cirensica

Man…as I was saying. This team sometimes is so predictable.

roke1960

And the trend continues.

As Cirensica

It’s maddening

As Cirensica

Against the Rockies 2 days ago, we scored 3 runs, and right away the next inning, the Rockies scored 2 runs.

a-t

Not really that much of a pattern?

RWShow

For the first time in my life, I just chuckled, genuinely, at a Darrin Jackson attempt at humor.

I’m headed to the hospital. Something’s wrong.

upnorthsox

I like DJ but the man is humorless.

roke1960

He and Ed Farmer were just so awkward together in the booth.

upnorthsox

They would crack themselves up while the other wouldn’t get it.

RWShow

I’m convinced DJ is an extremely nice man, but his work in the booth is something I’ve never enjoyed. Farmer and DJ was a dreadful listen.

upnorthsox

Len and DJ deserve each other too, I have a better time skyping in to one of our staff meetings.

roke1960

I would imagine Vin Scully wouldn’t have made it 70 years if he had to be in the booth with DJ.

Right Size Wrong Shape

I don’t know what you all are talking about. DJ is great.

roke1960

It’s gonna be tough rooting for the Twins the next 4 days.

soxfan

I love back-to-back seven pitch innings when they happen to the other guys.

roke1960

You know you’ve been scuffling when you give up 5 home runs and your ERA goes down.

dwjm3

Kudos to the team for continuing to fight at least

The hilarious part is I imagine Tony didn’t make the trip and sure enough they start hitting again lol

upnorthsox

37 posts without mentioning his name and we hit 5 HR’s. First mention and we immediately GIDP, now we wont hit another HR the rest of the week. Thanks

a-t

Yoan this year with Tony managing: .197/.269/.313, .581 OPS.

Yoan this year with Cairo managing: .333/.378/.647, 1.025 OPS.

roke1960

I just hope he has a very uneventful offseason and comes in ready to go next year. When he is good, the Sox are just a much more dangerous team.

a-t

Significantly so. If he really was listening to his Hall of Fame manager and focusing on contact instead of hunting for pitches to crush for 2021 and thru August this year, maybe that’s the power outage reason. This version of Yoan, who K’s a lot, but destroys balls from both sides of the plate with plus defense and baserunning, is the exact player scouts envisioned when he was the #1 prospect in baseball.

roke1960

That means Menechino must go also, which if Tony is gone, will certainly happen.

a-t

The fascinating thing is: Menechino might be shockingly innocent of that. From Rosenthal’s column formatted as an open letter to Tony yesterday:

“Your emphasis on hits and contact ran counter to the hitting coaches’ goals for achieving power through patience.”

Last edited 2 years ago by a-t
roke1960

That was an interesting point. But you can’t argue with Menechino’s history with the Marlins of having low power outputs. Either way, I can’t imagine he’ll be with the Sox next year if Tony isn’t.

upnorthsox

Bullshit!

a-t

White Sox thru 8/29 (Tony): 106 HR in 4851 PA, so homering only once every 46 plate appearances.

White Sox 8/30 thru today after top 6th: 28 HR in 608 PA, homering once every 22 PA. Better than twice as often

BenwithVen

Stretches like this are why it’s so hard for me to quit him.

joewho112

I think the White Sox should continue to have 89% of their hits be extra base hits. It seems like a good strategy