It turns out the White Sox aren't a completely different team under Miguel Cairo, because this loss to the Twins bore some familiar scars.
The White Sox offense was once again baffled by Dylan Bundy's combination of elevated 90-mph fastballs and breaking balls thrown for strikes. He improved to 3-0 with a 1.77 ERA in four starts against the White Sox this year after five shutout innings this afternoon.
Lucas Giolito limited the damage to two runs over five innings, with both runs coming on a two-run homer by Carlos Correa in his final inning of work. He also had to work around six hits and two walks, and he needed a generous strike to escape major trouble in the fourth, but he lowered his ERA to 5.21, so it counts as a minor success individually. The effort neither won nor lost the game on an individual level, but he's still a guy just trying to get through the season as a contributor.
The White Sox defense had moments, but also moments to forget. Leury García made a couple of nice catches in shallow left field inside the foul line on Luis Arraez, and AJ Pollock effectively covered center field. On the other hand, Elvis Andrus bobbled a double-play ball and forced Giolito to record an extra out in the fourth, Andrew Vaughn played what should've been a Jake Cave flyout into a triple, and Seby Zavala whiffed on a catchable Kendall Graveman slider for a key insurance run-scoring wild pitch in the eighth.
Above everything, García factored way too much into high leverage. The White Sox finally strung together positive plate appearances against Michael Fulmer in the second, with Eloy Jiménez, Gavin Sheets, Yasmani Grandal and AJ Pollock all with well-struck drives. Jiménez lined out, but Sheets doubled, Grandal singled him to third, and Pollock doubled him home while moving pinch-runner Adam Haseley to third.
That's when García came to the plate, and that's when Rocco Baldelli called for his best bullpen weapon, Jhoan Duran. Cairo did not seek a better weapon himself. Instead, after García swung through a fastball for strike one, he tried to safety squeeze Haseley home on a drawn-in infield. Haseley was thrown out by plenty, and Cairo's defense of the decision failed to inspire.
Told García he was free to swing if he got a pitch to hit right away, and after that he was going for a squeeze.
— James Fegan (@JRFegan) September 4, 2022
“Sometimes you’ve got to go for it,” Cairo said. He said if the team keeps playing the way they did this week, “watch out.”
Two out of three against the Twins is fine, especially since Cleveland continued to crap the bed. This upcoming series against Seattle should tell us if this is a different team in any reliable way.
