Twins 8, White Sox 4: Cueto can’t handle Urshela, Cave, and Wallner
Even though they are playing out the string, White Sox hitters had to demonstrate a better effort against Minnesota Twins starter Josh Winder than they did against Bailey Ober. Collectively, the White Sox struck out 14 times while producing just two base hits and a walk in a 4-0 loss. Surely, as professional baseball players, they could show a little more effort for entertainment’s sake.
It didn’t start great for the White Sox, as Winder struck out two in the first frame but broke through for two runs in the second inning. The trio of Gavin Sheets, AJ Pollock, and Yasmani Grandal hit singles to put the Sox ahead, 1-0. Josh Harrison’s shallow fly almost fell in for another single, but Jake Cave made a nice shoestring catch resulting in a sacrifice fly. Up 2-0, Johnny Cueto had a bit of a cushion.
Unfortunately, one of the best Sox stories in 2022 is running out of gas. Minnesota put up crooked numbers in the second and fourth innings to be ahead 5-2, entering the halfway point. What’s odd was the high amount of strikeouts for Cueto. While the Twins tagged him for seven hits through four innings, Cueto racked up six strikeouts on 58 pitches entering the fifth inning.
The Twins trio of Gio Urshela, Matt Wallner, and Jake Cave gave Cueto fits. Along with Jose Miranda, they strung four consecutive hits to start the second inning, including doubles from Urshela and Wallner. In the fourth inning, on just six pitches, that trio had three straight hits with a ground-rule double for Cave.
While Cueto struggled against those three Twins hitters, the White Sox attempted a rally in the fifth inning. Harrison’s line drive fell safely for a single, and he moved up to second base when Romy Gonzalez took a pitch to the elbow. Both runners didn’t advance after Elvis Andrus flew out to left, and Andrew Vaughn whiffed on a slider away.
Around the same time Aaron Judge hit his 61st home run of the season, Jose Abreu’s grounder found its way through the infield driving in Harrison. Abreu’s 74th RBI in 2022 cut the White Sox deficit to 5-3. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli saw enough from Winder yanking him out of the game for left-handed reliever Caleb Thielbar. That move paid off as Thielbar’s fastball off the inside corner was called strike three on Eloy Jimenez, ending the inning.
In the sixth inning, Cueto faced Urshela, Cave, and Wallner for the third time, and it was more of the same. Urshela singled and watched Cave’s deep fly to right field hit off the overhang. That resulted in a double, putting runners in scoring position. It was the 10th hit allowed by Cueto at that point, and pitching coach Ethan Katz visited the mound as Wallner approached the plate.
Cueto fell behind 3-0, and the White Sox decided to intentionally walk Wallner to load the bases with one out. But Ryan Jeffers flew out to shallow right field that Gavin Sheets was able to keep Urshela at third base. That was the last batter for Cueto as manager Miguel Cairo opted for Jake Diekman to face Mark Contreras.
Urshela, Cave, and Wallner were perfect at the plate against Cueto, going 8-for-8 with four runs scored, four doubles, four RBI, and one walk.
The rest of the Twins lineup against Cueto: 2-for-17 with seven strikeouts.
Baldelli countered Cairo’s move by pinch-hitting Gilberto Celestino. In true Diekman fashion, he walked Celestino pushing the Twins lead to 6-3. In September, Diekman has a monthly ERA of 10.29. That inherited run counted against Cueto, who finished with a line of 5.2 IP 10 H 6 ER 1 7 BB.
The White Sox bottom of the order started another rally in the seventh inning. Once again, both Harrison and Gonzalez reached on singles. When Andrus hit a grounder to Miranda at first base, it had the makings of a double play, but the Twins couldn’t turn it. Reliever Michael Fulmer slipped covering first base and was briefly visited by the Twins training staff.
Fulmer would allow an RBI single to Andrew Vaughn and hit Abreu with a pitch. Now down 6-4 with the bases loaded and just one out, surely Jimenez would deliver a big hit.
In keeping up with the recent times, Jimenez hit a broken bat grounder to short, starting the 6-4-3 double play and ending the seventh inning. The White Sox woes of hitting with bases loaded continue with the American League’s worst slash line of .225/.259/.342.
Minnesota would tack on two more runs off Joe Kelly and Jose Ruiz and, on consecutive nights, beat the White Sox by four runs. The losing streak extends to eight games with little sign of slowing down.
Game Notes:
- Jose Abreu and Josh Harrison had multi-hit games.
- The White Sox struck out only 10 times but didn’t draw a walk. In September, the White Sox only have 52 walks, the fewest in MLB.
Record: 76-79 | Box Score
Author
Collapsing like a felled tree… good for these bums, hopefully they embarrass themselves further.
The one thing about this crap end to the season that ill hate is if this is the last year for Abreu on the Sox, what a shit way to go out. Hes shown up and produced every year and while people might question how much his leadership really impacts the team hes been nothing but a pure professional here in an organization that lacks it often. At least there was the short playoff runs with him and the MVP.
I’ve enjoyed watching Abreu play for the Sox.
(I actually enjoyed the 2020 and 2021 White Sox seasons.)
I’ll personally have a tough time forgetting how utterly ineffective he was in getting Moncada to play like he did in 2019. But what I’ll probably remember most ab Pito’s Sox career- if it’s indeed over in a few months- is the time Kopech was asked a question during a post-game scrum and didn’t mention Abreu’s name as a leader. I say good riddance for that alone
Right. Screw his 6 war rookie season and 4 war per season average and obvious devotion to the franchise.
If Abreu can’t make moncada play well and kopech doesn’t say his name then what good was he?
I think that’s not the most compelling argument I’ve ever seen.
My comment was meant with 100% sarcasm.
I was attempting to mock those who have ostensibly blamed Abreu for Moncada’s lack of production
We need to put a stop to this nonsense.
Thank you. You don’t have to justify keeping Abreu due to some qualitative argument like “leadership” – he’s a highly productive player who certainly can have a place on a competitive ball club. This team has other options to address its 1B/DH logjam than simply letting Abreu walk.
I find it really odd that if a player on the team is inconsistent, lacks concentration, or possibly is even a bit lazy, that’s another player’s fault. I think a strong leader can help the team gel and potentially get more out of guys, but Moncada is a grown man. Who knows how much Abreu has tried to help him, but Moncada’s challenges belong to him alone at this point.
And no offense, but Kopech hasn’t always struck me as the sharpest bulb in the shed. To use his off-hand comments as some measuring stick of true leadership is…odd.
As to Kopech, not to mention the fact that the omission may well have been inadvertent.
More like Hahn chose the wrong guy to be the centerpiece of a Sale trade
This is sarcasm, right?
These people who only blame Hahn or only blame LaRussa are just annoying. This is an organization-wide disaster. There is NO defending Hahn or Tony for this disaster. Both are very much to blame. Just get rid of them all and start over.
Lately, the thing that has annoyed me about Hahn is that when he makes a good trade—Collins for McGuire—-he immediately reverses it by trading McGuire for a dumpster fire like Diekmann, and when he makes a bad trade—-Kimbrel for Madrigal—-he doubles down by picking up Kimbrel’s option. This is Keystone Cops level incompetence.
Yes it was. I guess it was too believable? Was a poor and childish attempt to mock some of the ppl who have been making that argument earnestly
I started to react, and then I thought, “wait a minute, this is a perfect parody.” You almost got me!
I had a nightmare last night that Jerry admitted hiring TLR and giving him all kinds of control was a mistake so he’s giving Hahn more time to build this team right.
That is a nightmare, isn’t it?
This team continues to embarrass itself. They’re going to get obliterated by the Padres. There’s a good chance they don’t win a game for the rest of the season. The morbid side of me hopes that it happens.
Can’t blame TLR for this clubhouse.
I do.
In order, these are the only folks I sympathize with as the team rake steps down the stretch:
Margalus – self evident
Vaughn – kid doesn’t deserve this; learning to be a professional in this org has to be hard
Abreu – doesn’t deserve to go out like this
Colas – service time manipulation is apparently a hard habit to kick
I could include Cueto or Andrus but I think they’ll both financially benefit from standing out on a flawed team, so meh.
Pretty much everyone else should have to sleep in the bed they made.
I hope Colas doesn’t get corrupted by the current clubhouse cliques.
WTF are you talking about?
We don’t know for a fact they are manipulating the service time of Colas.
Colas just got to Triple AAA. He hasn’t even played 15 games at AAA. It isn’t a situation like Eloy where he was hitting practically .400 at Triple AAA over a significant period and they weren’t calling him up.
We really ought to be disciplined when we critique the organization.
Service time manipulation doesn’t start at AAA. Colas was pretty obviously over qualified for high-A but still racked up 268 ABs there. He was pretty obviously ready for AAA a couple months ago but only got the call up when the lower levels completed their seasons.
Maybe he starts in High A for a month or so, then stays in AA until the end of July. He could’ve been promoted to AAA in August and then been eligible for the stretch run as necessary. Not only can he hit, but he hits from the left side and is a real OFer rather than a 1B masquerading as one, so while his hit tool isn’t as pure as Jimenez’s he may be more ready from a well-rounded point of view.
Now we’re going to go into Spring Training not knowing if we still need to address a corner or if we have an in-house solution when we could’ve gotten him 100 or so ABs at the major league level to see what we’re working with.
I agree with this. It’s not even close to situations like the old Kris Bryant example with the Cubs or even Eloy’s AAA time. If Colas had been in AAA for months and was raking, sure. But calling “service time manipulation” regarding Colas seems like a stretch.
I think you have to include all long time suffering Sox fans. I feel worse for me than I do any of the guys you mentioned! My son asked me why I torture myself being a Sox fan. I really don’t have an answer but I know I will go to my grave a Sox fan. And when/if I get to the Pearly Gates I hope the Lord will forgive me. I would think he would feel sorry for me but he’s heard a LOT of bad words coming from me through the many, many years.
Wasn’t it Veeck who said to be a White Sox fan frees a man from any other form of penance?
Veeck was cheap but wise.
Veeck had no money. That’s different from being cheap.
I’ve Googled it and not wanting to go back year to year since 1981, any idea what the Sox record is under Reinsdorf? All I Googled is Sox record since ’81 and it always comes up all-time record. I even asked Alexa and she gave me this seasons record. She listens like my wife.
3308 wins and 3260 losses
Wow! That was quick! So in 40+ seasons under JR they’re 48 games over .500. Why did I think it would be a worse record.
Thanks soxfan!
I’m not going to look this up, but didn’t they have the most wins in baseball (or maybe the AL) in the ’90’s?
I see 6 2nd places finishes, 2 1st and 2 3rd place finishes. I didn’t add it up but seeing where they were 67-46 when the strike hit makes my gut churn. Not piling on Jerry but I remember him being the leading force behind canceling the season when the Sox were rolling. Am I remembering that correctly?
No you are not, it was a strike and it wasn’t canceled until there was no apparent way to complete it. Jerry was part of the collusion back in the 80’s that were a point of contention leading up to and during the strike but it was not a negotiating point or a tactic. Jerry was in the owner “Hawk” camp but so were others and so were there players in the player “Hawk” camp. In the end it was a pox on both there houses but if you want to blame everything on Jerry then fine, whatever, it’s history now.
Finally, the pro-Jerry post this site sorely lacks! /s
The owners colluded prior to the strike to keep salaries down. The owners forced the strike to try and get a hard salary cap that they are still making tons of money without. The owners tried to hire scab replacement players. There was an unfair labor practices complaint against the owners from NLRB. The owners lost in court in front of Sotomayor and then again in appeals court. This is just off the top of my head, I’m sure others can fill in more.
How does this lead to the conclusion “a pox on both there(sic) houses”?
Glad I could help.
Which is why I asked if I was remembering it correctly. Geez.
I think they had the third-best record in the ’90s and the second best in the AL, I think the Yankees had the best record.
Thanks. I’m guessing Braves as #1?
MLB : Regular season wins in the 1990's World Yrs in Series World Yrs in Franchise Wins Series Playoffs W L Atlanta Braves 1 5 8 925 629 New York Yankees 3 3 5 851 702 Cleveland Indians 0 2 5 817 728 Chicago White Sox 0 0 1 816 735 Boston Red Sox 0 0 4 814 741 Houston Astros 0 0 3 813 742 Cincinnati Reds 1 1 2 809 745 Texas Rangers 0 0 3 807 747 Toronto Blue Jays 2 2 3 801 754 Los Angeles Dodgers 0 0 2 797 757 Baltimore Orioles 0 0 2 794 757 San Francisco Giants 0 0 1 790 766 Washington Nationals 0 0 0 776 777 Pittsburgh Pirates 0 0 3 774 779 Oakland Athletics 0 1 2 773 771 New York Mets 0 0 1 766 786 Seattle Mariners 0 0 2 764 787 San Diego Padres 0 1 2 758 799 St. Louis Cardinals 0 0 1 758 794 Milwaukee Brewers 0 0 0 742 811 Chicago Cubs 0 0 1 739 813 Los Angeles Angels 0 0 0 738 817 Philadelphia Phillies 0 1 1 732 823 Kansas City Royals 0 0 0 725 827 Minnesota Twins 1 1 1 718 833 Detroit Tigers 0 0 0 702 852 Colorado Rockies 0 0 1 512 559 Miami Marlins 1 1 1 472 596 Arizona Diamondbacks 0 0 1 165 159 Tampa Bay Rays 0 0 0 132 192from mcubed.net
and 72,952,761 fans who thought something should have been done differently.
And they fired the GM that built the 90’s team after 4 or 5 years because he probably didn’t suck up to Reinsdorf. Thomas, Ventura, Durham, Raines, L.Johnson, McDowell, Fernandez, Alvarez, etc.
I loved the early 90’s as a Sox fan.