Rays 14, White Sox 5: No mercy rule, but some mercy
Shane McClanahan sat for 19 minutes in the top of the fifth inning as the Rays scored three runs to knock Dylan Cease out of the game. He worked for about 4½ minutes in the bottom of the inning, navigating a four-batter inning in 15 pitches, and then sat for another 24 minutes as his teammates smacked around Jake Diekman for five runs over two outs.
With Tampa Bay blasting their way to a 12-2 lead, Kevin Cash didn’t see a need for reheating his ace. Instead, he went to the front end of the bullpen, which gave the White Sox a sorely needed opportunity to pad some stats.
The White Sox came into this game with the league’s worst batting average against relief pitching at .177, and if that’s not bad enough, they were hitting .123 against bullpen arms since Tim Anderson got hurt.
Four innings against the front end of the Rays bullpen gave them that opportunity, and because they couldn’t score more than one run over the first three innings — with Zack Burdi pitching the first two — Kevin Cash had the 10-run margin he needed to close out the game with a position player.
In came Luke Raley, who was one of four Rays with three hits, and one of three Rays with a homer and three RBIs, and the White Sox could (relatively) feast. Oscar Colás slapped a 56-mph lob inside third base for his first extra-base hit since April 7. Romy González scored him by slicing a 57-mph lob into the right-field corner for his first extra-base hit, and Randy Arozarena played into the first White Sox triple of the year. Adam Haseley then lined 57 mph into right field for his third RBI since the end of the 2020 season.
The White Sox accrued six hits off Rays relievers — if you include Raley — over 18 at-bats, which raises their average to .143 off bullpens since Anderson’s injury. It didn’t make a difference in the big picture, because the White Sox looked dead from the second inning onward en route to their eighth straight loss, but even moral victories have been in short supply, so here you go.
Bullet points:
*The Rays looked familiar with Cease’s stuff after seeing him in consecutive starts. Colás played a Brandon Lowe single into a triple to start the second, but the Rays were on him the rest of the way.
*Cease generated just 11 whiffs on 99 pitches over 4-plus innings, and the “plus” included four batters he failed to retire in the of the fifth. They hit eight balls over 100 mph, and they also fouled off 20 pitches off Cease alone, whereas White Sox hitters hit just 14 foul balls over nine innings.
*The Sox made their own adjustments to McClanahan, whiffing only eight times over 73 pitches after swinging and missing 32 times last Saturday. He gave up a couple runs on five hits and two walks over five innings, so it wouldn’t have been a cakewalk for him if the Tampa Bay offense hadn’t shortened his night.
*Lenyn Sosa had a game he didn’t need defensively, making mistakes in consecutive innings. He couldn’t catch Elvis Andrus’ backhanded flip from his stomach on what would’ve been a sensational play during Cease’s false start in the fifth, and then he failed to get the lead runner after a bobble in the sixth, even though salvaging the out at first remained available.
*Luis Robert Jr. had a decent game among the wreckage. He reached base twice in three plate appearances (a single and a walk), and he made a leaping catch at the wall in right-center.
*Jake Burger scored both White Sox runs when the game was still theoretically within reach. He walked and scored on a Sosa double in the second, and then he hit a solo shot in the fourth, after which we learned that the White Sox have a home-run outfit.
*Pedro Grifol earned his first career ejection, and it’s because his first baseman is 5’10”. Andrew Vaughn’s stretch to catch Yasmani Grandal’s throw pulled him off the bag according to first-base umpire Marvin Hudson.
*Vaughn also committed an error when he let Wander Franco’s grounder get past him in the sixth inning, which is why four of the five runs on Diekman’s tab were unearned.
*Joe Kelly pitched for the first time since April 8 and gave up a homer to the first batter he faced.
Record: 7-19 | Box score | Statcast
Author
This team may seriously challenge the ’03 Tigers AL record for ineptitude.
They’re right there, on track for 44-118. If they get swept, would be on a pace to exceed that.
The 1996 Tigers gave up 1103 runs. Sox are on pace for 990. They’re behind, but if they can play like the past 4 games more often, they definitely have a shot.
Even if they don’t lose 120, maybe they can give up over 1100 runs, and make it a magical summer after all.
Jake Diekman has time to stretch out.
Diekman is probably their most important pitcher if their goal is making history.
Rick surely thought this acquisition would be enough to get him fired…. but the devil makes him stagger on.
“If they get swept, would be on a pace to exceed that”
So you mean to tell me that if they lose more games without a win that their win % goes down?
I always learn something by reading your comments
Allrighty then!
Man listen if this is the cease we gonna see this season this rotation is gonna be in a world of hurt if not already 🙄😡
I could be reading too much into this, but if they give up 14 runs in games Cease starts, that might be a red flag that this team isn’t going to do all that well.
He just left so much stuff up today.
Losing 100 games in a season where you were by design supposed to be peaking after six years of rebuilding is way more memorable than winning 84 games and coming in second.
Bring on the stink. Go full fun bad because when they try to fix this next year we all know that won’t work either.
Still waiting for the fun though, all I have seen is bad.
You have to embrace the bad to find the fun.
In the army, when things were particularly miserable we had a saying… Embrace the suck
Yes I know that one well, I was stationed in Indianapolis for 3 years.
I didn’t see any fun at the ballpark tonight except in the Rays dugout. I saw bad defense. Cease desperately trying to get the Rays to chase his slider. Diekman throwing pitches nowhere near the strike zone. I saw Colas without a clue. I saw allegedly 11,000 spectators.
11,000 is crazy. There should be like 11.
Yeah “fun bad” is different than whatever the 2023 white Sox are.
Paid attendance was 11,060 (with butts in seats obviously far lower than that). That’s less than the smallest attendance last year which tells me that Sox season ticket holders were smart enough to recognize this team was going nowhere and that there was a decline in STHs year over year.
The one year I decide to visit Chicago, the Sox go and do this.
At least I can find good seats at dirt cheap prices on Stubhub I guess….
Hmmm, let’s see. Lost by 7 on Tuesday. Lost by 8 on Wednesday. Lost by 9 on Thursday.
I feel like I can see a pattern forming. My in depth statistical analysis indicates that the White Sox stink.
So Hahn says this is all on him. So….are you going to resign? No. Pretty confident you won’t be fired. And he’ll be right. So what’s the point in having a press conference? To rub our noses in it.
“It’s my fault, again. See you tomorrow.”
By taking responsibility he gets passed over in the office donut rotation
The Swiss Army knife sliced a 57-mph lob! That’s something!
Hey is Leury Garcia still available?
Based on his instagram he’s having the time of his life hanging out with his family. As much as I love me some Leury I’d far prefer him do that than whatever the Sox are doing. Particularly if he’s making a couple mil either way.
Let’s talk curling…
… into a ball?
This is so unfortunate but completely predictable. I dont know what models or projections this team uses, but its obviously not great. I’m already starting to phase out the watching part and just catch recaps, so if nothing else Sox Machine will still get traffic despite the teams piss poor display of baseball. Sorry you guys have to watch this. Maybe TA and Liam returning makes some of the season not feel like automatic loses? See hope still remains lol
I think it’s funny you think they use any. At best, an intern might read Fangraphs. Let’s hope he knows how to export to a .csv
It’s funny until you realize this is exactly what Shelly Duncan’s role was.
This recap made me laugh at how WHITE SOX this game was, I actually looked up the video recap.
What a dead ass team. Sounded like the boo birds, all 12 of them, were letting them have it.
I’m saving my voice for Saturday and I’m going to try to convince my sisters to do something else for their birthdays this year after watching these clown dumpsters lose again.
Perhaps Jerry was inspired by the shitheel that owns the A’s and won’t fire the front office until he can bamboozle somebody into building him a new money hole to stink up.
That’s the thing that’s great about low attendance is that your can hear the individual insults.
I’m seriously considering a paper bag.
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
One of my fav’s
I think that when the opposing team sends out a position player to soft toss an inning or two and spare their bullpen as one of the most humiliating things in baseball. The message from the opposing manager is clear: “I am facing the White Sox, so this is a great opportunity to rest my relievers…yeah….makes sense to have them rested for when we face a real baseball team”. A complete embarrassment.
Rick Hahn is the laughingstock of baseball GMs. I can picture opposing GMs hanging up a phone call with Hahn, and telling to their staff while laughing “I can’t believe I was able to trade Diekman for an actual useful player”…hahaha… what a moron.
Games like this make me wonder why there isn’t a “time of possession” in MLB…oh, here’s a bot:
https://twitter.com/MLBPossession/status/1651767357734354944
Woof
There needs to be a stadium-wide chant of “Fire Hahn” or “Sell the team” from all 5,000 fans tonight. If you are going and don’t start one, you’re not a real Sox fan. Any real Sox fan should not stand for this nonsense.
It’s arguable that any real Sox fan would not allow themselves to buy tickets, knowing that the money will end up in Satan’s pocket.
I seriously don’t get how this team isn’t drawing hundreds and not thousands of people. Who can possibly consider watching them a good time? I wouldn’t go if tickets and parking were free, and I knew they would actually win the game.
I would say a lot of the fan base is clueless as to how bad Hahn is at his job, and how poorly run this organization is. And they just enjoy watching baseball, though what the Sox are playing hardly resembles baseball. Every one who enters should be forced to read Sox Machine and listen to Berto’s rant.
My brother is like that. He’s 71, and he remembers the Go-Go Sox from 1959. I am going to see him this weekend, and I’m pretty sure he’ll tell me that they will be fine once Timmy and Hendriks come back. I’m sure he still expects them to win the division.
Hell, I remember the ’59 team. I had a baseball card of Al Smith looking up at a Dodger home run and a fan spilled a beer all over Smith while trying to catch the ball! I probably ended up putting that card on my bicycle spokes.
I like optimism but it’s impossible to feel any with this current team.
They should hang signs by all the park entrances “abandon hope all ye who enter here”.
I’m with you on the chants by the way, except they would fall on deaf ears as far as Jerry and Hahn are concerned. People might feel better, but in the end is wasted breath. Which is why I say the best things fans can do is not go, and importantly not pay. Money is the only thing Jerry hears, or cares about.
But I think if it’s a continuous chant, it might get some national attention, and heap shame on Jerry’s sorry head.
I don’t agree with this analysis. I was at a game last year with a group of guys and to a man none of them had any hope of this turning around until Jerry goes. None of the guys I’m referencing read this site either, so they aren’t coming to this conclusion by reading the comments on here. The fanbase is extremely bearish. Attendance will continue to get worse as the season goes on.
I agree it will get worse, but there is still a section of the fanbase that just enjoys watching baseball and doesn’t care if they are good or not. They are going to go regardless. I know many, many people like that.
If they exist they must be a very small small group because I don’t know many. I can think of one guy I know that exhibits the behavior you are writing about. I think most of the I just want to watch baseball types reside in the Cubs fanbase.
Your right about the Cubs fanbase, but there are also many in every fanbase. And I would guess a lot of the people going now will be those who might not be big fans, but will take their kids to see a game every now and then. They probably don’t even know who the Sox GM is, nor do they care. Their kids want to go to the game and eat cotton candy. They don’t care if the Sox win or lose. I live in Atlanta and I know Braves fans like that. I remember going to Sox-Twins games in the mid-late 90s when the Twins really sucked AND they played in a cesspool of a stadium. Every game there would be Twins fans with their Twins hats on, keeping score, and rooting for the home team. Carl Pohlad would make Jerry look like a big spender. But they didn’t care. It was their beloved Twins they were watching.
If they draw 10K per game, which is considered terrible, that is still an awful lot of fans who don’t care about the quality of the team on the field. Or the integrity of the ownership, which is the reason this team blows.
I hear you, most fans I know are disgusted/disinterested, but some still go. A friend of my dad’s is going to take his grandkids who will be visiting from out of state. I looked at my dad and was like “why”? For the price of a game (or probably less), enjoy a great meal, a night out downtown, go to a museum or concert. It’s not just the cost, but who buying a ticket supports. People are going to do what they always have anyway… we can rant about the ownership, some fans are still gonna go, no matter what. I’ve probably been to my last game, that’s all I can do personally.
I agree with you, except for the fact that I think a lot of people take their kids because the kids want to go and eat cotton candy and drink cokes. You can see it if you watch the game. So many kids at the game- and they are almost always eating or drinking something. The Sox are coming to Atlanta this summer and my kids can’t wait to go. Of course, we’re not lining Jerry’s pockets in Atlanta. They just love watching baseball, and the Sox only come here once every few years.
Remember there are ways to game attendance. You can give some tickets to charity and announce that as paid attendance. I got to imagine Jerry will roll out some tricks to try to save face a bit. I doubt we will dip below 8K a game. The Rays basically have no fanbase and even they could generate that at there lowest point
If we average 10,000 a game that should put us in the bottom five of mlb club attendance, which is about all we can do as a fanbase.
The Cubs are averaging 30k a game
I would imagine the actual number of people at the game will be below 10,000 for most games moving forward. But yes, the announced paid attendance will probably remain above 10,000, and higher on weekends.
There are also working class people who depend on those jobs – concessions and such. If people want to go, that’s their call. Just think of it as helping the working class, not the ownership.
Team loyalty isn’t the only product for sale: there are 2 Major League teams on the field, even if one may fail the eye test at times. I am a fan of baseball and still plan on making it to a few games this year.
Is it out of the question that Jerry might be running a Producers-type scheme and would actually be bankrupted if people show up?
I would think if a lot of the fan base is clueless just how bad Hahn and this organization is then they’re a fence riding fan base. Like you said, maybe they just like baseball but then they couldn’t possibly follow the Sox.
And what’s with Burger wearing that garb after hitting a home run? That should only be done while winning a game instead of getting your ass kicked………….again.
The accusation of “not being a real Sox fan” has lost its resonance.
This team has had exactly one blip of success in 100 years, there are zero bandwaggoners.
How ironic that on the night of the football draft the Sox gave up 2 touchdowns with extra points.
I also read that Hahn said he has to continue to earn the right to be the Sox GM. Continue?
He really talks like a man who knows he’s not going to get fired. It really is pathetic. There can’t be a worse-run organization in sports.
JR can move this team to Oakland and the Sox can bring in another team with a new owner. We know it won’t be worse than what’s going on now.