White Sox 12, Rays 9: One way to end a 10-game skid
UPDATE: I ended up covering the last two innings in another post.
I decided to pick up a shift teaching curling this afternoon, and it looked like a great idea when I received a couple texts.
One, from my friend Randy: “Holy sh*t this Sox team”
One from my dad: “Here they go again – coming apart in the late innings.”
Then I checked the score and saw that they gave up five in the eighth to fall behind 7-4.
About 45 minutes later, I received another text from my dad: “Unbelievable!!”
And then I checked the score and saw that they scored seven in the bottom of the ninth to bring their 10-game losing streak to a halt. Unbelievable, indeed.
I wasn’t able to avoid all spoilers, but I still don’t have a great idea of what exactly led to what, so I’m going to watch the last three innings in real time to have a better sense of the drama. In the meantime, here’s a place to discuss it for when I fill in this recap with bullet points later.
In the meantime, I can accurately sum up my state with a treasured clip:
Record: 8-21 | Box score | Statcast
It feels like this team broke some incredibly vicious voodoo curse in the bottom of the 9th
My money’s still on the voodoo.
This is the best way to never give the bullpen a chance to blow a lead
Wonder which bobblehead they use for the needles. (Robert cutting in front of Eloy?)
I’d say Haseley deserves another start.
Hell yeah.
They’re going to be talking about this game at the parade in November. About playing until the last out, it not being over until that final strike, the capriciousness of streaks.
The Rays, that is.
Sox exiting that losing streak like
I watched the highlights. Congratulations. Maybe all of the players were grateful something positive happened. Hope so. Like they say you win 50, lose 50. The other 62 are not going well. Monday is a off day. Off is right. Since the season got underway. When I wake up Tuesday morning, I really expect to hear about some changes to this team. On the field and maybe off. Wait and see.
Nice way to send Rick Hahn out.
To get coffee?
I probably should’ve said “up.”
How E’ffed up is this that I can’t enjoy the win?
I actively cheered when Clevinger gave up a homer, white sox fandom is an exercise in insanity and futility.
Cynicism aside, I was watching the game (in the background doing other stuff) from start to finish and I enjoyed the bottom of the ninth. I completely understand that one weird comeback doesn’t make all this team’s problems go away. I hope I don’t get to the point where I can’t enjoy today’s bottom of the ninth.
Yes this. Baseball was fun again.
The contention window is BACK open!
We have a seat at the widow.
Yeah, but it’s on a bus.
… and TLR is asleep at the wheel
Or worse, his third DUI
Well that’s why he’s tuckered out.
Yeah, at the window ready to jump out.
I see saw some similarities between constipation and the Sox offense. Once that blockage desolves, it keeps on coming. Now let’s go and secure turd place!
Great to see some fight, hopefully they keep it up. Need to go 73-60 the rest of the way to reach .500. JR is telling Hahn right now they didn’t spend $370 million over two years to finish .500 (best case). The roster is being wired with C4 charges, there won’t be anything left by July 1st. The math to get to 90 wins is too laughable for anyone to say with a straight face.
90 wins: they’d have to go 82-51 the rest of the way, i.e., .616 winning %, equivalent to playing like a precisely 100-win team (over 162) the rest of the way.
A few days ago I calculated that if they replicated their 2021 season from May onwards they would finish with 86 wins, though that presumed a split, so we’re looking at 85 wins assuming the same core group of players (minus Abreu) can even repeat that performance.
This team is 29th in ERA, 22nd in runs scored. They can’t blame the pitching on injuries, Liam/Crochet don’t pitch enough. There isn’t any reason to believe they can play .500 the rest of the season, much less 11 over just to win 80. This is a bad team.
As Alforia said, the notion of this roster coming back to win 90 is indeed laughable. I think 80 is pretty laughable at this point. The team is as irrelevant as Leury Garcia.
Only the 2023 White Sox could end the franchise’s longest losing streak in 10 years by matching the team’s longest winning streak of the season…dramatic flair at every turn!
That said, “light it up”… “that’s a White Sox winner!”
it wasn’t a win white sox & fans deserved, but one white sox & fans needed.
WOW what a comeback SOX WIN FINALLY!!!😎
I think a solid argument can be made that Hanser Alberto has been our best reliever this year.
Almost. I think Santos is the only one with an ERA under 6.50 now.
Middleton’s doing perfectly good for a NRI at 3.86 ERA / 2.81 FIP
I saw only the last two pitches of this game.
I’m at the Shedd with the kids after attending last night’s bullshit. My dad, of course, texts to let me know he hopes I am not watching because it is grim.
We are at the underwater Beluga windows when:
The two year old decides she REALLY has to, you know, goMy wife says Vaughn is hitting with the winning run on base.
So I’m dragging a kid through the dang Shedd, the bathroom signs take us to an elevator, we don’t want the elevator, we go up two flights of stairs, and on the way up Vaughn homers on my tiny shitty phone screen and I try and get the two year old and the rest of the Shedd to care while I FREAK OUT.
Also we made it up two flights of stairs to the bathroom successfully. AND Liverpool also threw away a game at the last minute and then magically won it back at the even-laster minute today. The odds of this happening to the Sox and Reds IN THE SAME DAY are totally goofing on me.
Also if you saw the World Chess Championship ending today, somehow THAT also had an insane, last-minute plot twist in favor of the guy I was rooting for. Last minute plot twists DON’T HAPPEN IN CHESS, the world championship is supposed to be measured in WEEKS.
Sports are fucking cool! And so is chess, I suppose.
I’m going to the Google right now to see what you are talking about. Yes I’m in THAT good of mood after this win.