Athletics 12, White Sox 4: Somehow, it gets worse
Pedro Grifol called a painful but ordinary blown save to a decent Cubs team the “toughest loss of the season,” but this one might register as the toughest for White Sox fans to watch.
Ostensible staff leader Dylan Cease gave up nine runs and five walks over 4⅓ innings to the worst team in baseball. Four of those runs scored after two outs in the second, thanks in part to two errors in left field by Andrew Benintendi. He gave up an extra base when he awkwardly played a bouncing ball in the gap, then bounced a throw past cutoff man Yoán Moncada on a grounder down the line that Moncada flopped strangely at — more of a stabbing dive than a diving stab.
Then in the fifth, Grifol then left him in long enough to walk the bases loaded and five up a two-run single over the course of five batters. Tanner Banks relieved him and induced what looked like an inning-ending double-play ball, except Tim Anderson slipped after fielding the ball before taking the ball to second. Lenyn Sosa peeled away from second instead of staying on the bag for a flip, and Anderson’s attempt at turning a 6-3 double play sailed into the first-base dugout, allowing another run to score.
Banks then loaded the bases to start the sixth, and just when it looked like the Sox fans might have a legitimate reason for coming to the park besides the postgame concert featuring Vanilla Ice, Rob Base and Tone Loc, a tailor-made 5-4-3 triple play was reduced to a 5-4 double play because Sosa couldn’t find the ears on the turn.
(This was all before the postgame concert was cancelled due to a shooting in the left-field bleachers during the game. More details as they emerge.)
Banks then gave up back-to-back homers in the seventh, including one to Nick Allen. Allen entered the game hitting .195/.244/.257, then went 4-for-5 with five RBIs from the ninth spot.
It was a pathetic effort pretty much all the way around. The Sox did hit a pair of homers — Sosa a two-run shot the opposite way, and Eloy Jiménez a smoked solo sizzler to left — but they tallied just four other hits. The White Sox were outchanced with runners in scoring position 19-5.
Bullet points:
*Korey Lee made his second start and drew two of the White Sox’s four walks.
*Cease’s ERA rose to 4.87.
Record: 50-79 | Box score | Statcast
Curling in Leduc, Alberta is streaming this weekend, it didn’t take long for me to switch over to that.
This is getting legitimately hard to believe
Vanilla Ice?
Yo VIP, let’s kick it.
This team was better when they were trying to be bad.
Total embarrassment. Makes tomorrow’s Dylan Cease bobble head night seem pointless too.
And this is why I wanted them to trade Cease at the deadline. The market was hot for a young, controllable starting pitcher, he was pitching well but not at his peak, and his value was only liable to go down. Welp, here we are.
Furthermore, I have no idea how or why anybody was carrying a gun in the stadium (to my knowledge, even off-duty officers are not allowed to carry firearms in there), but this stupidity is gonna have serious ramifications next year for a team that was already incapable of getting even a half-capacity crowd through the turnstiles before the game started.
The only hope for Cease is that the pitching coach finds something in the offseason that he’s able to fix. Otherwise it’s the common story of fans pinning their hopes on the abberational season, hoping for it to be the norm.
Cease led the league in walks last season. It’s not like his control suddenly cratered.
Cease heading to a 5 ERA and the Sox heading to 100 losses with shootings happening in game.
Make it stop. Ugh.
Besides the shooting….roll tide.
You might want cease to be good so he brings a hefty return at the next fire sale.
Worst White Sox season EVER. Somebody throw in the towel.
Dylan Cease is basically AJ Burnett 2.0
Not trading him at the deadline was stupid as hell, but what else can you expect with this trash fire of an organization?
I prefer tire fire
Went to this game (free tickets!) and a. Had no idea about the shooting until I got home and b. I was telling 8yr old not too boo, these are people trying and 4 seconds later Yoan and benitendi hooked up on that horrible relay and got to tell him “okay, now you can boo”
Just sloppy ball out there.
If Cease is hurt, find out now. If he’s quit, pack him off with the rest of the unmotivated this winter.
And, please, please JR hire an outside guy and give him total control, even if it’s outside your comfort zone. We need an experienced turnaround specialist, not Getz, to save the franchise. Or take your franchise and leave. I’d rather have an expansion team than this mess.
Dylan Cease’s season would be so disappointing if it wasn’t for *waves hands.*
Katz has to easily be the worst pitching coach in baseball. I wouldn’t want him near any minor or major league team.