White Sox 8, Orioles 1: They’re back, baby!
The chances of the White Sox setting a new franchise record for longest losing streak this year were dealt a mighty blow Wednesday night. With only 22 games left in the season, they will have to lose out to break the mark they set last month, and a homer-happy triumph over the AL East leaders in Baltimore to avoid a season sweep proves that’s not nearly the sure bet you’ve been led to believe.
Lil’ lefties Nicky Lopez and Dominic Fletcher each lifted their first home runs of the season off Orioles starter Albert Suรกrez. The former yanked a honeyholed 1-0 heater out to right to lead off the game, and the latter hooked a shin-high curve around the foul pole to make it 4-1 in the fourth; the White Sox version of “breaking it open.”
Suรกrez was not coming to the states after an MVP campaign in the KBO last year like Erick Fedde, but has been a similar level of revelation for a contending Orioles team that moved him into the rotation midstream. But after blanking the Sox for four innings in Chicago in May, Suรกrez entered advanced stages of not havin’ it in his second trip through the order.
Before Fletcher’s blast, Suรกrez led off the fourth by splitting the plate with a belt-high changeup that Andrew Vaughn walloped to dead center for his 16th home run of the season. After allowing the first three batters of the fifth to reach, Suรกrez hanging a curve that Vaughn was just under for a fly out to left ended his night before any more mistakes could catch up with him. But after a left-on-left single from Gavin Sheets off reliever Keegan Akin, usual suspect Lenyn Sosa picked Vaughn up with a bases loaded sacrifice fly off to give the league-worst offense back-to-back crooked numbers.
Pitching with a lead really lent a note of wisdom to Jonathan Cannon’s blizzard of weak contact. Four outings removed from his last quality start, Cannon only generated four swinging strikes on 95 pitches, but his elevated mid-90s four-seamer was consistently popped up by Orioles lefties, and the attention it garnered made for a lot of swings over the top of his sinkers and changeups. After 12 walks in his last four starts, Cannon’s only free pass came when he missed wide with a full count fastball to Adley Rutschman, halting his night an out short of six innings of one-run ball.
Eloy Jimรฉnez entering as a pinch hitter against lefty Fraser Ellard with a pair of runners on seemed like the setting for the sort of late-inning phantasmagoric disaster that has defined this White Sox season. But Jimรฉnez popped up a high slider to end the sixth inning threat in a fashion that looked familiar.
After Ellard completed four outs of work, Gus Varland struck out old friend James McCann, new Orioles franchise record holder for single-season home runs from a shortstop Gunnar Henderson and Rutschman in order to continue his run as a successful bullpen waiver find. After a pair of singles and walks apiece added two insurance runs in the top of the ninth, Justin Anderson completed the final three of 10 outs of scoreless work for the oft-maligned Sox bullpen.
The victory snapped a 12-game losing streak and ensured the White Sox would not fall to 50 games out of first in the division on this night.
Bullet points:
*Brooks Baldwin was placed on the injured list with a sprained wrist and Bryan Ramos was activated minutes before first pitch. Baldwin’s right hand has been bothering him since the first game of the Rangers series, but is now starting a 10-day IL stint because he was an injury replacement himself for Miguel Vargas on Tuesday night. Neither Ramos nor Vargas played, but Sosa collected three hits, scored a run and drove in two others.
“Everything is going the Sox way tonight,” Steve Sone said after Sosa’s ninth inning RBI single.
“How many times have you said that this year,” replied John Schriffen.
“That was it,” replied Stone.
*The three-homer effort was the Sox’ first in 23 games, and equaled their homer output over the last 17 games.
*Fletcher added another defensive highlight to his three RBI night by gunning down Cedric Mullins at third, as he tried to advance on a lineout to right. The double play ended the second inning scoreless.
*Luis Robert Jr. made a leaping catching at the wall in the fifth to rob Mullins of extra bases–possibly four of ’em. Alongside a pair of doubles, a run and an RBI, and Robert had a night of looking like one of the most dynamic players on the field again. But then his slow 90 up the first base line in the sixth to beat out an inning-ending double play ball was overturned on review to wipe a run off the board, and he was lifted for what the team called right hamstring soreness afterward. In a more optimistic year, this would ruin the night. In 2024, it merely means the game hit its quota for misfortune.
Andrew Benintendi was the only Sox starter without a hit, but drew a pair of walks, and the 15 hits were the most for the offense in 21 games. Nicky Lopez paced the team with three knocks alongside a walk, while Henderson went 3-for-4 with a solo homer off Cannon. In a battle of two different types of leadoff men, they battled to a draw.
Got this one up quickly, James. That’s confidence!
They will fire a prominent member of baseball operations staff every afternoon until the winning stops
Can the fans vote? Do LaRussa next!
I heartily endorse this strategy. Can it extend to the board?
Time for a winning streak to finish off the season!
Donโt threaten me with a good time.
Nice recap James, glad this one ended nice and easy for a change. Enjoy the night.
For us fans, its not that this win means anything other than a break from another 10er, so let us be thankful today and rest easy tomorrow for Friday we must remember Don’t be sad its over, be happy it happened. Go Sox
The right thing for the Sox to do, at this point, is to keep Robertโs (really no choice), extend Crochet and sign the best 2-3 position player free agents that they can get.
They will have the pitching to compete next year. Spend big in free agency this winter. I would not have said this a few months ago but they have enough good young pitching now to go for it and stop being an embarrassment.
Thatโs todayโs rant about things that JR isnโt going to do.
I’m with you that they need to spend big in free agency this winter, if for no other reason that to avoid being a laughing stock. But they do not currently have the pitching to “compete” next year. They have some interesting arms that are still developing, but only one starter that I would currently rate as proven-good (Crochet – and even he hasn’t pitched a full season with a full workload), and the bullpen is abominable.
If they were keeping Crochet I’d be feeling pretty good about the staff
Crochet
Martin
Thorpe
Cannon
<some mid-tier SP FA>
<some flexen type FA swingman>
for an initial rotation then you can cycle through Nastrini, Bush, Eder and hopefully one of them sticks as a mid-rotation type and the other two spend a year bouncing back to AAA for One Weird Trick to success.
Then Adams, Burke or Iriarte as well in the second half.
However, not having Crochet as the stopper makes this a much less stable unit which puts pressure on the pen which I have less confidence in.
<some mid-tier SP FA>
We can go risk with a 1+ deal for Walker Buehler and if he proves he can stay healthy you pick up the option for 2026 and have a rotation of
2025
Crochet
Buehler
Thorpe
Cannon
Martin
2026
Crochet
Buehler
Smith
Schultz
Thorpe
With the following in the wings
Cannon
Martin
Maybe Taylor
Friend, there is always room during a 24 hour cycle to rant about JR. Never fret, there’s always something.
Sox related talk-Hope you are right. Not sure FA is the route this team should go considering most FA won’t sign with White Sox. Also their track record is pretty bad in this area. One other point on FA-The White Sox double down on mistakes rather than move on. So if they sign any players to a big deal, its likely that ends up being an overpay and decline but due to money commitment will see the contract through.
Personally, I’d be more confident in them targeting prospects in other systems and trying to swap prospect packages. Leverage the pitching abundance and bring in position players for teams good on offense but need cheap pitching depth. One other benefit of having this season is they are 1st in claims. If they are shrewd in this they can look at teams who have 40 man roster crunches coming up and young talent ready/needing protection. Not sexy, but with the uphill battle to be decent its an avenue to get through 2025. With what Getz said recently about now not being time to spend money, 2025 looks like another patch work project. Would be nice for that to be different for a change. Cheers. Go Sox
Varland has been a nice pickup. Getz’s hanging out by the Dodgers’ dumpster paying off.
These are the fun ones to enjoy with a few weeks left until six months of hot stove and zero sports (at least for me).
Go Sox!
You might want to check out this new sport James Naismith has come up with. I’ve enjoyed it the few times I’ve seen it.
Jerry Reinsdorf has kindly offered up a team in this peach-basket game to watch if anyone would like a transition using familiar competitive practices.
But what does his advisor, Branch Rickey, think of this?
A Reinsdorf team is obviously tempting but I was kinda hoping the university down in Urbana might put together a team of students to play students from other schools.
My man! BU has his work cut out to bring all of those new faces together to make a coherent team, but they have an awful lot of talent this year. We just have to get through the football season first.
New losing streak about to drop
Break up the White Sox! No, seriously.
What would have been a night of stress and heartbreak for a Yankees fan was a top 10 regular season night for a White Sox fan. In some ways we are lucky to root for this team (and lucky to have you writing it up, James).
Just want to say thanks for the cynicism and sarcasm. The White Sox are, of course, a dogshit organization, and/but you and Jim cover it with professionalism always. I, personally, very much appreciate when the professional coverage almost has to go to the wayside, because of, well, it’s the White Sox. Defector has had great snapshot coverage of this devastation, but Sox Machine is the go-to when we want to know exactly why the Sox suck.
Good win.
Our hitters seemed to have more borderline pitches go their way tonight, so I wonder if Sizemore getting thrown out in the previous game had something to do with the umpires being more fair.
I understand now why yesterday’s bagman was smiling!
It says something about the state of the fandom when a nice win gathers 17 comments (so far) and the previous day’s loss gathered 67 comments.
The few times that they hit and play like this always makes me wonder where were these guys the rest of season. Really frustrating.
That was fun. A full game of professional MLB baseball well
played. All phases good. Beat a contending team.
I have a 2025 looking forward question. How many different players have been on the roster this year? End to end. Seems like a lot. Isnโt there something to be said for stability in the team makeup and daily lineup? Are we going to get this in/out player roulette again next year?
DJ said something to the effect the other day that teams with set lineups have something that the Sox don’t have – good players.
How many different players have been on the roster this year? End to end.
61 so far.
After clobbering the Yankees 12-2 last month and now routing the Oโs last night it appears to me that the 2024 CWS have been hamstrung by the misfortune of being in the powerhouse ALCentral this year rather than in the powderpuff AL East.
We need more AL LEast!!