White Sox 7, Twins 6: Holy Sheets!

White Sox win

Gavin Sheets spent a day in the majors earlier this season, but didn’t make it into a game and was quickly optioned back to Charlotte. Tuesday night, he did his best to make that look like a mistake. A contact-based offense led by Sheets plus some contact-based pitching from Lucas Giolito combined to give the White Sox a win in the delayed first game of a three-game set against Minnesota at Guaranteed Rate Field.

At the start, it looked like this would be a classically frustrating White Sox-Twins affair. Josh Donaldson hit a two-run homer on the fifth pitch of the game to give Minnesota a quick lead, and the Sox failed to capitalize on early Kenta Maeda’s struggles with the strike zone.

After retiring Tim Anderson to lead off the White Sox half of the first, Maeda walked three straight to load the bases. Zack Collins hit a nubber into the shifted defense to trade an out for a run, but Andrew Vaughn flew out to end the threat. The second inning looked much the same as the first: Sheets, who was called up earlier Tuesday when Jake Lamb hit the IL with a quad injury, led off with his first career hit. Leury Garcia followed with a walk to put two runners on with no outs, but Danny Mendick, Anderson, and Brian Goodwin couldn’t bring either runner home.

A short rain delay in the third briefly stopped the action, but not Maeda’s control problems. When the game resumed, Jose Abreu walked and Yasmani Grandal bunted into the shift to again put two on with no outs. Collins struck out before a blooped Vaughn single loaded the bases. Then Sheets added to his night of firsts by smacking a laser off Maeda’s glove to score Grandal, though Andrelton Simmons collected the ball in enough time to record an out at second. That would end up saving the Twins a run when Garcia singled to bring home Grandal and make the score 3-2. This time, Maeda induced a popup from Danny Mendick to end the inning.

The Sox finally broke through in the 5th. Back-to-back singles from Collins and Vaughn again brought Sheets up with runners on base. This time he flared a double into no-man’s land along the left field line, scoring Collins on an aggressive send by Joe McEwing and collecting his first career extra base hit. A Garcia sac fly scored Vaughn, then Sheets came around on a single by Mendick to end Maeda’s night. Luckily, the Sox lineup wasn’t quite done when Maeda was; Anderson singled home Mendick to score what would eventually be the deciding run, then Twins reliever Danny Coulombe picked Anderson off to end the Sox rally.

Giolito pitched five pristine innings sandwiched between two unfortunate innings. Despite only striking out one batter, he recovered from Donaldson’s homer to face the minimum in innings 2 through 6, aided by two Garcia-Mendick double plays and a great throw from Vaughn that nailed Nelson Cruz trying to stretch a single into a double. Tony LaRussa tried to get a seventh inning from Gio, but Trevor Larnach (or more accurately, the playing-out-of-position rookie Sheets) quickly put an end to that idea. Sheets drifted under Larnach’s high fly towards the right field corner, but the ball bounced off his arm and Larnach made it to second base.

Evan Marshall came in to relieve Giolito and was promptly greeted with doubles on his first two pitches by Cruz and Max Kepler. He recovered to retire the next two batters, but Kepler scored on Alex Kiriloff’s groundout to cut the Sox lead to 7-5. Marshall left with what appeared to be a hand injury, so Ryan Burr came on in his stead and Garcia ended the inning with a slick pick at 3rd.

Burr pitched a clean 8th to get the ball to Liam Hendriks, who could not say the same. Sandwiched around a strikeout of Nelson Cruz, Hendriks hit Larnach with a pitch and walked Max Kepler. A wild pitch advanced both runners, and setup Larnach to score on Jorge Polanco’s soft groundout to Mendick. Abreu nearly nailed Kepler advancing to third, but his throw pulled Garcia away from the bag to put the tying run at third with two outs. Kiriloff flied out to end the game at a breezy three and a half hours.

Notes:

  • Billy Hamilton returned from the Injured List, replacing Sheets in the top of the 8th inning. Luis Gonzalez was optioned to Charlotte in the corresponding move.
  • The White Sox have scored 18 straight runs without a home run.
  • If it seems like Sheets had an uncommonly good debut for a White Sox hitter, that’s because he did.
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To Err is Herrmann

The White Sox have nothing to lose by giving Sheets a tryout in right field. However, the plan better be that Rick Hahn finds another outfielder before the trade deadline. I have read here and there that 2021 was not to be the year the White Sox were in it for the World Series, but in baseball you don’t get to pick and choose which year that will be. Hahn needs to make some serious additions then hope Eloy and Luis can contribute by playoff time.

shaggy65

Whenever Eaton comes back to play RF–do you think the umps would notice if we had Sheets come to the plate wearing an Eaton jersey?

jhomeslice

I sure hope his hitting is enough of a difference over Eaton for fans to notice!

ParisSox

Nice write up Greg. And I don’t know if it was mentioned in the other thread but both Robert and Eloy are cleared for baseball activities, which will take about 4 weeks barring setbacks. This puts them in line for rehab assignments in August.

Fingers crossed.

jhomeslice

Eloy’s announcement was a little over a couple weeks ago, plus he posted yesterday something like “#74 almost back to the game!”, which makes you think he is a good bet to be on a rehab assignment by mid July if not sooner.

jhomeslice

I’m sure Hahn is trying, but he unfortunately he doesn’t have much to offer other teams in terms of prospects. You would hope Escobar would come without giving up all that much, ditto Peralta. I’m all for selling high on Burger, but not for 1/2 a season of Escobar. For Burger they had better get someone like Schwarber, Castellanos, or Haniger. I’d have to say yes for any of those 3.

metasox

Will be interesting to see where Burger lands with the updated propsect rankings. He was off the radar for a while. And the lost season for everyone should create a lot of movement. Don’t know about his defense, but at least based on the bat, maybe he ends up more highly regarded than anyone could have expected

jhomeslice

If he keeps hitting like he has, I don’t see how Burger doesn’t wind up in top 100. I mean he is pretty much killing it at AAA. Might be their most valuable prospect, with some consideration toward helping them at DH this year and/or next.

mikeyb

Sheets, Burger, Kelley, Thompson, Dalquist, Yolbert Sanchez, Cespedes. There are guys to move if the Sox want to seriously contend this year. And those are just the guys who aren’t currently important parts of the roster. If you wanted to trade big league talent for big league talent, Crochet and Madrigal could also be enticing pieces. Especially if there is going to be labor strife this offseason. Especially if they aren’t going to extend Lynn.

I’m not saying I desperately want Hahn to move those guys. But I wouldn’t be sad to see any of them go if it meant drastically increasing this year’s World Series odds.

jhomeslice

Agree, but it depends on what they can get for them. I doubt any of them will fetch a player that would dramatically increase their chances of going farther in October. Escobar would help, but is not in the category of difference maker, nor is Frazier in my opinion. There are only 3 that qualify that I can think of, and they are Castellanos, Schwarber, and Haniger. Marte too but he would be more expensive than all of them, making a trade incredibly unlikely.

mikeyb

Perhaps, although I think Frazier has the ability to be a major impact piece. Certainly not to the level of the 3 you mentioned, but when all he has to do is be an upgrade from Mendick, that could be a huge shot in the arm for this club (not to mention he fills the RF void for 2022 too, if there is a season).

texag10

I would sincerely hope we would try to find a real RF for 2022 if we traded for Frazier.

jhomeslice

That’s why I don’t want them to trade for Frazier, if they turn around and claim they have solved their RF problems for next year by doing so. In addition to overpaying in prospects for a career year. Someone who has never hit more than 10 home runs is not what they need in RF next year. He is unlikely to ever have an OPS of .860 again.

If they weren’t planning on competing for a World Series this year, then why did they make the Lance Lynn deal?

soxygen

If they were planning to compete for the World Series this year, then why did they sign Adam Eaton?

The inherent contradiction in those two decisions was what was so frustrating about this past offseason.

Last edited 2 years ago by soxygen
jhomeslice

Well said, you got that right. There is still nothing that pisses me off more than having a 15th ranked payroll after “the money will be spent” narrative.

Last edited 2 years ago by jhomeslice
HallofFrank

Ryan Burr, Fireman.

Holland23

Whenever something is Burrning he puts it out.

phillyd

That looked like a Sox-Twins game from 15 years ago, only this time the Sox were the Piranhas that found a way to beat the big bad slugging Twins.

roke1960

That’s exactly what I thought. The Sox would hit 3 homers and lose 6-5 to a Twins team that singled them to death. It’s nice to see the shoe on the other foot!!

Holland23

Do you guys see better in house options to improve matchups against left- and righthanded pitchers. 

jhomeslice

One that might help is Sheets. He has a .900 OPS vs RHP at AAA, and could be a decent platoon partner for Vaughn. I doubt he will hit vs lefties, but if he can hit righties he could help. It is asking a lot for him to do well but he is probably a decent bet to be an improvement over Vaughn vs RHP. He won’t be up for long if he isn’t better than that vs RHP.

Burger is hitting RHP very well with a .800 OPS. If Mercedes does not come back to his April form, you’d have to think Burger will get some consideration to replace Mercedes on the roster altogether.

lifelongjd

The Sox need to tread some water until after the all star break. With their schedule, I’m fairly confident they can get through until mid-July with this roster and still be in good shape. I’m not so certain Rick Hahn will cash in some prospects to get an OF when he has 4 returning from injury within 6 weeks. My guess is he goes after Escobar (geez Nightingale got that one wrong) or Frazier to get IF help. Just depends on what the price is. They also could maybe use a bullpen piece.

roke1960

Yeah, it sounds like Eloy should be back by mid-late August at the latest and Robert late August- early September. That will give Hahn an excuse to not add an outfielder.

dwjm3

Yeah you can already hear the rationalizations now. Getting Eloy back is better than any piece we could acquire at the deadline. Maybe one day they will realize their fanbase doesn’t buy their messaging.

soxygen

I agree with the sentiment/frustration…On the other hand, Eloy IS better than any piece we could acquire at the deadline….

I don’t think we have the pieces for Trevor Story or Adam Frazier, and I don’t think Starling Marte will end up being available. Ketel Marte is currently hurt, sporting a babip of .414, has had an incredibly uneven career, and currently has some of the worst defensive stats among all major league outfielders.

We’ll end up with something like Eduardo Escobar and maybe Adam Duvall. Neither are worth giving up much in exchange, but both of whom are probably improvements over the last guys on our 26-man roster and would provide some insurance for a banged up team.

mikeyb

Madrigal for Adam Frazier (signed through 2022). Crochet for Nelson Cruz. Burger and Sheets and Kelley for Castellanos (here through 2024). Jerry opens up the checkbook (drastically) for another two year World Series window. Add Dalquist/Thompson to any of those trades if necessary. Postseason lineup:

SS – Anderson
LF – Jimenez
RF – Castellanos
DH – Cruz
1B – Abreu
3B – Moncada
C – Grandal
2B – Frazier
CF – Robert

dwjm3

Castellanos has an opt out after this season

and Madrigal for Frazier doesn’t make sense for us or the Pirates

jhomeslice

Eloy being out is a big part of why this offense is so terrible, for sure. But they had problems against RHP last year with both him and Robert at full strength. Their answer to that was Eaton, which as you and I both agree is basically unforgivable. Engel looks like he may be hurt off and on all year, and isn’t proven against RHP anyway (though if healthy he is almost undoubtedly better than Eaton). They don’t have a DH that can hit righties either, so they still have holes at DH and RF just like last year really. Escobar would help at 2b but won’t address either of those.

I sure hope they are not naive enough to believe that Eloy and Robert are all they need as far as OF/DH. I doubt Sheets will hit lefties well enough to play full time, but I’m hoping he hits well enough against righties to be a platoon partner for Vaughn. That would be a big help toward one of those problems. I hope they are willing to trade anybody in their minors if they have any shot at all at someone like Haninger, Castellanos, Schwarber, and don’t overpay for much lesser players.

Malkatraz

Apparently Marshall left with “forearm soreness”. Anyone heard anything more?

jhomeslice

Did not hear, although he has been shaky at best most of the time. It is rarely a sign of good things to come whenever he, Heuer, or Foster enters a game.