The Good, the Bad, the Halfway Point

As you might expect, the good part of yesterday’s White Sox-Orioles’ game was the hitting. Brian Goodwin went 4-for-5 with four RBIs while Leury Garcia and Jake Burger had two hits apiece in an 8-3 Sox win. But the pitching left something to be desired, at least for me. Starter Lucas Giolito couldn’t get through six innings against a team that ranks 16h in MLB for batting average; 25th for on-base percentage; and 26th in runs scored. Giolito needed 106 pitches to make it to one out in the sixth. “I was happy with how my pitches were working through the bulk of the game,” he was quoted on the team website afterwards. To which I say, he’s too easily impressed. As for reliever Ryan Burr, he might consider hiding in the bullpen, not because he’s bad but because manager Tony La Russa seems intent on burning him out. Burr has appeared nine times since June 22nd, including five times during the first ten days of July. When it comes to relievers, the good ones, use with care, I always say. Is Jose Ruiz a good one? Well, he’s a better pitcher than he was a minor-league catcher, so there’s that. But Ruiz—and his manager for that matter—confuse velocity with effectiveness; Ruiz is all over the place, and not necessarily in a good way. Yesterday, he entered in the eighth inning for what should’ve been mop-up duty in an 8-2 game, only to give up a hit and three walks. Liam Hendriks recorded the last four outs to get a save that never should’ve been there for the taking. I’m your typical White Sox fan—never satisfied, always worried. The All-Star break comes as a blessing, assuming none of our All-Stars gets injured during the Mid-Summer Classic.