Pins and Needles

The White Sox won last night, 6-1 over the Reds, and the Astros lost to the Rays with another game to go against Tampa tonight. Suddenly, I’m on pins and needles. If Houston loses, we’ll pull to within a game for likely first-round homefield advantage. Why, if the Astros keep on losing and the Mariners win out, there’d be a tie for first in the AL West, and how cool would that be, provided the Sox take their final series of the season with Detroit? Gavin Sheets homered for the second time in two games last night and drove in three. That’s eleven homeruns and 31 RBIs in 151 at-bats. Not bad for a rookie whose first game was on June 29. Andrew Vaughn went into the season gathering most of the attention as the rookie to watch and a possible Rookie-of-the-Year candidate. But Vaughn’s been up and down all year, and down lately, batting .147 over his last thirty games. When things are going right, one player’s struggles lead to another player’s chance. It’s all a variation on Wally Pipp. I want both Sheets and Vaughn to shine in the postseason. And the more games they have at home the better.

Don't Change that Channel

Luis Robert (twice), Yoan Moncada and Gavin Sheets all homered last night in the White Sox 7-1 win over the Reds at Guaranteed Rate Whatever. Watching young power makes me smile and helps ease the memory of once giving so much of it away (Callison, Cash, Mincher). Nothing so stupid this time around, right, guys? And then to have Reynaldo Lopez pitch six innings of one-run ball, why, a fan could get downright giddy, provided he doesn’t change the Channel to the MLB Network. I did that just in time to see Tampa walk in the winning run at Houston. So much for homefield advantage. But, you have to win on the road at some point, unless you have that advantage throughout the playoffs. Might as well win a game or two in Houston. Power plus pitching would be my prescription to make it happen.

Better than Renteria?

Yesterday in Detroit, White Sox manager Tony La Russa showed once again that he’s long past his freshness date. Start with his pitching moves. The Sox were comfortably ahead by a score of 8-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, Miguel Cabrera first up. And who does La Russa bring in but Mike Wright Jr. Cabrera doubled, probably a triple for anyone with younger legs. Instead of gathering himself, Wright proceeded to walk the next batter and hit the one after that. Exit Mike Wright. And in came Garrett Crochet, ordinarily a solid choice. But Crochet looked absolutely gassed from the onset, maybe because he pitched the day before in Cleveland. Whatever the case (and did anyone in the bullpen notice something amiss during warmup pitches?), Crochet allowed all of Wright’s baserunners to score plus two of his own. End of eight innings, Chicago 8 Detroit 7, which also turned out to be the final score. Exhibit two, La Russa’s reaction to Jose Abreu getting hit for the 21st time, this in the top of the ninth inning. Abreu went old school, going hard into second base when the ball got away from catcher Eric Haase with Yasmani Grandal up. Abreu said something to shortstop Niko Goodrum, and benches cleared. Then La Russa had to open his mouth in the postgame. “There’s an unfairness there that upsets me,” he was quoted on the team website about the recent series with the Angels that saw three Sox batters get drilled in addition to Abreu yesterday. Here’s the thing—this is the same manager who absolved Twins’ pitcher Tyler Duffey for nailing Yermin Mercedes, who committed the sin of disrespecting one of the unwritten rules of baseball that have been entrusted to Tony La Russa for safekeeping. La Russa may be old, but he’s certainly not old school. Back in the day, they throw at yours, you immediately throw at theirs. You don’t wait until the last month of the season to start retaliating.

Pick One

Two Chicago sports teams played in Cleveland yesterday afternoon, but only one of them won. Do you know which? Hint—the team that didn’t net one yard passing. Hint, hint—the team that stole a base, two in fact on the same play. The White Sox beat the Indians 5-2 with Lucas Giolito looking like he wants to get the first start in the playoffs. As long as he keeps doing what he did on Sunday with six scoreless innings with just six baserunners, I say, go for it. The bullpen seems better of late, so things may not go south once Giolito exits the way they have in five of his ten no-decisions. I’d definitely bring in Michael Kopech, or not. With Kopech, you just don’t know. Yesterday, he comes in and starts off by giving up hits to the number-eight and -nine hitters, then throws in a hit to the leadoff batter for good measure. He recorded one out before Garrett Crochet got out of the jam with a double-play grounder off of Jose Ramirez, of all people. In his previous appearance, Kopech struck out four of the six Cleveland hitters he faced. Go figure. I can’t. Now, for the stolen bases. Tim Anderson and Billy Hamilton pulled off a double steal in the eighth inning, with Hamilton swiping home. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win ballgames in the postseason. I choose to hold onto this glimmer of hope come next week.

My Old Pal Alfred

The Astros-A’s game was over, Oakland winning 2-1, before the White Sox faced off against the Indians last night, so the visitors had to know that a win pulled them to within three games of hosting the first round of the playoffs. Too bad the game was over in the bottom of the first inning after Jose Ramirez hit a two-run homer off of Lance Lynn. Final score, Indians 6 Sox 0. Manager Tony La Russa continued in that new phase of his, which has been going on for about a week now, where he kind of criticizes effort and offers general examples. Me, I want to know why Tim Anderson and company looked clueless against rookie right-hander Eli Morgan, who came into the game with a 3-7 record and 5.68 ERA. Morgan went six scoreless innings giving up a hit and a walk to go with six strikeouts. Most depressing of all was to read La Russa’s comments that Lynn really pitched pretty well; yeah, those six earned runs can really be deceiving. Then Lynn went out and said the same thing. You see, these guys don’t worry. They should.

Sometimes I Feel...

Dylan Cease, Cleveland, untapped potential—all these things were running through my mind last night as I watched Cease in one of his best outings of the season, 5.1 innings with no runs, three hits, no walks and nine strikeouts. The first name that popped into my mind was Barry Latman. If you’re not familiar, look him up. And then, boom, Bradly Zimmer hits a one-hop shot—clocked at 110.4 mph—that hit Cease in the vicinity of his (right) pitching elbow, so out he goes, and the White Sox hang on to a 1-0 win to move within four of the Astros for homefield advantage should they meet in the first round of the playoffs. Hope springs eternal. So, why do I keep thinking of Herb Score?

And the Other Guys?

That A-lineup the White Sox used yesterday in Cleveland was good enough for a 7-2 win, which clinches the AL Central for the Sox. Had manager Tony La Russa cared enough to field a B+ squad for game two, he could’ve picked up 1-1/2 games on the Astros in the race for for homefield advantage. Instead, La Russa scraped the bottom of his bullpen to trot out Mike Wright Jr., Matt Foster and Jose Ruiz, and that’s pretty much why they lost 5-3 on a two-run walk-off homer Ruiz placed out on a tee for Oscar Mercado. Michael Kopech started the game, striking out four of the six Cleveland batters he faced. But rules are rules, and Sox players have to rest per the doctor-manager’s orders, so Kopech was pulled after two innings. Did I mention the Astros actually lost to the Angels last night? Everybody’s celebrating—Sox players in the clubhouse and all the folks in Chicago media. On our walk with Satan the wonder basset today, we even saw someone flying a combination Sox-American flag, all of which is very nice. Now, answer me this: What about the other guys? You don’t think the Rays celebrated clinching their division or the Astros will when their time comes? You don’t think players for other stared into the nearest camera and shouted some champagne-fueled vow to “go all the way”? You don’t think the owners of other teams gave interviews for the first time in years? Okay, that last one would be unique to the Sox, given Jerry Reinsdorf’s disdain for the media. The point is, the Sox can claim to be better than the Indians, Tigers, Royals and Twins, and, right now, nobody else. Ambition goes further when mixed with a little realism and a pinch of humility, I think.

Better Late Than Never

The White Sox are actually going with their A lineup for today’s first game of a doubleheader in Cleveland, give or take an injured Andrew Vaughn. Maybe manager Tony La Russa finally feels a sense of urgency. The Sox went 3-5 in their last eight games against the Angels, Rangers and Tigers. In that same span against comparable opponents (Rangers, Diamondbacks and Angels), the Astros have gone 7-1 to open up a 5-1/2 game lead over the Sox for homefield advantage should the two meet up in the postseason. But have the Astros been resting their regulars the way Dr. La Russa insists for his players? I do know Houston has a shot at sweeping a four-game series in LA tonight. The Angels took two of three from us last week and haven’t won since, with a losing streak of six and counting. I wonder if Jerry Reinsdorf knows or cares. I never thought firing La Russa back in 1986 was such a big mistake, but what do I know?

No Kidding

Things must really be bad for White Sox manager Tony La Russa to admit, “We’ve been treading water for a while.” Ya think? As ever, La Russa wouldn’t single out players for the latest loss, 5-3 to the Tigers in Detroit. Luis Robert had his bat sawed off going after an inside pitch from Michael Fulmer with two and two out in the eighth, but mum’s the word from the skipper. Same for when Leury Garcia struck out on a full count with two runners on to end the game. La Russa did, however, feel the need to give a shout-out to his hitting coaches. He said Frank Menechino and his assistant Howie Clark “don’t settle [for failure], and our guys don’t settle for it, either.” Only they do, given the fact the Sox have played .500 ball since the All-Star break. If I’m Menechino or Clark, I’d be updating my resume. My guess is La Russa has a couple of fall guys in mind if the Sox bow out early in the postseason. Me, I’d start with yesterday’s starter, Dallas Keuchel, who told reporters “we aren’t catching breaks or putting ourselves in a lot of positions to be able to get wins.” And whose fault is that, Dallas? Keuchel gave up two runs on eleven hits and a walk in five innings; that he left with the score tied was a break in itself. That La Russa thought he could pitch Jace Fry two innings was just dumb. But it is nice La Russa is admitting the obvious. Now, maybe he can do something about it, short of stepping down, posthaste. That would be asking for too much.

Somewhere Down the Road...

...this will all come back to haunt the White Sox, the mistake of a manager; the lifeless play by a bunch of Alfred E. Neumans; the trade-deadline acquisitions more skilled in sabotage than baseball. Last night in Detroit, we got a preview of all it will all unfold. With the Sox ahead 3-1 in the bottom of the third and Tigers on the corners, a struggling Carlos Rodon induced Jonathan Schoop to hit a grounder to second base for what could have been a double play. Instead, second baseman Cesar Hernandez tagged baserunner Victor Reyes with the wrong hand—you need the ball in it, Cesar—and then threw late to first. Goodbye two outs, goodbye lead by the end of the inning. Hernandez went 0-for-4 on the night, by the way. Now, fast-forward to the bottom of the eighth, two out nobody on. Sox reliever Craig Kimbrel hit Robbie Grossman on a 1-2 pitch. Detroit employed a tactic unknown to Sox manager Tony La Russa as Grossman stole second base. Undaunted, Kimbrel yielded a run-scoring single to Harold Castro. The Sox go down 1-2-3 in the ninth for a 4-3 loss. The bottom of the Sox order batted in the ninth inning. If in fact this is any kind of magical season for the team, it would’ve been a good time to pinch-hit Jose Abreu; yup, he was resting, even as KC’s Sal Perez took over the RBI lead in both leagues with 115 to Abreu’s 113. Rest is essential for these Sox per their manager’s dictates. Speaking of rest, starter Carlos Rodon may be in line for a whole bunch of it. Rodon barely made it through the third inning and looked to be in some discomfort on the bench. After the game, he refused to talk about his left shoulder, which did little to ease anyone’s concerns. Hindsight is 20-20, they say. We didn’t need Hernandez and Kimbrel. We needed another starting pitcher.

Heart-to-heart

For once, the White Sox beat a team with one hand tied behind their back, and by that I mean while resting two regulars in the rubber match down in Texas. Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez weren’t needed because the bats and Lucas Giolito showed up for a 7-2 win over the Rangers Sunday afternoon. At the risk of exaggeration, Jimenez may be at a crossroads in his young career. Right now, the 24-year old is swinging at anything and everything, which explains the .172 BA over his last seven games. Slumps happen, but with Eloy I wonder. He’s probably the most talented hitter the Sox have had since Frank Thomas, if only he would focus more. There’s too much “Hi, Mom!” goofiness when he’s hot, not enough attention to the demands of the craft. If only Jose Abreu’s approach to hitting would rub off here. In the ideal world, Abreu and hitting coach Frank Menechino sit Eloy down and have a talk with him. Keep the smile, they’d say, but be serious about the job. Hold off on declaring a son’s love until after the game. Make both parents proud by putting up the numbers to match your HOF-sized talent. Then all will be well. Call me a dreamer.

Shop and Compare

Other teams fighting for a playoff spot beat up on the competition, but not the White Sox, who seem to be channeling Alfred E. Neuman. What, us worry? The Phillies fell behind 7-0 against the Cubs earlier this week, only to win going away by a score of 17-8. Twice so far over the weekend, the Brewers have come back to beat the Cubs. Granted, it’s the Cubs, but the Sox left town on Thursday after failing to take a three-game series the Angels, who have just dropped two straight to the A’s. Last night, the Sox fell to the Rangers 2-1 in Arlington. Texas used five pitchers, three with 4-plus ERAs, and all we could do was manage three hits. Seven times we walked, and not once did that lead to a run. Eloy Jimenez looks absolutely lost at the plate. But, hey, Tim Anderson got the night off to rest up for the postseason. I wonder if they do that in Houston?

Anniversaries

Anniversaries Thirty-four years ago yesterday, the White Sox clinched the AL West against the Rangers at Comiskey Park. I remember it well. Michele and I had just come back to our apartment from seeing John Sayles’ “Baby It’s You.” I remember Vincent Spano and Rosanna Arquette and the fact this was the first and last time we went to the show in the town of Cicero. The Olympic Theatre was the kind of place you might have bumped into Joe Mantegna. My friend Dan called as soon as the game ended; he was thinking World Series, not losing to the Orioles in four. Dan has been dead, what, fifteen years now. Before today, the last time I stood in line to get inside a Frank Lloyd Wright building was May 27, 2017; maybe it was the Cheney House. Anyway, Clare called to tell me the Sox had spent a whole lot of money to sign somebody named Luis Robert. Today, she texted while we were in line (maybe the Balch House) about her high school alma mater winning its second conference game of the season, in September. Trust me, end times. Last night, the Sox were playing the Rangers again, this time in Texas. Robert got three hits in a 8-0 shutout. It would’ve been nice to get a call from Dan.

Next Time, from the Couch

Next Time, from the Couch Clare dropped off baby Leo with Grandma, so Grandpa and his daughter could go to the White Sox-Angels’ game. Outside of the company and a whiff of grilled hot dogs and brats for sale on the concourse, it wasn’t worth the effort. There’s an old saying that Chicago has two seasons, winter and construction. If only that were a cliché. It’s not so much construction as constriction. Why have two-lane thoroughfares when you can reduce them to one, solitary, crawling lane? That happened to us twice on the way to Guaranteed Rate Whatever and once more on the way home. As ever, Sox manager Tony La Russa felt the need to rest his players, so no Yoan Moncada or Yasmani Grandal. You see, La Russa doesn’t believe that home-field advantage is crucial to a team’s success, or as our HOF guru offered in today’s Sun-Times, “It’s relevant, but it’s not—what’s the word?—determinative.” Did I say “guru”? I meant “oracle,” and one who ignores that if his team loses home-field advantage to the Astros, they would have to play an extra game in Houston, where they dropped four straight in June. But what do I know? My daughter, though, has questions, like why doesn’t Cesar Hernandez change his approach at the plate? “Obviously, what he’s doing isn’t working, so why doesn’t he slap or bunt?” Out of the mouths of young mothers…. My child also noticed that Hernandez was nowhere to be seen in the fourth inning when Tim Anderson wanted to flip him the ball for a force at second; instead of a possible double play, Anderson threw late to first base for an error it what would become a five-run inning for the Angels. Not that La Russa said anything about Hernandez’s disappearing act, God forbid. Or Reynaldo Lopez’s pitching. Nothing like giving up two-run homers to a player not even hitting .190 and another to a 28-year old rookie now hitting .220 on the season. Lopez must be resting up for the postseason, too. I may have reached that point in life where I’m too old and cranky to be allowed out in public. I don’t understand why people go to a ballgame if they’re not going to sit and watch. Why eat the overpriced food and guzzle the overpriced beer and buy the overpriced merchandise? Who has all this money to waste? I have a grandson and an idea what to get him when the time comes.

Produce or Perish

Michael Kopech grooved a pitch to the otherwise anonymous Brandon Marsh with two out in the eighth inning. Marsh, who could pass for a young Jayson Werth with beard and flowing locks, provided the winning run as the Angels edged the White Sox last night, 3-2. The Sox had two runners on in both the eighth and ninth but couldn’t score. In the eighth, Steve Cishek (!!##!!) struck out Jose Abreu and Yasmani Grandal to close the inning. Eloy Jimenez opened the ninth with a double, only for Gavin Sheets and Brian Goodwin to fan. Cesar Hernandez’s flyball to the warning track was a biscuit short of a homerun. You produce or perish, especially in the postseason. Our South Side heroes ignore that at their peril.

Sweet Swing of Success

If there’s one thing father and daughter can agree on, it’s Gavin Sheet’s swing. What a thing of beauty. Sheets flaunted it yesterday, going 3-for-4 with four RBIs in the White Sox 9-3 romp over the visiting Angels. In the second inning, the left-handed hitting Sheets grounded an 0-2 pitch to the opposite field for an RBI single. Then, in the third on a full count, the 25-year old rookie launched an absolute bomb to right field for a three-run homerun; it was measured at 447 feet. In the fifth, Sheets skied a 2-2 pitch I’m pretty sure right fielder Juan Lagares lost track of because the ball was hit so high. What might have started off looking like a flyball to medium right field ended up on the warning track for a double. On the season, in 118 at-bats Sheets is hitting .237 with nine homers and 26 RBIs. By comparison, in 215 at-bats Luis Robert is hitting a robust .349 with eight homers and 28 RBIs. As you would expect with a speed merchant, Robert has scored 35 runs to Sheets’ 16. Robert has struck out in 20 percent of his plate appearances, Sheets in 21 percent (and that’s rounding up). In no way am I suggesting there’s less to Robert than meets the eye; I mean, the ball he hit last night in the second inning went 434 feet. What I am suggesting is Sheets is an offensive talent in the same ballpark as Robert, just a year behind in development. Barring injury or a slump that brings him crashing to the middle of the earth, Sheets has turned himself into a crucial part of the lineup from this point on. And on that my daughter will agree.

September, Chicago

This being Chicago at the start of football season, all the news that fits to print comes from the Bears, aka the Muntsers of the Midway. The Cubs stink up the joint, and they disappear. Today, they were nowhere to be found in the pages of the once-mighty Chicago Tribune. And anyone who went online early wouldn’t have found anything new, either. The latest Cubs’ story, no doubt to be turned into hard copy if and when needed, didn’t get posted until after 8 AM. By virtue of their record, the White Sox are luckier; you can’t ignore a postseason-bound team, unless maybe it consists of female players, like with the Sky. Just be prepared to wade through page after page of Bears’ coverage to find the Sox story or wait for the TV sportscaster to get around to them. Top priority in these parts come fall—or any other season—is that NFL legacy joke of a team run by the descendants of George Halas. What would Sox manager Tony La Russa sound like as a football coach? Why, he’d be the second coming of the Bears’ Matt Nagy, of course. Only Nagy is 33 years younger, which would make him the second coming of La Russa. Whichever. The Bears embarrassed themselves (what new?) before a national audience Sunday night, falling to the Rams 34-14 at SoFi Stadium. (By the way, if SoFi is the future, count me out.) On LA’s opening drive, Bears’ safeties Eddie Jackson and Tashaun Gipson failed to touch Van Jefferson after Jerfferson hit the ground making a catch at the Chicago 15-yard line. Jefferson picked himself up and ran in for the touchdown. Who knew? Here's Nagy/La Russa discussing the play with reporters yesterday (quote from today’s Sun-Times): “I guarantee you that [the team’s] entire defense will learn from that, and our offensive players will learn from that, too.” Oh, my God, where to begin, Coach? Your defensive players should know to down the opponent, period. They should have learned that somewhere between Pop Warner and JV. If you’re employing people who were unaware (I wouldn’t dare say “clueless”), shame on you and that suddenly-invisible general manager of yours, Ryan Pace. Nagy went on to say, “If you’re not touched, stand up and run and turn it into a touchdown.” Yeah, but how many times can the Bears expect to play the Bears?

A Game of Give and Take

White Sox center fielder Luis Robert gave to the Red Sox yesterday afternoon, and took from them while Sox reliever Craig Kimbrel just keeps on giving to the opposition. Somehow, the Right Sox won 2-1 on a Leury Garcia walk-off homerun to dead center field with two out in the ninth inning. Jose “the Human Pest” Iglesias led off the sixth with a single to center that Robert seemed to pull up on. Not to worry. Kiki Hernandez followed with a drive that had Robert backpedaling onto the warning track, and he still managed to nail Iglesias trying to tag up and advance to second base. For added measure, Robert then singled in the first White Sox run in the bottom of the inning. Which brings us to the ninth, Hernandez again hitting the ball hard to center, only this time it went over Robert’s head and outstretched glove. Did he misplay it? Kind of, maybe. But this is why you spend the big bucks on a reliever who can focus on what needs to be done as opposed to what just happened. And I keep hearing people refer to Kimbrel as a future HOFer. So, why did he issue two walks around a strikeout and then give up a sacrifice fly? That’s two appearances in two days for Kimbrel with him surrendering the tying run each time. Try as I might, I couldn’t find anything he said about either his Saturday or Sunday performance. What did adults used to say around shy kids back in the day? Oh, right—cat got your tongue? That seems to be the case with Kimbrel. A sincere tip of the cap here both to Garcia and reliever Jose Ruiz. On Saturday, Leury failed to deliver with the Sox down a run in the tenth and runners on the corner with nobody out; he definitely delivered a day later. Ruiz is not what you’d call one of my favorite Sox players. But he came on with two out in the seventh and a runner on first, at which point he retired four straight batters. More of that, please. During his butt-covering remarks for Kimbrel, Sox manager Tony La Russa noted that the walks happened because Kimbrel “kept missing with the slider [team website].” That makes me wonder if there’s something wrong with Kimbrel’s arm. His fastball doesn’t seem to have the same velocity it did with the Cubs. Maybe he’ll address that concern someday, or not.

Clueless

Dylan Cease needed 23 pitches to strike out the side in the first inning against the Red Sox last night, what with the two walks and all. Why, give that young man a two-run lead going into the third, and see what happens. Disaster, that’s what happened. Cease turned that lead into a five-run deficit before departing with two out in the third. The White Sox rallied to take an 8-7 lead into the eighth inning, but Craig Kimbrel turned that into a tie, and a story for another day. Then, going into extra innings, “genius” manager Tony La Russa tapped Mike Wright Jr. to relieve. Wright pitches to contact, as they like to say these days. And these days, extra innings start with a runner at second base. Boston 9, Chicago 8. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Cease showed himself to be as clueless as ever. He told reporters it was “one of those games that just happen every once in a while.” But “it’s not going to make me lose my confidence.” Oh, heaven forbid. Cease went on to say he has a "good idea of what I feel like I need to work on. [Cease on White Sox website].” Dylan, why wait? Wouldn’t it be better to have a good idea what you need to do when you’re actually in the game? As to this start being “just” one of those occasional hiccups, how do you explain your 4.22 ERA? It isn’t a product of two or three starts in April; you’ve pitched 151.1 innings on the season. That ERA tells me a lot more about you than anything coming out of your mouth. That Cease feels he can get away spouting this gibberish in public is a sign he doesn’t have coaches. But he sure has a boatload of enablers in his corner.

Advantage

The White Sox don’t win 4-3 against the Red Sox the way they did last night if the game were at Fenway Park instead of the South Side. Not if those 34,000-plus fans are rooting for the other side. Start with Jose Abreu, whose three-run homer in the third started the scoring. Seventeen of his 29 homers have come at home. You think he doesn’t like hitting in front of a cheering crowd? On the road, this turns into a 5- or 6-4 loss with Boston scoring in both the eighth and ninth innings, just like they did in the seventh. On the road, that walk Craig Kimbrel gave up with one out in the eighth finds a way to score because the home fans all but demand it. On the road, the leadoff single Liam Hendriks gave up in the ninth finds a way to score because the crowd wills it. Those runs didn’t score because the home crowd said so, yelled so. With proof like this, you’d think the White Sox would show more urgency in securing home-field advantage for as long as they could. Instead, we get stories about how Tim Anderson is feeling better every day but just isn’t ready to come off the IL quite yet. Like the man from Tampico once asked, if not now, when?

Same Old Same Old

No Tim Anderson plus the usual head-scratching moves by Tony La Russa (no Yoan Moncada, Yasmani Grandal to dh and Seby Zavala catching) pretty much guaranteed another White Sox loss in Oakland, this time by a score of 3-1. The Oakland Coliseum has the feel of a mausoleum to it, minus the visitors. By my count, the series drew a whopping 17,781 fans. Maybe the Sox need more fans in the stands for motivation. Apparently, the A’s don’t.

Quack and Crap

Start with the saying: If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. First, drop the adverb (you know which one that is, right?). Next, substitute Dallas Keuchel’s ERA (presently, 5.33) for the personal pronoun (hint: it). Then, switch all the verbs over to “stinks,” at which point decide on your favorite version of the word “crap” to use in place of “a duck.” And there you have it, a simple truth nobody on the White Sox wants to utter, least of all Dallas Keuchel and his manager Tony La Russa. Last night in Oakland, Keuchel went 5.2 innings yielding five earned runs on eight hits and a walk in a 5-1 loss to the A’s. Afterwards, Keuchel declared to reporters, “I felt like this was a good one,” while admitting the other side did score those five runs. Keuchel also said, “There weren’t a ton of hard-hit balls. They just seemed to find holes, and they did.” La Russa continued the quacking with, “He had one spot in the fourth and one in the fifth, but he made a lot more good pitches than not,” which to La Russa means Keuchel “really made progress.” (all quotes from today’s Tribune online story) What a crock. Let’s start with those eight hits, no, make that seven unless you think Matt Chapman’s homerun was of the seeing-eye variety. On second thought, the A’s also hit two doubles and a triple, so that leaves four possible seeing-eye ground balls. For those, all the Oakland batters had to do was hit the pitch where Keuchel threw it. That’s called a disciplined approach. Now, if I’m wrong and the A’s are a bunch of free swingers, heaven help Keuchel when he does face a lineup of disciplined hitters. The score could approach infinity. I don’t want to forget La Russa in any of this, especially given how he could have minimized the damage by pulling Keuchel after four innings with his team down, 2-1. But games in September don’t seem to mean all that much to our HOF skipper, who let Keuchel go out in the fifth. The score was 3-1 when the inning ended, 4-1 when he was pulled in the sixth. La Russa’s idea of going to a clutch pitcher is to bring in Jose Ruiz, whose idea of clutch hitting is to give up an RBI single to Elvis Andrus on a 0-2 pitch. We’re carrying fourteen pitchers why, again? Fingers crossed that Reynaldo Lopez, today’s starter, doesn’t lay an egg. I guess you could say I’m in a fowl mood.

Early to Bed

If this summer has taught me anything, it’s that bike riding and 90-degree temperatures don’t mix, at least for me. Twice I’ve done it and wished I hadn’t; think Benny Hill pedaling, the bike not moving. Yesterday, I tempted fate a third time. A howling wind may have been my salvation. I dropped Michele off at work in the West Loop and headed to the area in Hyde Park just north of the Museum of Science and Industry, where I can usually find parking. The weather was supposed to get bad by midafternoon, so that was my motivation to plow ahead on the lakefront trail. Wind at my back, I made great time. Ah, but the return trip was something else. I usually stop at Osterman Beach halfway, only I couldn’t because the sand was massing—and attacking—in clouds. At one point, I saw two garbage carts side-by-side tip over as if the Invisible Man (or Patrick Swayze in “Ghost”) was getting a little exercise. How could a wind gusting in my face over 40 mph be of any help, you ask? Basically, it blew a lot of the sweat off my body and kept me from overheating. This time when I got back to the car, I had energy enough to lift the Schwinn onto the bike carrier without having to wait for what seemed a humiliating eternity. The nice thing about being really tired at the end of a ride like this is there’s little temptation to watch the whole White Sox game in Oakland. Again, thank you TiVo. I fully expected the 4-1 lead I turned off to have turned into a 5-4 loss courtesy of some A’s walk-off, but No. Sox win, 6-3. And I wonder if I should get a light-weight bike for when the wind howls.

Here Today...

You blow up a team, and somebody has to take the place of the departed. In the case of the Cubs, that would be first baseman Frank Schwindel where there used to be Anthony Rizzo. Right now, Schwindel is having a grand old time as a 29-year old rookie, batting .343 with eleven homeruns and 33 RBIs in just 143 at-bats. Holy Nicky Delmonico. Delmonico broke onto the scene with the White Sox in 2017, hitting a quick six homers and batting .307 in his first—and best—month in the majors. Then he sprained his wrist, and nothing was ever the same. The Reds released him in June. And then there were Daniel Palka and Matt Davidson, two of my favorite players during the rebuild. Both of them are having great season, albeit in the minors. Triple-A must agree with their batting eye. Believe it or not, Daniel and Matt are both hitting .283. Palka also has sixteen homers and 51 RBIs for Rochester vs. 22 homers and 61 RBIs for Davidson with Oklahoma City. Maybe next year, guys. The same goes for Yolmer Sanchez, though Yolmer isn’t have a Palka-esque season with Gwinnett, hitting .221 with nine homers and 31 RBIs. The guy wins a Gold Glove in 2019, and, suddenly, he’s toxic. The front office didn’t want to go through arbitration, and so now we have Cesar Hernandez, who actually looks like he’d rather be in Gwinnett. Go figure. Some people are comparing Schwindel to long-ago Bryan LaHair, but that’s what cynics do. Every once in a blue moon a relatively old guy establishes himself, and I’ll say this for Schwindel: Check his minor league stats. He hit for power and average from early on. Why the Royals, the team that drafted him, weren’t interested after they blew up their World Series team is beyond me. If Schwindel, maybe Palka and Davidson and Yolmer….

Sure Look Like Icebergs Ahead to Me, Cap’n

This is what happens when winning a series comes down to Dylan Cease: He walks the leadoff batter, gives up a double to the next batter on a 1-0 pitch, then leaves one of his patented flat fastballs out where Salvador Perez can hit it for a three-run homer. Royals 6, White Sox 0. After the game, manager Tony La Russa said, “Best explanation is men, not machines (team website).” I think what the second coming of the oracle at Delphi meant is that Perez isn’t exactly a cybernetic marvel. OK, skipper, if you didn’t like the outcome (and La Russa also said the three homers Perez hit over the weekend “were all preventable”), then you should’ve done more to prevent it. Perez hit two homers Saturday. By the second one, La Russa could’ve taken to calling pitches. In any case, he shouldn’t let his pitcher say homerun #3 was a “decent pitch” and “I mostly just tip my cap” to Perez (today’s Tribune story). Cease has to realize he threw the pitch that lost the game. And it might be nice for Sox hitters to act as if they care, but that’s what happens when you keep sitting your sparkplug, aka Tim Anderson, now on the 10-day IL. Yesterday, Yasmani Grandal and Andrew Vaughn sat because their manager wants to keep everyone rested. Forget homefield advantage going into the playoffs. Tony La Russa has.

Good and Bad

Let me get this out of the way right now—White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal is having himself one heck of a season, ex-Sox catcher James McCann not so much. With four RBIs last night against the Royals in a 10-7 win, Grandal has 53 on the year to go with nineteen homeruns and a .227 BA. McCann in contrast has nine homers, 35 RBIs and a .238 BA. Over their last fifteen games respectively, Grandal is hitting .413 with eight homers and 24 RBIs while McCann has come in at one homer and three RBIs with a .180 BA. Truly, numbers don’t lie. Which brings us to Sox reliever Michael Kopech, who gave up four earned runs in 1.1 innings of work last night. Kopech saw his ERA climb to 4.00 on the season; it was 1.52 through July 28. Over the last fifteen games, it’s been a staggering 9.77. Yikes. What gives? From what I can see, none of Kopech’s secondary pitches are working, so hitters are zeroing in on his fastball; the one Sal Perez hit last night for a three-run homer clocked in at 99 mph. If that’s what’s wrong, how do you fix it? Got me. It’d be nice, though, if pitching coach Ethan Katz had an idea or two. Otherwise…

It Didn't Help

White Sox starter Dallas Keuchel wanted a second rosin bag to deal with the wet conditions on the mound last night in Kansas City. It didn’t help. What Keuchel needed was a sponge or towel, something suitable to toss and thereby admit defeat. The man is done, finished, kaput. Keuchel threw three innings plus one batter—a hit, naturally—in the fourth. He gave up six runs (five earned) on seven hits and two walks vs. a single solitary strikeout. When he got ahead in the count, he couldn’t finish the job. When he didn’t get ahead in the count, the baserunner arrived that much sooner. Sox fall to Royals, 7-2. The only reason to give Keuchel with his 5.22 ERA another start is because Lance Lynn and Lucas Giolito are on the 10-Day IL, Lynn for his knee and Giolito for his hamstring. Given the likely results, though, wouldn’t it be better to make like the Rays and just go with an opener followed by line of relievers? It couldn’t hurt, and it couldn’t result in anything worse than what Keuchel does.

Thieves Never Sleep

Early this week, the AP broke a story about a $1.4 billion stadium the NFL Buffalo Bills are planning. If I were the Bills, the less said about it the better. For openers, it tells rank-and-file fans what the team thinks of them, which isn’t much. The Bills currently play in Highmark Stadium, with a seating capacity of just under 72,000. The new stadium would seat 60,000. Who knows, maybe the owners don’t even like fat-cat fans too much either, given how they want to go from 121 suites down to sixty. Last month, the team senior vice president released a statement noting that owners Terry and Kim Pegula “have always known that, like virtually all NFL stadiums, this will ultimately be some form of public/private partnership,” partnership in a “Heads I win, tails you lose” sort of way. What, exactly do those public partners get when the Pegulas sell the team, the worth of which no doubt substantially increased by that subsidized stadium? I’ll bet they get not a penny. The irony here is that this stadium would have the smallest capacity in all the NFL, beating out the Bears at Soldier Field with its 61,500 seats (and 133 suites). The Bears are always saying how they’d like to host a Super Bowl. But the NFL will only look at venues seating at least 70,000 people. So, the Bills don’t even want to go through the motions of saying they want to help bring a Super Bowl to Buffalo? And Commissioner Roger Goodell, what’s he got to say, if it’s not too much of a bother?

Like We Said

Well, that sure didn’t take long. No sooner do we talk about a White Sox player, and he delivers. Clare saw it happen first. A double play and a runner thrown out at the plate on a fielder’s choice had me switching over to Jeopardy!; we former contestants are happy to watch summer repeats even. Clare called just as Double Jeopardy had started. “Are you watching the game?” she asked. I told her No and explained my reasons. Because I could tell something was up, I promised to call her back as soon as I’d answered Final Jeopardy—“What is Yemen?” in case you’re wondering—and caught up with the game (thank you, TiVo). I called back with two out and two on, the just-recalled Gavin Sheets up. “I’m guessing it’s going to happen here,” I said, and, sure enough, Sheets launched a moonshot over the fence in right field for his seventh homerun of the season. His eighth homer came in the eighth, a 424-foot rocket to dead center field on an 0-2 pitch, no less. Sox over Pirates, 6-3. After the game, Sheets said everything a manager and GM would want to hear, how he’s glad to be back; loves the team and clubhouse; just wants to contribute. He even said he went back to Triple-A Charlotte with more confidence. Talk about lemonade out of lemons. Sheets has a smooth swing coupled with good plate coverage and discipline. He was gone, but now he’s back. Amazing.

Stop the Presses!

Here I was going to talk about how frustrating White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito can be, dominant against the Blue Jays one game, struggling against the Pirates in his next start. Oh, and it would be nice if he could field his position without straining a hamstring. Instead, Clare called, twice, both times Leo Joseph trying to add his two cents to the conversation. Phone-call number one was to let me know the Sox had called up Gavin Sheets and Matt Foster while activating Billy Hamilton off the IL. That led to five minutes of father-daughter complaining how Sheets never should have gone down in the first place once Jake Lamb returned form the IL. We said our goodbyes, happy the Sox had beaten Pittsburgh last night 4-2, and that was that, only it wasn’t. Clare called back to report that the Sox had DFA’d Lamb and purchased the contract of minor-league infielder Romy Gonzalez while putting Tim Anderson on the 10-day IL. Wow, a lot of stuff there. Getting Hamilton back means having two Gold-Glove caliber outfielders (along with Luis Robert, with Adam Engel still on the IL) available for the ninth inning. Having Sheets means seeing how he handles the pressure of playing in September for a clubs fighting for homefield advantage throughout the playoffs. Ditto for Foster, who either finds his control now or risks being shown the door come the offseason. With Anderson, better to sit him altogether than play him every third game or so. Calling up Gonzalez is downright intriguing. He’s an 18th-round draft pick from 2018 who’s worked his way up through the Sox minor-league system. The 24-year old shortstop has hit 23 homeruns this year between Double-A and Triple-A. If he makes an impression now, that could affect the White Sox thinking on what to do with Cesar Hernandez. Oh my. Did I mention my daughter wants to know why the Sox sent Sheets down instead of releasing Lamb a month sooner?