Is It Enough?

If only despair were met this way more often. Just hours after I’d consigned Gavin Sheets to the ash heap of White Sox prospects, he hit a game-tying homerun against the A’s and a ninth-inning double that turned into the deciding run in a 3-2 Sox win, thank you, wild pitch. I come from the Ron Schueler school of general managing; never trade when you can develop. A Cub-fan of a friend of mine is literally salivating over the idea of trading Ian Happ to the Sox for Sheets. That alone makes me want to keep him. Last night, Sheets batted eighth, today he’s in the five-spot, right after Jose Abreu. Has he done enough to justify that promotion? Not really. Will he justify it? I certainly hope so.

Pathetic

You’d think a three-game series at home against the worst team in the American League would be a good thing, and you’d be wrong, at least as far as the White Sox are concerned. How many pitches did you groove again, Lance Lynn? That would be three, on the way to a 7-3 loss to the lowly A’s, who hit four homers on the night. After the game, the 35-year old Lynn said he has to pitch better. Talk about biting self-criticism. Better yet, find a mirror big enough for the whole team to look at itself. Yoan Moncada is hitting .207, which is three points better than Yasmani Grandal’s .204. All the potential Gavin Sheets flashed last year seems to have evaporated. Eloy Jimenez (.224) is hitting worse than Sheets (.225). Tony La Russa was busy defending Tim Anderson, who did a dumb thing in making contact with home-plate umpire Nick Mahrley in the seventh inning. Yes, Mahrley’s strike zone floated from inning to inning, but you don’t touch the men in blue, ever. I was disappointed La Russa didn’t say anything about Jose Abreu, his pick for a Gold Glove at first base. Abreu dropped a throw from Moncada to start the second inning. Two batters later, boom. And so it goes.

Sixteen Candles, Give or Take

Once upon a time, I could bike my age in miles for my birthday. No more. Yesterday, I did forty-six (oh, to be so young) on the 606 and called it a day. Once upon a time, I lived and died for the White Sox. We’re talking “Curse You, God” when the ’67 team collapsed in the last week of the season (and maybe He replied in kind. I sometimes thinks so.). But you reach an age when this stuff becomes relative. I’m there. Now, the idea is to stay healthy long enough to see my grandson participate in sports, preferably, baseball; his mother will be a heck of a hitting coach, I know. We’ll encourage him to be a Sox fan, of course. Maybe if we still had a ballpark, I’d go all old-school on him and demand said loyalty, but we don’t. I’ll be happy just so long as he doesn’t get caught up in beer-cup snakes. That would drive me to bike my age, which would be very dangerous, indeed.

Pretending

The White Sox pretended they were an above-.500 team in Colorado yesterday all the way to the ninth inning. Then reality intruded. Of course, there were bad signs before that, as you’d expect with a Tony La Russa team, like Leury Garcia getting picked off of third base in the sixth inning, on ball four to Yoan Moncada. If Garcia had a better handle on how the game of baseball is played, that would’ve meant bases loaded with two outs. Instead, it ended the inning. Me, I’m the manager, Garcia is done for the day. But you know La Russa had him back out there, one-two-three. And you know La Russa will probably go to his grave thinking Jose Ruiz can pitch a scoreless inning. News flash—he can’t, which he proved again in the seventh inning, turning a two-run lead into a one-run game. And let’s not forget Lucas “it’s the mechanics” Giolito, who gave up three runs in the first inning before waking up. Three runs in five innings isn’t bad, it’s mediocre. For Giolito these days, it’s Cy Young stuff. Did I mention Jimmy Lambert? He pitched in both games at Coors Field and did pretty good, getting a double play on two pitches Tuesday night and a popup on one pitch to end the eighth yesterday. There were two runners on, by the way. Both times, Lambert could’ve gone out and pitched another inning, and, both times that didn’t happen. Instead, La Russa used Kendall Graveman to try and get the save yesterday. Bad move, sort of like bringing in Ruiz, only worse. Graveman walked the first two batters on nine pitches; got two strikes and a foul ball before walking the third batter; and yielded the game-winning single on the first pitch to the fourth batter. That’s five strikes in seventeen pitches thrown, for you fans keeping track out there. And what does Graveman say after the game? Why, “I need to challenge the strike zone a little better.” Ya think? How ’bout a whole lot better. How ’bout you apologize to the stars and back for your piss-poor effort? Not that La Russa would expect it, no sirree. Off in la-la land where he spends much if not most of his time, La Russa said after the game, “We did a lot of things to stay in that game defensively, offensively. We just couldn't get through the last of the ninth.” [team website today] Get through? Your guys choked, and you mismanaged, yet again. Garcia plays and Lambert sits instead of seeing what he could do in the ninth? That’s bonehead managing, Skipper. Some accountability. This is what happens when a billionaire owner thinks he’s the smartest guy in all of baseball. Not by a longshot.

Finally

Somebody tell Sisyphus—if the White Sox can break .500, he can get that boulder to the top of the hill. For the first time in two months, the Sox have more wins than losses, thanks to Michael Kopech and four relievers, all of whom combined for a 2-1 over the Rockies last night at Coors Field. How often do you see a team turn four double plays? That’s precisely what Sox infielders did. This is the baby step. Next comes the hard part, getting back into the marathon. With Mumbles the Manager, I’m skeptical of my team’s chances, but hope springs eternal. Even in late July.

No Bin, No Dice

Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot unveiled plans yesterday for the renovation of Soldier Field, with a dome coming in at an estimated $2.2 billion. What a waste of time and effort. Here’s why—the Bears want total control. The day of the team-as-tenant is over. The big bucks now come from owning the venue. The McCaskeys don’t want to pay rent or share any revenue sources. The only way the Bears pick Chicago over Arlington Heights is if Lightfoot builds them Scrooge McDuck’s Money Bin; fills it with cold, hard cash; and presents it to them as a gift. No Bin, no dice. A smart politician would know that.

Trading Places

Up until a month or so ago, I just didn’t trust White Sox starter Dylan Cease. If I were scouting for the opposition, I would advise batters to wait the young righthander out and sit on a rather flat fastball. No more. The 26-year old has figured out how to get his breaking ball over for strikes, which makes his fastball all the more effectives; very few hitters can adjust to both pitches as they try to identify which one is coming. Cease won thirteen games last season. With his six shutout innings against the Guardians yesterday in a 6-3 Sox win, the righthander notched his tenth victory with just over two months to go in the regular season. Oh, and he’s nearly cut his ERA in half, from 3.92 in 2021 to 2.03 as of yesterday. It's as if Cease has traded places with Lucas Giolito. From 2019 to 2021, Giolito won twenty-nine games with an ERA in the neighborhood of 3.50. This season, the 28-year old has a 6-6 record to go with a 5.12 ERA. The last time Giolito had a comparable WHIP (1.456) was 2018. He went 10-13 that year with a 6.13 ERA and 1.477 WHIP. Yikes. Giolito keeps talking about staying strong, focusing on his next start, working on his mechanics. Whatever. Just so long as he starts pitching like his teammate. And the sooner the better.

Treading Water

During the All-Star break, White Sox closer Liam Hendriks talked about the dangers of complacency. Then Hendriks went out and lost the first game of yesterday’s doubleheader against Cleveland, giving up three runs in the ninth. Final score, Guardians 7 Sox 4. In game two, Tony La Russa showed yet again that he’s mostly lost the HOF touch that marked him as a manager. With the Sox ahead 3-0 in the seventh inning, La Russa brought in Jose Ruiz, who gave up three runs in .2 innings. Reynaldo Lopez coughed up another, and the Sox suddenly found themselves down, 4-3. Lucky for the South Siders that A.J. Pollock managed a two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the eighth and Matt Foster kept his butterflies in check for his first save of the season. So, we split, which is akin to treading water. You can do that only for so long until things get better, or worse.

What a Joke

Seepage in the basement from a storm last night has delayed my giving much thought to last night’s 8-2 White Sox loss to the Guardians. But the basement’s dry now, so here goes. Before the game, Tony La Russa said this would be the most interesting game of the season because he didn’t know how the players would perform after being away for four days. Well, the score pretty much answers that question, doesn’t it? Lucas Giolito gave up four runs in the first inning before I could even turn the TV on (appletv+, not exactly an incentive). As if that weren’t enough, Giolito was hit for another two runs in the second. Three innings, nine hits, six earned runs—how would you rate yourself, Lucas? “It’s kind of a hard one to assess because a lot of the hits weren’t hit hard,” Giolito told reporters after the game. That’s what I call rationalization. A pitcher gives up nine hits in three innings and sees a silver lining, he’s kidding himself. Worse, the manager is letting him do it. Up until a month or so ago, I’d gone close to seven decades on this earth without ever hearing of “buzzard’s luck.” Manager Mumbles invoked it again last night. Heaven help us. Someone has to.

Nothing to See Here

Ratings for the All-Star Game indicate it was the least-watched ever. Mission accomplished, FOX Sports and Commissioner Manfred. Not a whole lot of people were watching the Homerun Derby, which, may be just as well. Juan Soto won it, the same Juan Soto who reportedly turned down a fourteen-year, $440 million contract from the Nationals. That would be the same organization that in turn refused to charter a flight for Soto to participate in the contest. Mission accomplished, player and team.

Old

I must be old school verging on dinosaur because the All-Star Game last night nearly drove me to extinction. Was it a ballgame or family reunion? At times, I couldn’t tell with all the embraces. Baseball is worried about losing relevance as games push past three hours, this one excepted, it seems. I mean, three hours and eleven minutes of strikeouts; David Ortiz crashing in the AL dugout; and drivel talk from players micced for sound (thank you, FOX Sports). If this is the future of the national pastime, give me the 1950s anytime. Speaking of a brave new world, it was there on display for the analytics’ crowd. I wonder how many front offices went crazy seeing reliever after reliever come in to throw smoke for an inning, max? The National League used nine pitchers, the AL eleven. You want homeruns? There were three. Strikeouts? Try twenty-two in total. Hits? One for the NL after the first inning. The AL won for the ninth straight time, 3-2. There were a bunch of strikeouts, some homers and an “ump cam” showing what it looks like from behind the plate. What it looked like to me was the earth shaking. No, thanks.

Fathers and Daughters

We went over to Clare’s yesterday for hot dogs and Homerun Derby. I liked the food and the company. As ever, my daughter was obsessed with the competition. At some point, one of the announcers talked about the derby bonding fathers and sons. Good thing the TV is new, or Clare might’ve been tempted to throw one of Leo’s toys at it. “What about fathers and daughters?” she shouted at the screen. Or mothers and daughters, those times this father excused himself to do something else? Clare cares about HD because she won two in travel ball. I don’t care about HD because I watched my daughter win two in travel ball. Nothing on television can compare to that, unless maybe my grandson competing one day.

By the Numbers

The White Sox would be going into the All-Star break one game back of the division-leading Twins if not for Lance Lynn making like Dallas Keuchel on Saturday. Instead, the Sox take three out of four in Minnesota to find themselves three games back. But everything I asked for yesterday did come to pass. Dylan Cease went seven innings on just ninety-four pitches; more of that in the second half, please. Cease allowed all of one hit while striking out eight in a 11-0 romp. Did I mention the 26-year old didn’t even crack one hundred pitches? I also asked for Yoan Moncada and Adam Engel to keep hitting; prayers answered. Moncada went 2-for-5 with a double, two-run homer and two runs scored while Engel collected three hits with a double, RBI and two runs scored. I don’t expect Engel to stay in center once Luis Robert gets over his dizziness, but left field is another story. A.J. Pollock is hitting .120 over his last seven games and .190 over his last thirty. Engel is a wizard with the glove and has turned himself into a credible major-league hitter. Give him a chance. His numbers say it’s time.

I Thought Not

Sisyphus had a shot at making it to the top of the hill, the White Sox of going over .500. Then Lance Lynn took the mound. Three homeruns later, the Sox lost 6-3 and slipped back under the mark that separates good teams from mediocre ones, and worse. Lynn sounded shell-shocked after the game, speaking in the second person, as if I was the one grooving pitches. Manager Mumbles yet again defended a player who failed to deliver. And Luis Robert sits again on account of “lightheadedness.” Please, Dylan Cease, pitch like you can against the Twins this afternoon. Who knows, maybe Yoan Moncada and Adam Engel will keep hitting behind you. I can hope, can’t I?

Imitation, Flattery

Michael Kopech did in fact borrow a page out of Johnny Cueto’s playbook for his start at Target Field last night, putting on a ton of runners while keeping most of them from scoring over the course of five laborious innings. Kopech exits with a lead in a game where he walks twice as many batters as he strikes out, four to two, and you know things are going your way. Ditto Adam Engel going in for Luis Robert in the second inning (it apparently being Robert’s turn for the floating injury). The White Sox were up 3-2 in the seventh inning with Engel batting and two runners on. Boom, three-run homer, and the Sox go on to win 6-2. Clare and I have rooted for Engel from the time he arrived during the 2017 season. Some people can hit falling out of bed, Engel can make shoestring and over-the-wall catches the same way. For someone who once hit .166 in 301 at-bats, Engel has come a long way offensively. I once asked him if he knew who Ken Berry was. Too bad he didn’t. There are some interesting parallels between the two outfielders. So, the visitors have taken two from the first-place Twins. They have to win at least one more this weekend for it to matter. Yes, Lance?

Houdini, Ozzie and Friends

Johnny Cueto channeled his inner Houdini last night at Target Field, stranding Twin after Twin in what started off as a close game before Luis Robert launched a 452-foot grand slam in the fourth inning to turn it into a rout, White Sox 12 Twins 2. Cueto was staked to two runs in the first, and the Twins answered with one in the home half of the second, runners on the corners and nobody out. That’s when Luis Arraez flied out to left fielder A.J. Pollock, who proceeded to throw out Gio Urshela at the plate. That’s when I figured this could be the visitors’ night. I’ve been watching the Sox postgame show lately because Ozzie Guillen is so good, his recent crack about Tony La Russa being “Rick Renteria with credentials” just one of many examples. Scott Podsednik isn’t bad, either. Wednesday, he talked about the need for Robert to lay off sliders away and just attack pitches in the zone. The talented twenty-four year old must be listening, what with three straight three-hit games. Now, back to Cueto, who needed 103 pitches to get through five innings—he volunteered to pitch the six and struck out the side, no less. Nice, just like those seventeen hits his teammates collected. It should be interesting to see what, if anything, rubs off on Michael Kopech, tonight’s starter. Ozzie will share his thoughts postgame, for sure.

OK, I Guess. Now What?

Lo and behold, the White Sox beat the Guardians 2-1 last night behind Lucas Giolito and the bullpen. Nothing says 2022 White Sox than a four-game split with the Central Division opponent right above them. Now, it’s four games with the team in first place. The Twins in Target Field. The mind boggles, the nightmares await. It’s simple, really. If the Sox play in Minnesota like they did the first two games in Cleveland, the team will go into the All-Star break with fans looking for blood. If they play like they did the last two games in Cleveland and take three or, perish the thought, all four games, Tony La Russa will have a grin on his face that would make the Cheshire Cat look like a mope. As much as it pains me, I go for option no. 2. Tim Anderson isn’t hitting, not really, and Lance Lynn isn’t pitching not by a longshot, so there’s that. Also, Eloy Jimenez hurt his hamstring, again. So, all of that has to be balanced against Dylan Cease’s pitching; Giolito’s recent revival; the transformation of Reynaldo Lopez into a lights-out reliever; and the steady hitting of Jose Abreu along with Luis Robert. All of which equals what, exactly? You tell me.

Night and Day. Whoopee! So What?

There was a night-and-day difference in effort exhibited by the White Sox during their doubleheader split with the Guardians, as in three hits total in game one and three homeruns good for six runs in game two. What gives? As ever, with this team, I haven’t a clue. Manager Mumbles defended his players, as he is wont to do, after the 4-1 loss to Shane Bieber, who needed all of ninety-five pitches to throw a complete game. Tony La Russa rejected the notion his team was flat by pointing out some nice plays in the field by second baseman Josh Harrison and first baseman Jose Abreu. Too bad Mumbles forgot to mention the play, or misplays, of Yoan Moncada and Eloy Jimenez. Moncada played a ball of to the side that set up a three-run inning against rookie Davis Martin. Jimenez helped the Guardians’ cause by not catching a flyball in front of him, the way a good outfielder would. Then Eloy swatted at the ball with his glove, perhaps to stun it. Again, with this team, who knows? Dylan Cease started game two and dominated from the start. Cease went 5.2 shutout innings while striking out nine. Three relievers chipped in for a 7-0 win. Abreu, Harrison and Luis Robert provided the power. I can only hope they have a collective encore up their sleeves tonight. With this team, who knows?

Flat

The White Sox couldn’t wait to get out of the top of the first at Cleveland last night. Blink, and you would’ve missed Tim Anderson, Yoan Moncada and Luis Robert (throw slider away, will swing) make outs. Then came the bottom of the first. The Guardians scored five two-out runs, with starter Lance Lynn suffering what Mumbles the Manager later termed “buzzard’s luck” because none of the six singles Lynn yielded was particularly hard hit. I guess you could say the same about the two walks Lynn threw in as well. The Sox pulled to within a run at 5-4 going into the bottom of the fifth, when Lynn gave up a single, hit-by-pitch and double to rookie outfielder Nolan Jones. A single off of reliever Mat Foster, and there’s your final score, Guardians 8 Sad Sox 4. Before the game, Mumbles addressed a story by Bob Nigtengale of USA Today about discord in the clubhouse. Of course, the skipper dismissed it. No, our Sox are the reincarnation of those “We Are Family” Pirates from 1979. And, yes, I am the walrus. Nightengale also reported on a meeting Kenny Williams had with players and coaches last Friday in which the team vice president called everyone out for underachieving. Nightengale has shown himself pretty much to be a Jerry Reinsdorf conduit, so these stories/leaks take on an extra layer of interest, to say nothing of intrigue. Might Jerry be growing frustrated with his good friend and current Sox manager? Was he sending a message or two through Nightengale? Stay tuned.

Santo 2.0

Billy Williams and Ernie Banks never bothered me. Ron Santo was a different story. Him, I hated. It was a visceral reaction by an adolescent to a ballplayer who could act like a child, clicking his heels after a win or ripping into a teammate (centerfielder Don Young) during the fairy tale-turned-nightmare season of 1969. That probably explains it. I’ve always identified more with the Youngs than the Santos. Ex-Cub Javy Baez is definitely more Santo than Young. Santo clicked his heels, Baez watches his homeruns (even when they aren’t). What’s not for a White Sox fan to hate? Baez was showered with boos throughout the four games Detroit just played on the South Side. Truth be told, he rose to the occasion, with five RBIs, including two on a first-inning homerun yesterday against the enigmatic Michael Kopech. In keeping with his inner Santo, Baez hushed the crowd as he circled the bases and pointed to the name on the back of his jersey as he crossed the plate. Too much is never enough for some people. I wonder what Baez was thinking when Gavin Sheets hit a game-tying homer in the sixth inning or when Robbie Grossman dropped a flyball—his first outfield error since June of 2018—that set up what proved to be the winning run in the bottom of the eighth. The Tigers’ six-game win streak has now gone two games the other way. Sox 4 Tigers 2. If Santo were around, he might advise that a little humility goes a long way in life. And in that he would be right.

Johnny on the Spot

I shudder to think where the White Sox would be without Johnny Cueto, claimed off the scrap heap by GM Rick Hahn in in April. The Sox are 5-6 in his starts, despite a 2.91 ERA over 68 innings. Cueto is both hard-luck and mild-tempered. Yesterday afternoon, the 36-year old pitched eight scoreless innings with a get-ball, throw-ball, no-two-pitches-alike approach. The Tigers didn’t have a chance, or they didn’t once Gavin Sheets hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the first. On Thursday, the Sox lost to the Tigers 2-1 in a game that took three hours to play. Yesterday, they won 8-0 in a game that lasted 2:35. There’s a lesson in there somewhere, if you bother to look for it.

The Fans in the Stands

Joe Kelly entered in the top of the seventh inning last night, one run in for the Tigers, two runners on and two out in what was then a 3-2 game, Detroit. Before Kelly could record that third out, the score had jumped to 6-2. In today’s online Tribune story, Mumbles La Russa said Kelly was going to be “special” for the Sox. In the eighth inning, centerfielder Luis Robert butchered a flyball that led to another run in what would turn out to be a 7-5 Tigers’ win. Mumbles said Robert should’ve caught the ball, but it wasn’t an easy play. Right. Fans booed during Kelly’s exit; that’ll happen when you give up a run of your own along with two inherited runners. Give the fans credit; they’re no fools. If only the same could be said of their team’s manager.

Goofy, Too

Explain to me how a team can go from scoring nine runs on fourteen hits Wednesday to one run on four hits Thursday. Factor in how, in that Thursday game, they were facing a pitcher with a 1-6 record and 4.54 ERA. Your 2022 Chicago White Sox. I could also add here that our hometown heroes had a run in, one out and runners in scoring position in the bottom of the ninth against Tigers’ closer Gregory Soto, Jose Abreu and Eloy Jimenez coming to the plate. Abreu struck out on three pitches, Jimenez grounded meekly to short. Tigers 2 Sox 1. What Tony La Russa says after a game these days doesn’t particularly matter, assuming I can even understand what he says. Captain Ahab has morphed into Mumbles, of Dick Tracy fame. What I would like is hitting coach Frank Menechino put on the hot seat, if only to see if the players care about the consequences of their (in)actions. I won’t hold my breath, though. In other Chicago sports’ news, an advisory committee to Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot for the Soldier Field/Bears’ situation has been hard at work, sort of. According to yesterday’s Sun-Times, at some point in their deliberations the group proposed a “tourist attraction hotel” with a “Disney-feel.” No doubt. I mean, the Bears already are a Mickey Mouse operation.

Chance of Rain

Clare and I thought of going to the White Sox-Twins’ game yesterday afternoon, only to be scared away by a forecast of rain. Thanks, guys. We could’ve watched the home team tie the game five times before winning 9-8 in ten innings. The big news was the return of Eloy Jimenez, who made his presence felt with two hits, one of them a homerun, and three RBIs. The hope among White Sox fandom is that Eloy energizes the dugout, something manager Tony La Russa is physically incapable of doing. Those two-run homers by Andrew Vaughn and Luis Robert along with two-hit games by Jose Abreu, Gavin Sheets and Seby Zavala can’t be a coincidence, can they? I hope not. Lance Lynn started and gave up six runs, five earned, in five innings. You might call it a Dallas Keuchel-like effort, only Lynn owned up to his poor performance. “I put us down early, didn’t throw the ball well,” he was quoted in today’s Sun-Times. “And every time we came back and tied it, I kept giving it back up.” Lynn has the “It” factor in a way Keuchel never did. People like him whatever his ERA, which right now stands at an uncomfortable 5.33. The fans, and probably general manager Rick Hahn, will probably give Lynn the benefit of the doubt because he’s so endearingly direct. Maybe Lynn will start the day game Clare and I do get to go to. I hope so.

Pick One

Quick, which of these players is a major-league pitcher: Josh Harrison, Michael Kopech or Vince Velasquez? Judging by last night’s 8-2 White Sox loss to the Twins, the answer would be Harrison, who worked a scoreless ninth inning. Kopech? He’s either injured or he’s lost. In his last three starts, all after a cyst problem was discovered in his right knee, the 26-year old has gone 0-3. In his last seven games, the righthander is 1-5 with a 6.16 ERA. Both pitcher and coaching staff look clueless as how to respond. Velasquez? He was a gamble who hasn’t paid off outside of a few appearances. This is someone whose time has come and gone. I’d say the same about Tony La Russa, but I’d only be repeating myself, now wouldn’t I? La Russa on Monday again talked about being the one to take responsible for the state of the team, which is as meaningless a statement as they come. Your players run into a first-ever 8-3 triple play, and what are the consequences? La Russa defends their aggressiveness on the basepaths. And on and on. Tim Anderson is batting .215 over his last fifteen games; Andrew Vaughn, .222; A.J. Pollock, .170. Homeruns are all but nonexistent, along with energy, although getting Eloy Jimenez back today may change a little of both, though I wouldn’t hold my breath. The White Sox are a major-league organization, which is not to be confused with big league. La Russa is a major-league manager, which is not to be confused…

I Thought So

If last night constituted the most important game of the season for the White Sox, with a chance to close to within one game in the loss column of the division-leading Twins, they choked in spectacular fashion. Why am I not surprised? In the bottom of the seventh inning of a 2-2 tie, one run in and runners on first and second, A.J. Pollock hit a line drive that centerfielder Byron Buxton hauled in with an over-the-shoulder catch on the warning track in left-center field. I may be wrong, but I seem to recall seeing players tag up from second and score on such a play. But not our Sox. Instead, Adam Engel kind of tagged up, as in he went back to second base without touching it, while Yoan Moncada was off with the crack of the bat. Moncada was tagged out while slipping between second and third (trying to get back to first base, how sad) while Engel watched from third base as second baseman Gio Urshela tagged second for an 8-5 triple play, the first-ever in major-league history. Engel took full blame for miscue, which is exactly what I would expect; coaches and the manager are never to blame for anything that befalls these White Sox. You would think third-base coach Joe McEwing would’ve been screaming his head off and signaling Engel to get back to second base. If he did, I didn’t see it, and no reporter noted it, either. Game tied, going into the tenth. That’s when Joe Kelly—right now, as bad a pickup by Rick Hahn as Johnny Cueto, who pitched six innings of two-run ball, has been good—threw, by his own admission, “shi**y.” Yes, he did, totally unable to locate breaking balls that he insisted on throwing pitch after pitch. Minnesota scored four runs on its way to a 6-3 win. Wait, there’s more. Like Tim Anderson going into witness protection, as evidenced by his 0-for-5 night at the plate, with three strikeouts, including one to end the game with Anderson representing the tying run. The top three hitters in the order—Anderson, Andrew Vaughn and Luis Robert—went a collective 1-for-13. How do you spell “certain defeat”? See above. And, yes, there’s more. As bad as he was at the plate (0-for-4) Robert sleepwalked his way in centerfield, letting two balls get by him for doubles. The first didn’t score, the second preceded a two-run homerun by Buxton. Jose Abreu came to play, with a homer and a double. If only he could rub off on his teammates. Ditto Liam Hendriks, back from a stint on the IL. Before the game, Hendriks blasted American gun laws in the wake of a holiday shooting that left six dead and twenty-four injured at a Fourth of July parade on the North Shore. Hendriks noted that as a noncitizen he had to take a driver’s test to get a license but could get a gun without a corresponding test, which he called “stupid.” Hendriks then struck out the side in the eighth inning, pretty much snarling as he headed back to the dugout. That, my friends, is what I would like to see in a manager. A player-manager, perhaps?

Show Me

I’m a sucker for musicals, whether on stage or film. In seventh grade, we took a class trip downtown to see “My Fair Lady” with Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison. Among the songs I remember (but only sing with my inside voice) is “Show Me.” I’d like the White Sox to do that starting tonight at home against the Twins. Maybe that’s what the Sox were doing this weekend in San Francisco, although it could be another tease, and it’s hard to judge given just how bad the Giants played. But a sweep’s a sweep, and if the visitors wanted to collect seventeen hits, far be it from me to complain. Gavin Sheets hit another double, to go with three RBIs, and Seby Zavala had himself two doubles and three RBIs. Talk about comebacks. Sheets was sent down to find his swing, and, after two weeks in Charlotte, he certainly looks to have done that. He’s batting .292 over his last seven games with four doubles and seven RBIs. If he keeps it up, we’re talking left-handed heaven here. Zavala has been just as impressive, if not more so. Last season, he hit all of .183 in ninety-three at-bats; three of his five homeruns came in one game. His time with the Sox looked over when they outrighted him to Charlotte in April, but Zavala hit well enough in Triple-A (.282, eight homeruns) to have his contract purchased when Yasmani Grandal was injured last month. He’s hitting .313 with eleven RBIs in just forty-eight at-bats and playing a nice defense. Things should get interesting once Grandal is ready to go. Call it the kind of good problem your minor-league system causes when it’s working right. And yet…Sheets picked up his tenth double on the season; so did Tim Anderson, who has forty-three more at-bats out of the leadoff position. You need more production from your number one if you going to win. Ditto third base, where Yoan Moncada put together another 0-for-5 day. Meanwhile, Jake Burger collects cobwebs on the bench. So, I want the Sox to show me something. A win puts them at .500 and only one game back of the Twins in the loss column. I guess the rockets’ red glare will tell.

If You Say So

TIVO came to the rescue again yesterday, even with the White Sox playing an afternoon game in San Francisco. But the New Testament called; we went to 5 PM Mass; and I caught up on the Sox-Giants’ game while Michele made supper. Dylan Cease termed his 104-pitch performance “good enough,” as in five innings, which qualified Cease for the win in a 5-3 game. I’m happy Gavin Sheets had himself two doubles and two RBIs while Tim Anderson and Yoan Moncada had two hits apiece, but I question what constitutes good enough. In his last start, Cease threw 101 pitches over seven innings. But at Oracle Park, three more pitches thrown netted two fewer innings; that translates into an added burden on the bullpen. Like I said the other day, thank heaven for Tanner Banks, who threw another two solid innings, as opposed to Joe Kelly and Kendall Graveman, who both felt the need for drama and runs scored. Stuff has a way of catching up with you in baseball. When it does, “good enough” usually isn’t.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I’m too old to stay up and watch ballgames on the West Coast anymore. After six innings of a scoreless tie White Sox and Giants, it was off to bed for me. TIVO could do the heavy listing. Imagine my surprise around 7:45 AM this morning to see the Sox score an unearned run in the ninth and beat San Francisco, 1-0. Tanner Banks won his first major-league game in relief, and Leury Garcia lifted his BA to the Mendoza Line with a single to drive in the winning run. Good for Banks, a thirty-year old rookie who may prove to be a real find (31.1 innings pitched, 3.45 ERA), and Garcia, going through what so far has been a miserable season. On the downside, Tim Anderson, Luis Robert and Yoan Moncada combined to go 0-for-12 on the night, with a collective five runners left on base. Not to overstate the obvious, but you don’t win many ballgames with that kind of production, or lack thereof, from key players. I definitely wouldn’t expect another win predicated on such futility. Ten years ago, I would be walking around in a fog from staying up to watch a ballgame that ran 2:59. A 1-0 game where both sides combined for nine hits and eight walks, minus two double plays, and no pitching changes during an inning? That’s a recipe for loss of viewer interest if ever there was one.

Progress?

I could kick myself for not buying the wire photo of Bessie Largent that was on eBay this week. It’s from 1937 and shows a middle-aged woman with wire-rimmed glasses wearing a nice print dress and gloves; a purse nestles between her right forearm and hip, maybe a notebook full of names inside. If Largent were standing outside, Walker Evans might have taken the picture. The caption reads, “Only Woman Big League Baseball Scout/Wichita, Kansas…Mrs. Roy Largent, who seeks baseball talent for the Chicago White Sox, has the distinction of being the only woman in the big leagues to hold such a position. She has travelled more than 400,000 miles in search of young players and has discovered, among others, Monty Stratton, Luke Appling, Burgess Whitehead, Vernon Kennedy and Zeke Bonura.” If my memory isn’t too faulty, baseball now has two fulltime female scouts. But, hey, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred wrote a letter to Kelsie Whitmore, a pitcher for the Staten Island Ferry Hawks of the independent Atlantic League after Whitmore signed with the team this April. “You are an inspiration to baseball fans everywhere, and especially to girls who dream of playing professional baseball,” wrote Manfred, who said not a word about helping make those dreams become reality. Congress passed Title IX fifty years ago last month.