Tigers No More

Well, the good news is the White Sox swept the Tigers over the weekend, winning yesterday behind Lance Lynn, 5-3. The bad news is Detroit has left the building known as Guaranteed Rate Whatever, and the Houston Astros will be taking their place for the next four games. And what does it say that two of those wins against Detroit were of the come-from-behind variety and the other was a scoreless tie going into the bottom of the seventh? We’ll just chalk it up to found-fire and leave it at that. The one impressive thing about the sweep is that Andrew Vaughn drove in the go-ahead/winning run(s) in each game. Jose Abreu is the smartest hitter on the Sox; Vaughn, a second-year player, is a not too-distant second. Abreu always knows what he wants to do in each at-bat, and he’s exceptional at foregoing the homerun to hit a ball up the middle; to the right side; or in the air just far enough, whatever the situation demands. And Vaughn? He’s tied for second with Jose Ramirez of the Guardians for most RBIs in the AL from the seventh inning on; those two have both knocked in twenty-seven runs. Vaughn is also hitting .301 on the season with fifty-eight RBIs. Compare that to .235 and forty-eight last year. That makes two guys who are serious about their craft, three if you count Tim Anderson on the IL. Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert? Right now, they look to be content to get by on their considerable natural talent. Against a team like the Astros, that won’t be nearly enough.