It Takes a Village

Dylan Cease blew a 4-0 to the Orioles yesterday, and the Sox dropped another series, to fall to 6-10 on the season. You could call it a real team effort. Cease was clearly uncomfortable on the mound, fidgeting with his PitchCom device one moment, walking around or cleaning his spikes the next. If your pitcher is distracted, it’s up to the catcher, the pitching coach and/or the manager to get him to focus. Seby Zavala, Ethan Katz and Pedro Grifol went 0-for-3 in that regard. Some people want Katz fired because of all the walks Sox pitchers are passing out, including twenty-six to the O’s. It’s not entirely Katz’s fault. The front office gives you the staff you have to work with. Take Aaron Bummer, please, or Jake Diekman, please, again. A Jake Burger error at third allowed Baltimore to pull within a run, but Cease still had a lead to work with. He took care of that in the sixth with a run-scoring wild pitch. Still, score tied. Enter Bummer in the eighth, four batters faced leading to two hits and two walks; lefty batters were good for a hit and a walk against the lefthanded Bummer. Enter Gregory Santos, who allowed two of three inherited runners to score. This latest outing leaves Bummer with an 8.44 ERA on the season, for you fans keeping track out there. And Diekman? The lefthander pitched an inning, gave up a run on two hits, both to lefties. That comes out to a 10.29 ERA, along with seven walks in seven innings pitched. Yummy. Now, to hitting. Burger hit three homeruns in three games against the Orioles; gold star there. Gavin Sheets hit a three-run shot yesterday and is hitting .310; that’s good for another star. Too bad Eloy Jimenez is hitting all of .161 while Luis Robert Jr. is five for his last twenty-nine. It doesn’t pay for the role players to star if the star players don’t show up. All of which brings us to Grifol. The manager who stresses communication comes off like a deer of few words at his postgame news conferences. Somewhere, Rick Renteria reads the box score and smiles.