Quick Study

Here’s hoping new White Sox manager Pedro Grifol is a quick study of his pitching staff. The sooner Grifol realizes how bad his bullpen is, the sooner he and GM Rick Hahn can work on improving it. I wanted Joe Kelly on Friday, I got Joe Kelly on Saturday. Kelly recorded the final out of the sixth and had two out, two on in the seventh when he was pulled for…Jose Ruiz. Oh, oh. Yup, Ruiz let a run score and then put two runners on in the eighth. Rookie Gregory Santos allowed both runners to score. White Sox lose, 6-4. Far be it from me to go after Cruz and a rookie (Santos looked to have good stuff the Astros made just good-enough contact against). Let’s not forget Jake Diekman or, for that matter, Lucas Giolito, yesterday’s starter. Somehow, I’m supposed to be impressed Giolito gave up three runs, two earned, in five innings of work. Nope, not impressed even a little bit. Not when you need ninety-seven pitches to get fifteen outs. Not when Dylan Cease threw eighty-six to get nineteen. Starters have to go a minimum of six innings; anything less just screws up the bullpen. Going into his sixth full season, Giolito should know that. His manager needs to figure out, and soon, if he’s a slow learner or someone who’ll never figure it out. Saying Giolito “did a really good job today” isn’t going to fool anyone, and it certainly won’t fix the problem. But what do I know?