Winning Formula

Pitching and hitting, fielding not so much. And there you have how the White Sox beat the Tigers last night, 12-3. Seventeen hits usually does the trick, and it was certainly good to see Tim Anderson collect four of them. Yoan Moncada topped out the five players with at least two hits by going one better, which made up for his defense, more or less. That Lance Lynn survived the first innings was nothing short of a miracle. Lynn yielded a walk and a double to the first two Detroit batters. Javy Baez then hit a grounder to third, where Moncada was late in tagging the runner coming in from second. Bases loaded, nobody out. The next two hitters made outs, bringing up Akil Baddoo, whose grounder to Moncada was ruled a base hit. That made the score 3-1 Sox, but lucky for them and Lynn the Tigers let Miguel Cabrera play. Cabrera at age forty is not the Cabrera of thirty, or thirty-five even. The future HOFer struck out with the bases loaded. I should also note here that left fielder Andrew Benintendi could’ve made a nice catch on a line drive in the first but lost the ball in the sun for that double. Then again, Benintendi also had two hits. Like I said, pitching and hitting, fielding not so much. Today, rookie Jesse Scholtens starts in place of the injured Mike Clevinger vs. Michael Lorenzen, as known for his hitting as his pitching. I’d be happy with nine hits for the Sox, if it meant a win. We’ll see.