An Ant-sized Step or Two

White Sox rookie righthander Jonathan Cannon—great name, that—threw five innings of one-run ball against the Royals yesterday in the first game of a doubleheader. Oh, the Sox lost (Michael Kopech, two-run homerun in the eighth), but still, pretty nice for a major-league debut. Nick Nastrini threw five innings of two-run ball in big-league debut Monday night. A fan could get excited, if not for manager Mickey Mouse. Mouse isn’t committing to another start for Cannon, in which case, why bring him up in the first place? Is there a groundswell of support for Chris Flexen and Michael Soroka I don’t know about? Cannon, Nastrini, Garrett Crochet, oh my. You’ve got three-fifths of a starting staff there. Throw in Erick Fedde and the soon-to-be promoted Mike Clevinger, and the Sox could have a serviceable rotation. That is, if Mouse can get his head out of the cheese. Nice to see Gavin Sheets drive in what proved to be the winning run in game two with a solo shot. Things are so bad for the hitting-deficient, 3-15 South Siders that Sheets was back in right field. I thought Chris Getz said his team was going to be more athletic this season. Whatever. Just give Sheets the at-bats. And Paul DeJong, five hits on the afternoon. Who knew? Everyone should put a hundred points on their batting average like that. I’m serious. If Martin Maldonado did that, he’d be hitting .161. Oh my.