Late Night

I went to bed last night knowing the White Sox were beating the Dodgers 4-2 going into the bottom of the seventh inning. I woke up this morning to find that the Sox gave up three runs in the bottom of the ninth to lose, 5-4. After watching a replay of the ninth, all I can say is, hats off to manager New-Mickey Venable for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The ninth opened with Michael Conforto singling past second baseman Lenyn Sosa. If the idea is to win ball games, then Josh Rojas should’ve been at second, instead of third, and Miguel Vargas at third, instead of first. Why do we have Ryan Noda, if not to play first base? Grant Taylor was in his second inning of work. The Conforto hit seemed to upset Taylor, who threw eight straight balls for two walks. Why wasn’t he lifted after the first walk? Instead, the 23-year old faced Shohei Ohtani with the bases loaded and nobody out. Ohtani grounded to second. Sosa got the out at second, but Chase Meidroth couldn’t turn the double play. See above for best option in the ninth inning at second base. Venable then brought in Steven Wilson, who gave up a game-tying sacrifice fly, followed by a walk. That put runners on first and second, two out, Freddie Freeman up. Freeman had the lefty-righty advantage over Wilson and singled in the winning run on the first pitch he saw. Venable could’ve rolled the dice by walking Freeman to move the winning run to third while bringing up the righthanded-hitting Andy Pages. That’s what I would’ve done, but, hey, I was in bed asleep at the time. As opposed to Venable asleep in the dugout.

Upon Further Review

Shane Smith started out like gangbusters. The Rule 5 pickup from Milwaukee had a 2.37 ERA in his first thirteen starts for the White Sox. But Smith’s last three outings have qualified as nose-holding bad, as in seventeen earned runs over eleven innings. Hold the Rookie of the Year talk, at least for now. Like Smith, infielder Miguel Vargas had himself a nice run, shooting extra-base hits all over the place, but that seems ages ago. Vargas is 1-for-25 over his last seven games and 9-for-58 over his last fifteen. Hold the Steal of the Year talk, at least for now. Last night, Smith gave up four runs in the bottom of the first, after retiring the first two Dodgers he faced. The 25-year old righty also gave up a two-out run in the third and fourth innings. Dodgers 6 Sox 1. Vargas had nothing to do with the sole Sox run, going 0-for-4 on the night. Unlike Lenyn Sosa. Sosa went 2-for-3 with a two-out RBI double in the fourth inning, when there was at least a faint chance his team might come back. It’s nice when your second baseman is hitting .278 at the start of July. Too bad Sosa’s teammates combined for one other hit in the game, along with twelve strikeouts. Smith, Vargas, Sosa—who in this group is not like the others? I have an idea.

What If?

The White Sox are the kind of team that makes a person wonder, what if? What if Chuck Comiskey hadn’t lowballed his sister Dorothy, who out of spite and/or anger then sold her controlling interest in the team to Bill Veeck? What if Veeck had kept youngsters Earl Battey; Johnny Callison; Norm Cash; Don Mincher; and John Romano after the 1959 season instead of trading them for some veteran pop (Gene Freese, Minnie Minoso, Roy Sievers)? All that young hitting with all that pitching, oh, my. What if Veeck had sold to anybody but Jerry Reinsdorf? What if Reinsdorf didn’t hate overpaying for pitchers? Would Jack McDowell have pitched his entire career on the South Side? Or Chris Sale? Or Mark Buehrle? The team is unveiling a statue of Buehrle next week. Fans will be reminded of the two no-hitters (one a perfect game) the lefthander threw for the Sox among his 161 wins for the team that drafted him and should have paid to keep him from ever leaving. What if Reinsdorf used the unveiling ceremony to admit his mistake? That’s when we would know that pigs do indeed fly.

Dazed and Confused

White Sox GM Chris Getz and manager New-Mickey Venable are nothing if not confusing. Take yesterday. Before the game, Getz sent down rookie pitcher Wikelman Gonzalez, which meant that he kept Jordan Leasure. Sure enough, that move came back to bite Venable in the fifth inning when Leasure walked in the go-ahead run against the Giants. Luckily, there’s more, as in a Sox catcher saving the day for the second game in a row. Only it was Kyle Teel instead of Edgar Quero. Teel delivered a two-out, bases-loaded double in the seventh to put the Sox ahead in an eventual 5-2 win. Oh, and Mike Vasil picked up a five-out save, the second game in a row the Sox closer went over an inning for the save. Now, back to catching. This situation will have to be resolved one way or another, Quero or Teel. Right now, the sample size is too small to make anything close to an intelligent decision. Figure the two rookies continue to share time all season. After which, pick one and then decide to trade the other or move him to another position. Teel played in the outfield a handful of games in college and has appeared in left for the Sox one time. I say play him in left or at first on days he doesn’t catch; that way he could come in for Quero if necessary and Venable wouldn’t lose his DH. Or see what Quero can do in left and at first. Neither is a prototypical catcher, as in big and (kind of) slow. Teel is 6’, a trim 210 pounds while Quero is 5’10” and 205 pounds, and both look athletic. So, learning an extra position does not appear to be out of the question. Unless Ryan Noda, batting .111, is the long-term answer at first, in which case I am very confused.

What David Bowie Said

I love the unpredictability of baseball. You just don’t know what will happen when or how. Like yesterday’s White Sox -Giants’ game. The Sox managed all of one run, on a homerun by Andrew Benintendi in the bottom of the sixth. And that’s all they needed for a shutout made possible by a seven-inning start—let me repeat, seven innings—from starter Adrian Houser followed by a two-inning save—let me repeat, two innings—from Grant Taylor. Two pitchers for nine innings: Analytics be damned. As sweet as lefthanded Benintendi connecting off of lefty Robbie Ray plus the old-school efforts by Houser and Taylor, we’re probably talking about a 2-1 loss if not for catcher Edgar Quero. Consider that in the top of the sixth, the Giants had runners on second and third, nobody out, and Rafael Devers up. Oh, my. And what happened? First off, Houser struck out Devers swinging. Then, Edgar fired a throw to third baseman Josh Rojas, who tagged out baserunner Brett Wisely trying to get back to third. It’s the third time this season Quero has picked off a baserunner. For this kind of heads-up defense and a focus on putting the ball in play, Quero gets my vote as #1 catcher over Kyle Teel. And just for one day, Sox fans had four heroes to choose from.

As Professor Gump Would Say—

Stupid is as stupid does. Just look at the lineup White Sox manager New-Mickey Venable went with last night against the Giants and what he had to say about one player in particular. Venable thought it would be a good time to give Ryan Noda, who normally plays first base, his second career start in right field (as opposed to 136 at first). Noda is “kind of a sneaky athlete, good baserunner and a guy who moves, covers some ground more than I think I gave him credit for just looking at him and his overall profile,” Venable told reporters before the game. “That was part of the attractiveness of acquiring him, his defensive versatility and his ability to go to the outfield.” [quote in today’s Sun-Times] Noda did not exactly reward his skipper’s faith. With two on and one out in the sixth inning of a tied game, Noda dove for a ball that skipped past him for a triple. End of game, 3-1. Later, this is what Venable had to say: “Probably have to play that [ball] in front. Good aggressive play, you like the thought.” [quote in today’s Tribune story online] No, I don’t. And for this we got rid of Gavin Sheets?

Crossing Lines

The White Sox and major league baseball indefinitely banned a Sox fan from attending MLB games after an incident Tuesday in which the 22-year old allegedly made remarks to Diamondbacks’ second baseman Ketel Marte concerning Marte’s mother, who died from injuries suffered in an auto accident in 2017. To which I say, Yes, but. No doubt, a line was crossed, but what about the Dodgers Sym-Phony? A difference of kind or degree? Or is it OK because it’s in the past? And what about any and all Philadelphia fans? I doubt the Phillies make much of an effort to curb their fans’ “enthusiasm” at the start of a big series Fans cheer, they boo, they heckle. I have a distinct memory from 1990, of letting Ron Hassey have it after the A’s catcher muffed a foul ball. I didn’t mention anyone in Hassey’s family. I just pointed out the error, if at the top of my lungs. The point is, a modicum of behavior is to be expected and enforced. A line crossed demands a quick response. But professional sports should stop pretending it doesn’t look away every once in a while.