Another Painful Admission

As much as it pains me to admit (and trust me, it pains me a whole lot), new White Sox manager New-Mickey Venable is not an entirely hopeless case. He has a knack for the unexpected, like last night when he batted his two rookie catchers at the top of the order. How did that work out? Well, Edgar Quero went 3-for-5 DH’ing in the leadoff spot with a double and two runs scored while Kyle Teel followed with a 3-for-5 night of his own with four RBIs, three coming on a game-tying homerun in the seventh inning. Sox 11 Twins 8. The two rookies I’m most concerned about also chipped in, Colson Montgomery with a monster 454-foot shot good for two runs in the ninth and Chase Meidroth with four hits. Montgomery needs to make regular contact and Meidroth, contact that eludes the opposition. Montgomery can’t be hitting .227 this time next year or Meidroth .258. But you take the hopeful signs and see what happens in the offseason. Right now, I’d have to say there’s not much good Jonathan Cannon will be taking from this year. Called up to pitch as long as he could in the series finale, Cannon struggled to last 2.1 inning, yielding five earned runs on five hits and two walks. I think it’s a head thing with the 25-year old righthander. Either he figures things out, or one of those talented starters in the minors will take his spot in the rotation come spring. The Sox have now won five in a row, all come from behind. Who’ve thought it? And sweeping the Twins four games on the road. That, my friends, has never been done since Harmon Killebrew and company decamped from D.C. in 1961. So, if that feat is possible, why not a Friday-night win in Detroit? A guy can dream.

Painful to Admit

It pains me to admit that the White Sox won their fourth straight game last night, 4-3 over the Twins at Target Field, in large part due to the effort of two of my least favorite players, Michael A. Taylor and Jordan Leasure. But that’s what happened. With two on and two out in the top of the ninth, Brooks Baldwin blooped a broken-bat single to right, good for a run. That put runners on the corners, until Baldwin stole second with Taylor up. Twins’ reliever Justin Topa made Taylor look sad swinging at two straight sweepers that broke well out of the strike zone. Too bad for Topa he couldn’t do it a third time. Somehow, Taylor laid off the next two sweepers, both pretty much where the earlier two were. Then came sweeper #5, right over the plate. Taylor, who at that point was 0-for-3 on the night with two strikeouts, turned on the pitch, lining it down the left-field line, on the line in fact, a double plating two runs. Wait, there’s more. That was in the person of Leasure, who gave up a leadoff double to Byron Buxton followed by a walk to Trevor Larnach. Leasure induced the next two batters to hit shallow flyouts to left, requiring Andrew Benintendi to run in for the catch both times. That made it two out and two on for catcher Ryan Jeffers, 3-for-4 on the night with a run scored. Lo and behold, Jeffers grounded out to third. Sox win, Sox win. They hadn’t come back to win a game when trailing in the ninth since August 6, 2023, in Cleveland. That’s a span of 205 games. My problem with the two players who broke that streak is purely performance-related. Taylor is hitting .205 on the season and hadn‘t driven in a run since August 9. Leasure can either be very good or very bad out of the pen. Average it out, and he has a 4.08 ERA. At 34, Taylor may not be back for a second year with the Sox. He’s a plus-outfielder and a very good interview; I can still remember him from the 2019 postseason, when he helped the Nationals win their first and so far only World Series; Leasure is less articulate but just as sincere. So, hats off to both. Now, do it again.

Hitting on All Six

Hitting, pitching and defense, oh, my. White Sox 12 Twins 3 The last time he started, Martin Davis pitched scared, or so I thought. Last night, he did OK+, allowing three runs in six innings for the win, his sixth this season. Two more, please. If Martin keeps getting a 7-5 double play in support, it just may happen. As to hitting, where to start? Probably best to go with Andrew Benintendi, who hit two homeruns, collected four hits and drove in five. Youngsters Kyle Teel and Lenyn Sosa also homered, going back-to-back in the seventh inning. Now, for two other kids. With the Sox down 3-1 and two on nobody out in the fifth, Bryan Ramos doubled in both runners. Definitely more, please. In addition to Ramos delighting, Brooks Baldwin went 3-for-4 with a walk, run scored and RBI. That’s what I’m talking about, Brooks. Nothing says commitment like going 16-for-48 over your last fifteen games. Next, the near-impossible—three straight at Target Field.

When

One of the few intelligent comments ever spoken by “Hawk” Harrelson went along the lines of: It’s not only who you play but when you play ’em. From there it’s a short distance to: It’s not only what you hit but when you hit it. Take yesterday’s 6-5 White Sox win over the Twins. Colson Montgomery homered, again, so, Yea! But it was a solo shot in the second inning. With two on and two out in the seventh, Montgomery struck out. A three-run homer beats a solo job in my book. Montgomery is going to get the benefit of the doubt given his production so far and his standing as a, if not the, cornerstone in this latest Sox rebuild. And, yes, he deserves it. But also consider Brooks Baldwin, on the periphery of the rebuild unless and until he’s gets his batting average in the vicinity of .280. After his two doubles yesterday, Baldwin has 42 points to go. But consider that his leadoff double in the fifth led to a run and his two-out double in the eighth scored the tying run; Baldwin then scored the go-ahead run on Mike Tauchman’s double. The 25-year old utility player was at least a little bit clutch, I’d say. With Luis Robert Jr. on the IL and Michael A. Taylor batting a mere .204, Baldwin has a chance to make a case for himself in this last month of the season. That works for me.

The Two that Count

The White Sox managed five hits against the Yankees yesterday; the back-to-back doubles by Curtis Mead and Will Robertson qualify as unlikely-to-be-repeated flukes. And forget the first-inning single by Lenyn Sosa. What counted were the solo shots by Colson Montgomery in the sixth and Sosa in the eighth. White Sox 3 Yankees 2. Montgomery has fifteen homeruns to go with a .224 BA. All you can do is wonder and hope, that he stays healthy; that he learns plate discipline; that he can hit singles and doubles as well as homers. With Sosa , it’s more about wondering. Two years older than the 23-year old Montgomery, Sosa is a more mature hitter, which isn’t to say that his sixteen homers, 61 RBIs and .269 BA represent a ceiling. I can see 25 homers and a .275 BA within reach if he gets hot in September. Sosa could easily knock in 80 or more runs on a good team. Where does he play? First, second, third? Who does he play for, given the preponderance of middle infielders among top Sox prospects? Something to ponder come the offseason.

This is What Happens

What happens when a baseball team can‘t do any better than promote a retread like Will Robertson from its minor-league system and inserts him in the lineup against the Yankees? He goes 0-for-5, which puts him at 1-for-23 on the season, 0-for-13 with the White Sox. Oh, and the Sox lose for a third straight time to the Yankees, 5-3 in eleven innings. What happens when you bring in a retread like Tyler Alexander to pitch the eleventh inning? He gives up three runs to take the loss and put his record at 4-13 with a 4.88 ERA. But, hey, Alexander is 1-8 with a 3.88 ERA in 23 games for the Sox. What happens when you hire someone like New-Mickey Venable to manage a major-league team? He guides them to a 48-88 record after 136 games—hey, that’s seventeen games better than last season!—and says after the latest loss, “It’s a tough one, no doubt about it. These guys battle and put themselves in a really good spot to win that ballgame and just came up short.” As in going 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position. What happens when you hire someone like Venable? He looks at yet another example of offensive ineptitude and says something like, “We just have to make good swing decision and use the middle of the field. Each guy in different situations is going to attack differently. At the end of the day, you have to shorten up, put the ball in play and use the whole field.” [both quotes in today’s Tribune story online] Move over, Casey Stengel. There’s a new “perfessor” in town. With the reincarnation of those early Mets’ teams now playing on the South Side, nothing could be more fitting.

Look Away

There was no ballgame at the Rate last night, not in any real sense. But it definitely was an embarrassment, Yankees 10 Hapless Sox 2. How embarrassing? How about the nine walks issued by Sox pitchers, five of which scored, or a call of catcher’s interference, also which scored? Or the regression of rookies like Tim Elko (0-for-4 with two strikeouts subbing for an injured Miguel Vargas) and Grant Taylor (four batters faced; two walks; two singles; three runs allowed)? Or the continued inanity of a manager who praises the other team? I don’t care if the Yankees “make really good swing decisions.” [online story today on Tribune website] For some unknown reason, though, I do care about this team. And with each loss, it’s becoming painfully obvious the leader in the dugout this season is just as clueless as the leader in the dugout last season was.