Nice, But—

The White Sox made some baseball history yesterday when they beat the Royals yesterday, 9-1. No other team has ever made the playoffs after two or more seasons of 100-plus losses. The Sox did that three years running. So, it was nice to see David Sandlin pitch like he had a clue, with six innings of one-run ball. The rookie righthander yielded five hits while recording seven strikeouts and not a walk. Please, please, more of that. Speaking of rookies, Sam Antonacci scored three runs and Tristan Peters picked up two RBIs. Braden Montgomery also looks to be coming out of his funk. In his last five games, Montgomery has gone 9-for-20 with four runs scored. See, please, above. Which brings us to the Doug-downer part. Right now, the White Sox have clinched the third AL wild-card spot and are still a game back of the Guardians for first place in the AL Central, with three games to go. Cleveland, which managed two victories against the Red Sox while scoring a total of three runs in three games, now finishes out the season on the road against the Royals while the Sox go home for three against the Rockies. We need to sweep, the Guardians have to lose a game. And while all of that is going on, manager Vibes Venable has to figure out what to do with Colson Montgomery, who has his BA down to .200 and his season-strikeout total up to 223. One more and Montgomery breaks the major-league record. If he plays, he’s going to strike out at least once over the course of three games. If he sits, he misses out on the opportunity to figure things out. But there’s no fixing Montgomery without risking a bit of notoriety. Like the 2024 White Sox, now a team growing ever smaller in the rear-view mirror.

Of Openers and Word Salad

The Royals scored four runs against the White Sox in the ninth inning Tuesday night, and they scored four in the first last night on their way to a 5-4 win. That’s what I meant about momentum. Opener Bryan Hudson didn’t have it, pure and simple, getting tagged for four runs (three earned) on four hits in .1 inning of work. And what did Sox manager Vibes Venable have to say about Hudson’s outing? He told reporters after the game, “Credit the Royals for putting the ball in play, finding the holes and we weren’t able to stop them really that first inning.” [all quotes from today’s Trib story online] I have eyes, Skipper. Tell me why your team, your opener, couldn’t stop the Royals in that first inning. Otherwise, stop insulting my intelligence. The way you did in discussing the play that cost you the game in the seventh inning. With a runner on second, two out, the score tied at four and Hagen Smith on the mound, you decided to have Smith pitch to Maikel Garcia, who already had two hits and two RBIs. Garcia made it three across the board with a run-scoring double. Why give the righthanded Garcia the righty-left advantage against Smith? Why not walk him and have Smith face lefty Vinnie Pasquantino? Get ready for the jibber-est of jibber answers, folks. “We talked about it,” Venable said. “It was just below the threshold as far as the gap between them that we typically do it.” Say what? “In hindsight, you wish that maybe you would [have walked Garcia]. But the process was good. [!!##$%!] That’s just one of those [times] in which the threshold on that matchup was below what we typically do to walk someone.” Words fail me. Venable, too, it would seem.

Almost a Great Game

The White Sox were ahead of the Royals 14-4 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning in Kansas City last night. Seven late runs later, the Sox had themselves a 14-11 win to remain one game back of the Guardians with five to go. Always lead with the good stuff in a win. The Sox cranked out four homeruns, Chase Meidroth; Brenton Doyle; Randal Grichuk; and Munetaka Murakami doing the honors. Meidroth collected a career-high five RBIs while Grichuk went 4-for-5 with three extra-base hits, falling a triple short of the cycle. And, hey, Tommy Pham scored twice on two walks. Now, for the not good, as in, will Colson Montgomery ever snap out of it? Last night, Montgomery went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, inching him closer to the major-league record of 223. Montgomery has 219 and counting. If the second-year shortstop’s offensive numbers are going down, Anthony Kay’s ERA is heading up, also in the wrong direction. The veteran lefthander struggled through four-plus innings last night, giving up four runs on seven hits, a walk and a hit-by-pitch. A suddenly with-it Noah Schultz picked up the win with two scoreless innings. In three relief appearances spanning 5.2 innings since his return from Triple-A Charlotte, the maybe-next Randy Johnson has yet to allow a run. The two pitchers who followed Schultz out of the pen, Trevor Richards and Luis Castillo, weren’t nearly as good. Richards gave up three earned runs in an inning of work, Castillo four runs. Ick. That’s the kind of bad mop-up work that can give the other side unwanted momentum. But I’m in good-news’ mode here. Schultz pitched well, and the other A-team relievers got an extra day of rest. Their availability should cancel any bad-guy momentum. I think.

Goin' to Kansas City (Again)

With six games left in the regular season, the White Sox are going to Kansas City for three against the last-place Royals. A very long time ago, the Sox had five games left in the season, with a doubleheader in Kansas City against the last-place A’s. Things did not go well. This Sox team is one game out of first. That 1967 Sox team was 1-1/2 games out. The ‘’67 Sox dropped the first game 5-2 against an A’s lineup that included Rick Monday; Joe Rudi; Sal Bando; and Dave Duncan. Future Oakland A’s Chuck Dobson started and won with Paul Lindblad recording the save. The second game was pretty much a repeat of the first, worse in that the Sox were shut out 4-0. Catfish Hunter picked up a complete game for what would be the last game ever for the Kansas City A’s; the team was on its way to Oakland. And, in what has to be the cruelest of all fates, White Sox great Luke Appling was managing against his old team. These would be the last two wins in Appling’s managerial career (10-30 lifetime), such as it was. Ol’ Aches and Pains was serving as interim manager after the firing of Al Dark. I don’t want history repeating, or rhyming. What I want is the tables turned, ghosts laid to rest.

Now What?

The White Sox showed more resilience yesterday than I thought they had left in them with a soggy, 8-1 drubbing of the Tigers. Now what? Well, with the Guardians one game ahead of them in first place, they have to keep winning. There are six games left in the regular season, three in Kansas City and three at home against the Rockies. One game at a time with the focus on winning all six. It’s entirely within reach if they use yesterday as a template. Sam Antonacci had a two-run double and made a nice catch in left field, both happening when the game was still in doubt. Chase Meidroth hit his fifteenth homerun of the season to put some icing on the cake while Braden Montgomery actually got two hits, including a double that scored the first run of the game. But there can’t be any letting up, starting with Anthony Kay, who goes tomorrowr. Kay hasn’t been anything special over his last fifteen games, going 3-7 with a 4.58 ERA. If he wants to show the baseball establishment it was wrong to let him go and pitch in Japan for two seasons, now would be a good time. A very good time.

One or the Other

The White Sox showed resilience yesterday, that, or a dead-cat bounce. Either way, they defeated the Tigers 3-1 in front of nearly 31,000 fans who didn’t mind rearranging their Saturday plans when the game time was switched from evening to afternoon in order to beat the approaching rain. Sean Burke pitched six effective innings of one-run ball. Noah Schultz (!) and Grant Taylor provided three shutout innings to seal the victory. Miguel Vargas was the offense. Vargas drew a two-out walk in the first, stole second base and scored the first run of the game on a duck snort to left by Munetaka Murakami. Vargas’ 33rd homerun of the season led off the sixth inning, giving the Sox a two-run lead after Sam Antonacci’s sacrifice fly in the fifth. Did I mention Vargas also made at least one run-saving play at third reminiscent of Robin Ventura and Joe Crede? Unless something changes drastically and suddenly, the Sox will sink or swim (or bounce) depending what Vargas does over the next seven games. Murakami along with Braden and Colson Montgomery are just too far gone right now to be of much help. Whatever Antonacci, Andrew Benintendi and Chase Meidroth can bring to the plate would be greatly appreciated. I’d include Tristan Peters to the list, if it weren’t for Peters crashing into the fence Friday night chasing down Kevin McGonigle’s triple. Day to day, as they say. If only the Sox had the luxury of time. They don’t.

Collapse

The White Sox blew an 8-2 lead to the Tigers last night, losing 11-8, which puts them a full game behind the Guardians for first place in the AL Central and leaves them just one game ahead of the Rangers for the final playoff spot. So, what did Sox manager Vibes Venable do? Compliment the Tigers, of course. Oh, and he also went into his talking-box-score routine, stating the obvious to anyone who can read or see what happened. It’s the “why” behind a loss that trips Venable up. Why did rookie starter David Sandlin lose it all at once in the fifth? No answer. Why did Sean Newcomb and Bryan Hudson give up a combined five runs in the eighth? No answer, though I have one. It’s called “overwork.” Newcomb and Hudson have pitched a combined 151.1 innings so far this season. Live by the opener, and, eventually, you die by the bullpen. Oh, and why did the final fourteen Sox hitters go down in a row? Because happy talk is no substitute for leadership.