Circling the Drain

The White Sox lost their fourth straight last night (and nine out of their last twelve), 7-3 to the Cardinals. Same old same old. Starting with Sox manager Vibes Venable going with Jake Rogers at catcher. Rogers had two walks, which led to nothing, while dropping a throw at the plate that would’ve nailed a runner in what was then a tie game in the second inning. But you have to love his veteran’s presence behind the plate, I guess. Anthony Kay did his usual, too, which in this case means a fourth straight start without getting through the fifth. The veteran righthander, who is starting to look like the journeyman he was before going to Japan, struggled through four innings, giving up three runs on five hits, a walk and a hit-by-pitch (which scored). In the fifth, Venable did the same old by demonstrating his misplaced faith in Trevor Richards, who proceeded to turn a one-run game into a 6-2 St. Louis lead. Game over. After the game, Venable displayed some anger, sort of, if blaming yourself ahead of your players counts. Venable put it this way: “Just an ugly one all the way around. Starting with me. None of the moves I made tonight worked. [see above] Offensively, we were fine. [No, they weren’t. See below].” In what has to count as blistering criticism, Venable noted “ Kay was behind in the count really the whole day, kind of piled up on him there.” [all quotes from today’s Trib story online] Venable also made some allusions to bad baserunning, as in Brenton Doyle getting picked off of first base, and defense, as in Rogers dropping the ball. How the offense qualified as “fine” is beyond me. What’s “fine” about going a collective 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position or stranding twelve runners? Consider these two examples of how bad things are. In the top of the sixth, with a chance to answer the Cardinals, Randal Grichuk batted with one out, the bases loaded; he struck out on three pitches. The first one he took, right down the center of the plate; the two way down out of the strike zone he swung at. That is not a veteran leading by example. Which brings us to another three strikeouts by Colson Montgomery, who now has 205 on the season. The record is 223, in case you’re wondering. Starting with June, Mongomery hasn’t had a month where he’s batted higher than .221. And, in ten games this month, he’s hitting an anemic .132. Hope springs eternal, boxers do get off the canvas to win. But here? I’m just not feeling it.

While Rome Burns

At least when the White Sox were losing 100-plus games a season, they were consistent. Now, it’s a matter of two steps forward, one back. Or is it 1-1/2? And on what days? I take no particular joy in saying the Sox manager bears much of the responsibility for the state of things. Why, for example, does he play catcher Jake Rogers? In last night’s 2-0 loss to the Pirates, Rogers went 0-for-3 trying to throw out runners on steal attempts. The last one really mattered because it set up an insurance run in the eighth inning. Did I mention Rogers went 0-for-2 at the plate or that he’s now hitting .118—4-for-34—since being picked up from the Red Sox? While I’m at it, let me also point out that Sox batters have basically stopped hitting. Last night, they managed all of two hits, the first coming with two out in the seventh, and two walks while whiffing eleven times. Me, I can’t believe they got swept at home by Pittsburgh. With the manager, it’s full steam ahead on the Titanic. Naturally, after the game he had all sorts of praise for the other side in his postgame remarks: “It was a tough day obviously. You’ve got to give some credit to these arms that they have over there, which are really good. We saw some really good fastballs this series.” [all quotes from today’s online Trib story] Oh, God, there’s more. The manager also told reporters he thinks “our clubhouse and our vibe inside there is in a really good spot.” News flash, Skipper: It’s the wins that count, not the vibe. If you don‘t know that by now, the vibe will disappear soon enough.

Pitch Count

One of my jobs as team statistician for Clare’s varsity high-school softball team was to keep a pitch count for our pitchers. If I could do that as a volunteer, why couldn’t the White Sox do the same in last night’s 4-2 loss to the Pirates? Either Sox manager Vibes Venable or bench coach Walker McKinven or pitching coach Zach Bove alone or in some combination couldn’t figure out to do that. (Hint: Just keep tab of every pitch thrown.) If they had, the Pirates might never have scored three runs in the seventh inning. Reliever Sean Newcomb had already struggled a bit in the sixth, needing a double play to keep his pitch count at seventeen. A six-pitch walk to open the seventh put it at 23. Then came a single on the first pitch followed by a single on the third pitch. By my count, that’s a 2-0 score, nobody out and Newcomb at 27 pitches. Now throw in a seven-pitch fielder’s choice to put runners on the corners, one out and Newcomb at 34 pitches. Did Venable elect to go to the pen? Nope. Konnor Griffin capped off a six-pitch at-bat with a two-run single. For those of you out there keeping count, that’s 40 pitches for Newcomb, who needed another eight to record the final two outs in the inning. So, don’t expect to see Newcomb anytime soon. And don’t expect Venable to explain why he kept his reliever in despite a growing pitch count. Oh, and don’t expect the Sox to win many games that way.

Unacceptable

White Sox manager Vibes Venable called a bullpen game Sunday to give Sean Burke an extra day of rest. And how did Burke respond last night against the visiting Pirates? The first seven (!) batters did this in the top of the first: double; walk; double; double; double; single; single. And, just like that, it was 5-0. Wait, there’s more. Here’s Burke in the second inning: single; double; strikeout; walk; hook. In all, the righthander went 1.1 innings while getting smacked around for seven runs on eight hits—half of them doubles—and two walks. How do you say, unacceptable? Make sure you include Munetaka Murakami along the way. The now-in-freefall first baseman went 0-for-4 with, you guessed it, four strikeouts. Colson Montgomery’s 0-for-4 looked stellar in comparison, with just one strikeout and an RBI. And this is how the Sox expect to make the postseason? Good luck, given how the starters have been and way too much of the lineup. Andrew Benintendi had two doubles, and Kyle Teel added two hits, including his second homerun in as many games. But they can’t do it alone. Maybe if the manager stopped holding everyone’s hand and actually challenged his players things would come around. It certainly couldn’t hurt to try.

Time Flies

It was the Sunday before Labor Day, 2006. Michele and I were watching our high school freshman trying to impress the coaches of her new travel team. There was a party somewhere after practice, as I recall. Knowing Clare, she hustled through every drill. Probably like me, she also wondered why Coach took it upon himself at one point to climb up a pole, but that was Harry. He liked Clare, and that was all I could ask for the next two seasons. Don’t ask about what, or who, came next. Thursday, we pick up Leo from kindergarten because Clare will be busy working on the North Shore, part of the never-ending hunt for donations from well-heeled alumni of a certain school. Knowing Leo, he’ll want me to pitch to him when we get home. But I won’t climb any poles.

Ebb and Flow

Sam Antonacci and Tristan Peters hit, the Montgomerys didn’t. But the hits—twelve, including two homeruns along with three doubles from Antonacci—far outweighed the outs in a 10-1 White Sox win over the Twins in a Sunday almost-night game scheduled to accommodate the television overlords. The two doubles by Peters gives him 30 on the year. I like that, along with Kyle Teel cranking a three-run homer to dead center in the eighth inning. In his previous at-bat, Teel took a called third strike with two runners on. The TV cameras caught his emotion bubbling up in the dugout afterwards. So, redemption achieved, if just for one game. I wonder what would happen if the entire lineup got hot at the same time. Munetaka Murakami, Colson Montgomery and Miguel Vargas providing their 30-homerun-plus pop with Antonacci, Peters and Chase Meidroth providing runners to drive in; Braden Montgomery, Teel and the dh duo of Andrew Benintendi and Randal Grichuk, who hit his twelfth homer leading off the eighth, would also be welcome to join in. A fan can dream, right?

Captain Obvious

The White Sox staked Anthony Kay to a 3-0 lead in the first inning against the Twins last night on homeruns by Munetaka Murakami and Colson Montgomery. Kay gave it all back and then some by the time he was pulled in the fifth inning. Twins 6 Sox 4. After the game, Sox manager Will Venable went into Captain Obvious mode, when he told reporters Kay was “[r]eally sharp there up front in the first few innings and then just got in some trouble. Wasn’t able to work out of it, just left some pitches over the plate.” [from today’s Trib story online] Gosh, thanks for the profound insight, Skipper. Oh, and this: “Obviously, [Ryan] Jeffer’s [three-run] homer was killer.” [Trib online] Ya think? Here’s what Venable failed to address. Kay was done by the fourth inning, when he gave up two runs on three hits and a walk. Why did he even come out for the fifth? The first two Minnesota batters reached base in the fifth, and Venable kept Kay in. Why? After Kay managed to retire Kaelen Culpepper on a forceout, Venable kept the lefty in to face the righthanded-hitting Jeffers. Why in God’s name do that? I’d Twins’ manager Derek Shelton had no intention of pinch-hitting for Jeffers, unless he thought switch-hitting Victory Caratini with his .222 BA could come through. Venable should have forced Shelton to decide by bringing in righty reliever Trevor Richards to face Jeffers, not wait another two batters. Did I mention the Tigers beat the Guardians, 6-0? The Sox could now be four ahead of Cleveland in the loss column instead of three. Oh, well. With Captain Obvious at the helm, what could possibly go wrong?