Slug/Pop

“Slug” is how ballplayers and coaches refer to power these days. I prefer “pop,” if only because a little dweeb who turned into my brother-in-law would run around the kitchen of his house, yelling “Doug the Slug! Doug the Slug!” when I came to pick up his sister for a date. Some things are hard to let go of. But if the White Sox want to talk about team “slug,” that’s fine with me, as long as they keep getting results like last night’s 6-1 win over the Rays at Tropicana Field. Miguel Vargas; Andrew Benintendi; Munetaka Murakami; and Colson Montgomery all homered off Rays’ starter Nick Martinez, who had a 10-2 record with a 2.45 ERA entering the game. And there wasn’t a cheap one in the bunch. Eight hits on the night, four homeruns and four singles, plus two walks. Two of the homers were solo shots, the other two two-run bombs. Odd, like saying the offense is hitting on “all five [cylinders].” Murakami and Benintendi also collected singles, which pushes each of them to .250, my Mendoza Line for sluggers, if you will. Like I said, they can call it whatever they want, as long as they keep getting results.

Walk-off Walk

Talk about temptation. I had breakfast on Lincoln Avenue this morning, Yankees’ fans seated behind me and alongside; the guy closest to me was definitely confusing his fork with a shovel. How do I know they were Yankees’ fans? Let’s just say they made certain fashion statements that, given their advanced age, were hard to miss. What I wanted to say, but refrained from, was: You guys on the East Coast sure play a sloppy brand of baseball. One game, your catcher lets in the tying runs with two outs in the bottom of the eleventh by throwing a pickoff throw—at third base, mind you—down the third-base line. Next game, a hitter overslides third base on a double and your reliever is walking in the winning run on four straight pitches to someone who’s five for his last 47 at-bats. But that’s what Fernando Cruz did to Tristan Peters yesterday afternoon. Sox 2 Yankees 1 in eleven innings. And now for a random observation. I mentioned channeling emotion into effective performance and how manager Vibes Venable denied Sam Antonacci that chance Wednesday night. Well, yesterday, Antonacci batted in the bottom of the eleventh and hit a ball that all but ate undressed baseman Ben Rice. Somehow, Rice kept the ball in front of him, denying Antonacci the walk-off hjit; instead, it turned into an infield single that helped set the stage for Peters. My point is, Antonacci was ready. I just hope Venable is tonight managing in St. Petersburg

I Should Be Happy, But—

The White Sox put themselves in a 4-0, first inning hole last night that Yankees’ starter Cam Schlitter only deepened by retiring seventeen of the first eighteen batters he faced. Then something happened. The Sox rallied to win 6-5 in twelve innings, thanks to a flare of a single off the bat of Edgar Quero. Still. The Sox tied the score at four with back-to-back homeruns from Sam Antonacci and Munetaka Murakami in the eighth. Two innings later, with a chance to win the game with a runner on third and one out, manager Vibes Venable pinch-hit for Antonacci to get a righty-lefty advantage. The move didn’t work as Randal Grichuk grounded out with the infield drawn in. Antonacci is hitting .200 against lefties, .300 against righties. The next batter, Murakami, is 195 against lefties and .260 vs. righties. But Venable didn’t pinch-hit for Murakami. Baseball is a game of emotions, as evidenced by Davis Martin’s performance. Martin gave up three hits and a walk in that first inning, only to settle down and throw five shutout innings during which time he scattered two singles and a walk. Good for him. Now I wonder, what happened? Odds are he channeled those emotions into an effective performance. Which was what Antonacci did with that homerun in the eighth, going 0-for-3 in his previous at-bats. Do you think that would’ve stopped all of a sudden because of the pitching matchup? We’ll never know. And neither will Venable.

Patience

It’s hard to be patient after enduring three straight seasons of the White Sox losing 100-plus games a year. Finally, they’re winning more than losing, and I want more. But how realistic is that? Nobody expected the Sox to be four games over .500 at the end of July. I could make an argument there isn’t one set position outside of right field, where Braden Montgomery plays. And yet a bunch of guys who may or may not be on the South Side have their team in first place in the AL Central, this despite losing again to the Yankees last night, 3-2. The game was not as close as the score might indicate. That’s because the Sox were shut out for 8.2 innings, when Chase Meidroth—keep at second, move to another position or trade?—hit a two-run homerun, bringing up Everson Pereira as a last hope. Need I say more? Anthony Kay had one bad inning that proved baseball truly is a game of inches. Tristan Peters almost made a great catch crashing into the wall in center field, Max Schuemann bounced a ball over a drawn-in infield. Instead of zero runs, it’s three runs. And, if the middle of the order doesn’t produce…Well, I’ve said enough about that. So, I’ll try to be patient and cross my fingers that the Sox can go last-to-first. But it would be silly to expect them to.

Blah

Where to start? Noah Schultz squandering a three-run lead? White Sox relievers coughing up six runs? Third-base coach Justin Jirschele sending a hobbled Colson Montgomery home on a throw that beat him, oh, by a good ten feet? Take your pick. It all adds up to a 9-5 loss to the Yankees. We’ll start with Schultz, who told reporters after the game he was “a little gassed out” by the time manager Vibes Venable pulled him in the top of the fourth inning. [story today on team website] So, how does a 22-year starter old get “gassed” if he only goes 3.1 innings? Oh, that’s right. He needed 72 pitches to get there. Not good, but a real incentive to find an alternative to Schultz the next time his turn comes up in the rotation. Hello, David Sandlin. As for the relief pitching, it’s always a crapshoot unless the stars align, the way they did in 2005. All a manager can do is juggle his streaky pitchers with his lockdown ones, trying to exploit the good streaks while minimizing the bad stretches and at the same time not burn out his go-to guys. In my book, Venable did everything right last night. He didn’t wait around for Schultz to implode and tried to get the right matchups with the relievers he brought in. It’s just that Chis Murphy, Bryan Hudson and Sean Newcomb looked intent on streaking the wrong way. As for Jirschele, stupid is as stupid does. Philosopher Gump knew that, and so did Barack Obama. The next time he gets a chance, the Sox third-base should look up exactly what the ex-President say about that.

A Day to Remember

We accompanied our grandson to his first-ever White Sox game yesterday afternoon, and I think he enjoyed himself in all the ways a kid should on such an august occasion. I mean, he wore a Munetaka Murakami shirt in honor of his favorite player; scored a Murakami bobblehead; and watched his hero hit a homerun in a 12-3 Sox romp. Leo missed Mune’s second homer of the day in the eighth inning, by which time he was asleep in the car on the way home. I saw it for him. Thank you, Erick Fedde for providing the perfect argument against spending big on a closer. Closers can’t close when there’s no lead to close on. And Fedde kept putting his team in the hole giving up the lead when given it. The desperation fourth—or fifth—starter gave up a leadoff homer to Jeremy Pena in the first, then let the Astros tie the game at two and three before manager Vibes Venable saw fit to pull him with one out in the fifth and one on. That’s three runs in 4.1 innings of work, for anyone keeping stats out there. If the Sox want to build something special, they need a minimum of two more quality starters. You rarely get those at the trade deadline, and never on the cheap. No, you’re better off to develop them; sign them as free agents; or swing big trades for them in the offseason. Right now, GM Chris Getz would be best off improving his roster around the edges and going with the team he constructed during spring training.

Tell Me

Tell me why White Sox GM Chris Getz would raid his minor-league system for closer Mason Miller? What good’s a closer if your team keeps losing games in the sixth inning? The Sox did it Friday night, giving up eight runs to the visiting Astros, and again last night, when they coughed up a more modest three in a 4-1 loss. It might’ve been different had Sean Burke not hit the leadoff batter that inning or if Colson Montgomery had made a nice play on the grounder his way by the next batter (Jeremy Pena) and started a double play or Braden Montgomery hadn’t let a ball get by him in right field with the bases loaded. But all that happened, along with next to no hitting from the Sox. So, repeating myself as I do, let me say that, if the heart of the order doesn’t produce, all the lockdown closers in the world won’t matter. And the two-through-five hitters last night went a collective 3-for-15 with six strikeouts and one lonely RBI.