He Got That Right

Today, Michele and I were out of the house pretty early to hit the lakefront. If you haven’t walked it, you have no idea what you’re missing. Think the color blue, sky and water, with a cool breeze. At one point, a couple passed us walking in the opposite direction. “It’s iconic,” the man said in a distinct British accent, the first syllable more “oi” than “i.” Either way, he was right. The number of Sox caps and Cubs’ caps encountered were pretty much even with just one or two sad Bears’ caps begging for attention. A number of years ago, billionaire Ken Griffin paid to separate wheel from foot traffic wherever possible along the path. This kept encounters with bikes, pedal- and e-powered alike, to a minimum. Ditto those lunatics on their motorized wheels. Why is it that roller skaters are attracted to me like magnets? Our reward for walking eight miles is lunch at the Clocktower Café, which serves as the nineteenth hole for the public Sydney R. Marovitz Golf Course. We ate on the terrace, where netting protects patrons from any errant golf balls. I recommend the hamburger or brat. And say Hello to Charlie, one of nicest dog hosts I’ve ever met. She’ll make sure you go home without any ketchup or juice on your fingers.

Devo, Houdini

To quote the best group that ever came out of Akron, Ohio, how long can this go on? How often can Erick Fedde get away with his Houdini act? Yesterday in soggy Cleveland, Fedde did Fedde—putting runners on, minimizing the damage—over 5.1 innings to earn the win as the “bulk” pitcher in a 7-6 contest. The veteran righthander was charged with three runs, two earned, and might’ve given up just one run if Colson Montgomery hadn’t misplayed a sure double-play grounder. But eight hits and a walk. How long can this go on? Accentuate the positive, I guess. Kyle Teel homered in the first (then misplayed a foul pop that helped fuel a three-run Guardians’ response in the bottom half of the frame). Montgomery hit a two-run homer while Tristan Peters added a solo shot. The wind cheated Sam Antonacci and Braden Montgomery out of homers good for four runs. Oh, well. Rumor has it Munetaka Murakami could be back by the weekend. I’m less concerned in who the Sox will send down to make room for Murakami than who they should bring up. As in a pitcher, a starter, someone like David Sandlin. Or David Sandlin, even.

Say What?

It’s good to know that my telepathic powers remain strong, even when my subject is playing in a city over 300 miles away. How else to explain Colson Montgomery’s performance in last night’s 3-1 White Sox win over the Guardians? Montgomery hit a run-scoring, opposite-field double in the first and followed that with a solo-shot homerun in the eighth off reliever Tim Herrin (homerun number eight in lefty-on-lefty matchups). Things only got weird in the postgame. That’s when Montgomery noted, “Today, I felt pretty comfortable at the plate. I was more committed to my plan than most days. I feel I’ve been pretty inconsistent with my approach and things like that. Today I just felt pretty committed to my plan.” [today’s online Trib story] Say what? You know you’re not following your planned approach to hitting? Gosh, I made sure my daughter followed hers throughout high school and college. Either pay one of your parents to do the same, Colson, or have a Sox coach remind you. Every game, between innings if necessary. Before I leave and try to figure out how to find today’s game on Peacock, a shoutout to starter Sean Burke (six innings, one run, no walks and eleven strikeouts in six innings) along with relievers Brandon Eisert (two perfect innings) and Grant Taylor (the save with no more drama than facing the tying run after a two-out walk). Now, repeat for the split and a one-game lead in the AL Central.

Second-guessing

I can’t blame White Sox manager Vibes Venable for calling on reliever Seranthony Dominguez last night. Domiunguez was fresh, the Sox were up by two going into the bottom of the seventh, and miracles do happen. But not last night in another walk-off win for the Guardians, 4-3 in ten innings. Dominguez walked two of the three batters he faced, and both those runners scored. Now, though, Venable has to see what’s pretty much obvious to the rest of the baseball world and make Dominguez his thirteenth choice to pitch on any given day. Anything else, and he’s asking for trouble, which is about the only thing Dominguez can deliver on these days. And the White Sox front office may want to think long and hard on whom they want to draft next week. Because I’m down on shortstop Colson Montgomery, big time. Last night, he added two more strikeouts (both called, both hittable, both times Montgomery completely fooled), giving him 111 in 307 at-bats. That comes out to a whiff rate of nearly 34 percent, folks. On top of that, Montgomery has started to get shaky in the field. Last night, he misplayed a two-out groundball deep in the hole hit by Guardians’ catcher Austin Hedges in that fateful seventh inning. A clean pick and Montgomery has a good shot to nail Hedges at first. Why? Because Austin Hedges doesn’t run, he lumbers. Did. Not. Happen. I keep saying the Sox can’t expect to make the postseason unless both Montgomery and Miguel Vargas hit north of .250. Last night, Vargas had two hits, including a three-run homerun, to pull his average up to .248. Montgomery? He went 0-for-4, lowering his average to .218. The Sox will also be hard-pressed to play October baseball with their manager making highly questionable moves, like he did in the tenth last night. With ghost runner Chase Meidroth at second base, Venable elected to go with two righty pinch hitters to face lefty reliever Erik Sabrowski, only Randal Grichuk and Junior Perez both struck out, looking, no less. Ick. Grichuk was hitting for Tristan Peters, who knows how to bunt. Why not let Peters try to move Meidroth to third and then pinch hit Grichuk? Odds are the Guardians would’ve walked Grichuk to set up a lefty-lefty matchup between Sabrowski and Sam Antonacci, who flied out to the warning track to end the inning. That could’ve been a sacrifice fly. But what do I know?

Losing Ugly

Starter Martin Davis walked five and gave up six hits in a paltry 3.1 innings of work last night in Cleveland; Sox pitchers walked nine Guardians on the none, none worse than Grant Taylor’s four-pitch free pass to Rhys Hoskins, forget the righty-righty matchup; Sox relievers frittered away a 5-2 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth; three Sox runners were thrown out on the bases; Taylor yielded a one-out, two-run walk-off homer to Bryan Rocchio. What’s left to say? Other than good teams learn from mistakes, no matter how bad?

No Dice

Noah Schultz had a no-hitter going into the bottom of the fifth. Maybe he would’ve survived if the White Sox had their A-team behind him instead of Luisangel Acuna and Drew Romo trying to pass for Colson Montgomery and Kyle Teel, and maybe if the bullpen had brought it’s A-game instead of letting three inherited runners score. But none of that happened. Orioles 6 Sox 1. The lefthanded Schultz walked four batters, three of them lefties, in 4.1 innings. Not good. Same goes for needing 87 pitches to record thirteen outs. The seven strikeouts were OK+, the 5.86 ERA not so much. Schultz turns 23 next month. Randy Johnson, the pitcher he’s often compared to, wasn’t even in the major leagues until age 24, so I guess in that regard our Johnson is further along. The real Johnson didn‘t have his first above-.500 season until age 26. Three more years of what I saw yesterday? I’d rather things speed up a little. Or a lot. Or David Sandlin gets another look. Or all of the above.

On a Roll

White Sox rookie first baseman Jacob Gonzalez is on a roll. Last night, he collected two doubles among his three hits to go with three RBIs in a Sox 9-3 beatdown of the host Orioles. Gonzalez missed a fourth hit by a foot or so when his flyball in the ninth inning just failed to clear the wall. That’s seventeen RBIs for the 24-year old infielder in 73 at-bats, in case you’re counting. Pitching-wise, Erick Fedde kept putting baserunners on while (kind of) minimizing the damage, with three runs on five hits and three walks in five innings of work. Thank you, rookie reliever Tyler Schweitzer. It would be nice, though, if Noah Schultz stepped up today in his first start off the IL.