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.

A Pulse

Munetaka Murakami and the White Sox both showed a pulse last night at the Rate, beating Detroit 3-1 on a Murakami three-run homer in the first inning, after which pitching and defense dominated. Starter Erick Fedde did the Houdini thing through 4.2 innings. Fedde gave up one run on four hits, two walks and a hit-by-pitch, stranding six Tigers’ baserunners along the way. Smoke, mirrors, guile, Fedde is doing something right. Last night, so did the defense. Left fielder Randal Grichuk saved Fedde a run in the fifth by barehanding a ball off the fence to keep Gleyber Torres to a single; Dillon Dingler followed with what would’ve been a run-scoring double. Grichuk also threw out Spencer Torkelson in the sixth when Torkelson tried to take an extra base on a single. The best play of the night, though, may have belonged to Murakami. With a runner on first and two out in the eighth, Mark Clark hit an infield single, beating the throw from third baseman Miguel Vargas. Brett Callahan, the lead runner, kept going and was called safe at third despite a strong throw across the diamond by Murakami. Sox manager Vibes Venable challenged the call, which was overturned upon review. I should also mention here Murakami collected his first MLB triple in the eighth. Which leads us to the bad news, such as it was. The Sox failed on two chances to score that insurance run. And Grant Taylor was scary. Yes, he went 2.1 innings for the save, but he put the tying runs on in the ninth. Lucky for Taylor that Vargas managed a 5-3 double play, with a tag of the runner going to third coupled with a strong throw to first. Now to see if Murakami can continue hitting—and if Braden Montgomery can break out of his slump. Montgomery went 0-for-3 batting ninth last night. The rookie has got to hit for his team to advance.

Sowing and Reaping

The White Sox were hanging on to a 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning against the Guardians in their rubber match yesterday afternoon. That’s when Sox manager Vibes Venable brought in Sean Newcomb in relief of Hagen Smith, two on and two out. Newcomb served up a three-run homerun to rookie Petey Halpin, who came into the game batting .210. So much for the lefty-lefty advantage that should’ve broken Newcomb’s way. Wait, there’s more. Newcomb walked the next two batters before giving up a run-scoring double to Jose Ramirez. The line on Newcomb read four batters faced; two walks; two extra-base hits; two inherited runners scoring; and two runs allowed. What happened? Newcomb said after the game, “I haven’t been myself. Just not being super crisp, hitters being more in tune with what I’m doing.” [today’s Sun-Times] Gosh, do you think Newcomb is a little gassed from pitching 10.2 innings in six appearances as an opener? Perish the thought. Damn’ the torpedoes, full closers ahead! It seems Hagen Smith was gassed, too, trying to go two innings again. Maybe instead of pulling Anthony Kay after four, Venable should’ve seen how long his starter could go. If Chase Meidroth hadn’t committed an error trying to make a tag in the third, Kay would’ve gone four scoreless innings. If Venable was going to roll the dice on Smith (he allowed the move was “debatable”), it should’ve been back on Sunday, against Alec Burleson in St. Louis. But what do I know? I think dropping two of three in Cleveland makes it hard, if not impossible, to win the division. Not Venable, who told reporters after the game, “We knew that this series wasn’t going to define the rest of the year for us. Giving up the division lead, everybody will feel how they feel about it. But I’m proud of the guys and I think we’re in a good spot moving forward.” [from today’s story on team website] Proud of a team that lost a crucial, even defining, series? Not my bowl of word salad.