Better Late than Never

Better Late than Never

The White Sox opened the season in April on the road with three losses to the Royals.  Yesterday afternoon, almost five months to the day later, they finished a three-game sweep of KC, again on the road.  Go figure.  The Sox have a slightly better than mathematical shot at a wildcard sport, but I refuse to jinx it by looking.

The winning pitcher was Erik Johnson.  Two years ago, Johnson had an impressive September, going 3-2 with a 3.25 ERA, good enough to secure the 23-year old righty a spot in next year’s pitching rotation.  That lasted for all of a month in 2014.  Every time he pitched, Johnson looked to be sweating bullets on the mound, which could explain the 6.46 ERA.  This season he was named the International League’s most valuable pitcher, an honor that puts him back to where he was in September 2013.

Johnson had an interesting start, giving up three runs in six innings, all the runs scoring on solo homers.  Then we have the last out in the sixth inning, when Alex Gordon’s bat shattered, with the barrel hitting Johnson in his left, non-pitching, forearm.  This had better stop, or someone will get killed.  I don’t want to hear an aluminum “ping” or a composite “thwack,” but that’s going to happen unless MLB gets serious about the science behind better wooden bats: better design, better wood grains, better understanding of why and when bats shatter.  And get started now, if not sooner, as one of my eighth-grade teachers used to say.