Time Well Spent

Well, if you’re going to spend most of an evening, four hours and two minutes to be exact, going back and forth between watching a ballgame and reading the paper, you could do worse than last night’s 12-11 White Sox win over the Tigers, decided on a walk-off homerun in the bottom of the ninth by the flipper in chief, Sox shortstop Tim Anderson.  Considering that the home team was down 8-1 going into the bottom of the fourth inning, it was a pretty satisfying result.

 

Unlike the performance of that lefty enigma, Carlos Rodon, who yielded eight runs (all earned) on nine hits and three walks in three innings; don’t let me forget the three homeruns Rodon coughed up, either.  Speaking after the game on the team website, Rodon said of Sox starters “Recently, we have not been good.  I hope to see us improve.”  Me, too.  The 5.68 team ERA rates as the third worst in baseball.

 

As it is, Rodon wins the “James Shields crappy pitching can hurt a teammate” award.  On homerun #3, rookie left fielder Eloy Jimenez crashed into the fence and had to be helped off the field with what was termed a sprained ankle; we can only hope it’s not worse.  If it is, Charlie Tilson, winner of the initial Shields Award, can tell Jimenez what it’s like to lose a chunk of playing time chasing after an extra-base hit.  Come to think of it, that happened against the Tigers, too, back in 2016.

 

Something I’d never seen before, a homerun that turned into an out, occurred in the bottom of the seventh inning, when Jose Abreu hit what looked to be a three-run shot.  Only, somehow, he passed up Anderson on the base paths.  Abreu took full blame for the mix up.  I say he could’ve shared it with Anderson.  Both should have been paying attention.

At least this bat flip coincided with the game winner.