Time is on Their Side

The White Sox managed to beat the Tigers 4-3 at home last night while collecting all of three hits (to Detroit’s five); Eloy Jimenez’s three-run homer in the sixth may have had something to do with it. Thank you, Cubs. I’m sure Jose Quintana will be getting off the IL any day now to stabilize your starting staff. Speaking of the North Siders, they lost to the Brewers last night 1-0 up in Milwaukee; the Cubs managed two hits to the Brewers’ four. Will someone please tell me how a game with six hits and three walks total can take two hours and fifty minutes to play? A major factor is that Cubs’ batters struck out sixteen times, the inevitable consequence of going for the launch angle (but missing time and again). Every strikeout lengthens a game to the point, I fear, that fans will start to turn away. And don’t give me any crap about this being some sort of worthwhile tradeoff. The Cubs lead all of baseball in striking out while ranking sixteenth in homeruns. At least with the Sox, ranking seventh in strikeouts goes with being fourth in homeruns. So, am I arguing against myself? Not at all. Eloy’s homerun would have been meaningless without the walk, double and hit-by-pitch that preceded it, along with an RBI-producing groundout. Little ball makes big ball possible. Everything else is just exit velocity.