Good News, Bad News

Clare texted Michele last night, “Don’t let Dad watch the game.” At the time, I was reading the paper (old-tech, dead tree and all that) and recording the Cubs-White Sox game at Guaranteed Whatever for later, but I did get around to seeing what had my daughter worried—the Cubs scored six first-inning runs off of starter Dallas Keuchel. Thank God for fast-forward. Because that got me to the third inning, when the Sox eight runs and took a lead they never relinquished. All in all, scoring seventeen runs against the Cubs is a joyous thing, marred only by the fact that the opposition pitching was mostly Triple-A caliber. But if Yasmani Grandal wants to celebrate getting off the IL with two homeruns and eight RBIs, who am I to complain? But complain I must, about Sox pitching, outside of the five perfect innings winning pitcher Reynaldo Lopez threw. Is there any doubt that the starter Lopez relieved, Dallas Keuchel, is done? Factor one-plus inning with five earned runs and you come out with Keuchel being 1-4 with a 7.34 ERA in his last seven games; the lefty now sports a 5.00 ERA on the season. Not good. As I expected, manager Tony La Russa spun in the opposite direction, telling reporters afterwards that, sometimes, “it’s just not your day—it happens to all starting pitchers.” Yes and no on that. Tell me when the last time was Keuchel had a day that did go his way. Ditto reliever Craig Kimbrel, who entered in the ninth inning of a 17-10 game. Add the two homers Kimbrel coughed up, and you get the final score of 17-13. That gives him a White Sox ERA of 7.15 in twelve games. Again, not good. At least the Adam Eaton trade keeps on giving. We still have Lucas Giolito along with Lopez. Dane Dunning’s gone, but we got Lance Lynn for him. Lynn starts tonight. Let’s hope he can keep the North Siders from breaking double figures again, unless we’re talking strikeouts, of course.