Not Overly Excited

Yesterday, the White Sox swept a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium for the first time in nearly twenty-seven years. Anytime you make New Yorkers unhappy is a good day, but it could’ve been better. Yet again, this was a team winning despite, not because of, its manager. Ahab, as is his wont, made things hard on everyone involved. Tim Anderson didn‘t play the first game, and Andrew Vaughn only pinch hit (his run-scoring walk followed by batting eighth in game two). A.J. Pollock and Adam Engel, each with ninth-inning RBIs that led to a 3-1 victory in game one, also didn’t start in game two. But Yoan Moncada started both games, going 1-for-5 batting leadoff in the first game and 0-for-5 batting second in game two. Moncada is now hitting .176 in fifty-one at-bats, with four RBIs and two walks against sixteen strikeouts. How low will he go? Vaughn, the yo-yo in the batting order, drove in the first run of the second game, this in the eighth inning, and he was onboard for Tim Anderson’s three-run homer for all the Yankee Stadium boo-birds and Josh Donaldson to enjoy. A day after going at it with Donaldson over some Jackie Robinson business (Donaldson referring to Anderson as Robinson), the White Sox shortstop responded with three hits and that homer. Good. Good, also, the pitching. Johnny Cueto pitched six scoreless innings in the first game, Michael Kopech seven scoreless in the second for his first win of the season, 5-0. What happens to Cueto when Lance Lynn comes back? Maybe a better question is, What happens to Dallas Keuchel? There’s a good argument to be made that Keuchel was all that stood between the Sox and a Bronx sweep. There’s also a good argument to be made against resting young players in May and for employing a set lineup, which La Russa refuses to, outside of Moncada, it seems. Clare put it best when we were talking on the phone last night, “It’s like travel ball, where the coach says, ‘You’re playing. I’m tired of your dad yelling at me.’” In other words, anything can change at any time for the dumbest of reasons. The Sox find themselves four games behind the Twins, who had no problem going into Kansas City and sweeping the Royals. That’s why I’m not overly excited at taking two in the House that Ben Chapman and Josh Donaldson built.