Baker's Dozen

Another game, another lead, another loss. Reliever Michael Soroka gave up three earned runs in the seventh inning on zero hits. That’s what two walks; a balk; a hit-by-pitch; and a wild pitch can do, if you put your mind to it and also have Jared Shuster following you out of the pen. And let’s not forget Michael Kopech, who came into a tied game to start the bottom of the ninth. Two pitches later and Mike Tauchman had himself a walk-off homerun. Cubs 7 White Sox 6. That’s thirteen in a row for the Sox, tying the longest losing streak in team history. It’s the first time in a hundred years, folks. But never fear, manager Mickey Mouse is here to swat away all the dark thoughts. Mouse told reporters after this latest defeat, “Obviously this is a rivalry. And to take a 5-0 lead and a 5-1 lead and not be able to finish it is frustrating. But again, there’s no way in hell there’s blame to anybody here, especially when we are all giving the effort that this clubhouse is giving every single day to win baseball games.” [quote from today’s story on team website] No blame? Not for a balk, a hit-by-pitch, a wild pitch, a gopher ball with the game on the line? Maybe Mouse meant to say we’re all in hell watching this godawful mess. Whatever. Tonight, Mouse and the boys go after loss number fourteen. We’re talking history here.

Twelve the Hard Way

Mickey and his boys must be exhausted from their game last night in Wrigley Field. Not only did they blow an early 5-0 advantage, they coughed up the lead again in the bottom of the eighth for a 7-6 loss, their twelfth straight and one short of tying the franchise record. The less said the better here. I’ll just note my daughter called at 9:30 PM to point out that two trips to the mound in the sixth inning were followed two two-run Cubs’ homeruns. “I mean, what did they talk about? Obviously, it didn’t work.” To which I replied in my “don’t worry be happy way” that this will get us that much closer to a new manager. Speaking of the future ex-manager, this is what he told reporters after the game: “Our guys really battled out there, great environment. We’ve got to close these things out.” [quote in today’s Sun-Times] Excuse me, Mick, but your guys spit the bit, twice. Before the game, speedster Duke Ellis was called up from Double-A Birmingham, where he had 34 stolen bases in 35 attempts. Mouse used Ellis to run in the top of the ninth after Oscar Colas walked for catcher Martin Maldonado. (Did I mention Mouse had Koey Lee DH’ing, which would’ve cost the Sox the DH had they tied the score or gone ahead?) Ellis stole second only to get picked off with Corey Julks up. Here's manager Polly Positive on the play: “He’s here to help us win, and he’s going to learn from this.” Or not.

The Making of an Athlete

Two months shy of his third birthday, my grandson can hit a ball off a tee with authority, thanks to his mother. Considering Clare has been pregnant with her second child since January, that’s no small feat. Leo will stand there and hit until he feels the need to shout “Homerun!” and run to the alley, after which he may turn the bat into a croquet mallet and start hitting the ball that way. Either way, he hits ball hard. Clare is forever working on his stance; for the longest time, he would crowd himself, with the result being the tee would go as far as the ball when he hit it. That’s no longer a problem. During the winter and spring, Clare and Chris took Leo to Saturday park district stuff for the wee people. One of the works saw Leo throw and said, “Your dad must be working with you,” to which Chris said, “No, it’s his mom.” In their household, different parents teach different sports. When he sees a picture of Clare playing in high school or college, Leo will say, “That’s mommy playing baseball.” He says the same of players in the NCAA Softball World Series. At some point, he’ll learn girls play a different game. But his mother will keep teaching him how to hit.

Losing It

White Sox manager Mickey Mouse has lost control of his team, assuming he ever had any. Yesterday’s eighth inning in Milwaukee confirmed it. The Sox were down 4-3, with two runners on and nobody out when a pitch from Brewers’ reliever Enoli Paredes eluded catcher William Contreras, who recovered in time to throw out pinch runner Zach Remillard at third. If Nicky Lopez had been able to lay down a bunt, it would’ve been runners on second and third with one out. Instead, Lopez doubled, to put runners on second and third with one out. Good luck and bad. The good part is obvious, the bad part that the ball bounced over the right field wall for a ground-rule double; another couple of inches and Lopez has an RBI triple. Also, there’s now one out. Next up, Corey Julks, who hit a fly to short left field. Christian Yelich nailed baserunner Tommy Pham by a good three to four feet. Sox go on to lose, 6-3, their eleventh straight loss. After the game, Pham told reporters, “It was a shallow flyball to left field. You would expect the left fielder to throw the base runner out on that play. The situation of the game, you know, [the] third base coach sends you, you’ve got to go. I’m nailed out at home, by a mile.” [quote from story in today’s Tribune] Hmm. In one sense, Pham was saying Paredes and Contreras were celebrating like it was the final out in the seventh game of the world series instead of a play that defines a terrible ballclub. But he also implied—strongly, at least to me—that third base coach Eddie Rodriguez blew it. That’s two outs on the basepaths in one inning, not to be confused with the four outs Osacr Colas made replacing Andrew Benintendi, who was put on the 10-day IL with tendonitis in his left Achilles. Before the game, Mouse told Colas this was an opportunity he needed to seize. Two strikeouts and two groundouts. A textbook performance in oh so many ways.

Counting

Garrett Crochet must be counting down the days to the end of the 2026 season, when he’ll become a free agent because, right now, he’s in pitching hell. The lefty was pulled after pitching six innings yesterday against the Brewers, who managed all of one run on five hits and a walk; Crochet struck out eight, leaving with a 3-1 lead. Enter the bullpen. Long story short, Justin Anderson and Jordan Leasure went walk happy to erase the lead while Michael Kopech lost the game in the tenth. A fitting number, that, because the South Siders have now lost ten in a row to fall to 15-44. That’s one game worse than the ’62 Mets who, despite losing seventeen in a row from May into early June, were still one game better than Mickey Mouse and company. Baby-ant steps, though. I just checked today’s lineup, and Korey Lee will be catching for the second straight game, and Martin Maldonado will be grabbing some bench. Yeah.

Analyze This

Last night, everyone at American Family Field outside of White Sox manager Mickey Mouse knew it was just a matter of time until the visitors found a way to lose their ninth game in a row. And, oh boy, did they find a way. Mickey’s kids were ahead 5-4 going into the bottom of the seventh inning when the Brew Crew hit them with a barrage of six singles and two doubles to take a 10-5 lead. The Sox bullpen, being both very bad and very generous, allowed another two runs in the eighth to complete a 12-5 pasting. Sox pitchers gave up 23 hits, eighteen singles and five doubles. Doing a spot-on impression of a deer caught in the headlights, Mouse told reporters after the game, “We have to look at the video for sure and see where we were, but look at the data and see what happened." [quote from today’s story on team website] A really good team beat a really bad team, that’s what happened. And the losing becomes all the more likely with Mouse at the helm. His infatuation with catcher Martin Maldonado is one for the ages. Maldonado went 0-for-3, dropping his batting average to .079, which is 121 points below the Mendoza Line. Not only that, Mouse has played both his catchers the past two games. Why does that matter? Well, if the game is in the late innings and Maldonado is due up, Mouse all of a sudden wakes up to the reality his catcher isn’t going to get a hit; Maldonado is 0-for-his-last-25. But if you pinch-hit for Maldonado and Korey Lee is already in the game, Lee moving from DH to catcher means the Sox lose the DH. That’s exactly what happened both Wednesday and last night, though, mercifully, the pitcher’s spot never came up. Like the philosopher said, stupid is as stupid does.