When It Rains...

For reasons that escape me, the White Sox are enamored of infielder Curtis Mead, acquired in the trade for pitcher Adrian Houser. Mead is 14-for-56 with his new team, thirteen of those hits being singles. And yet he plays over the likes of Tim Elko and Bryan Ramos. In the fifth inning last night, Mead airmailed a throw from third base that took his first baseman into the path of runner Aaron Judge trying to beat out a grounder Mead’s way. The first baseman happened to be Miguel Vargas, who’d hit his first career grand slam in the second inning. Maybe Vargas doesn’t have a broken wrist or even a sprained one. And maybe Luis Robert Jr. will come back from his hamstring injury before the end of the season, and maybe Colson Montgomery’s aching left side will allow him to play tonight. And maybe the bullpen won’t give up six runs like it did last night in a 10-4 Yankees’ win. And maybe New-Mickey Venable will stop managing scared. But I have my doubts.

Stupid Is...

Pitching Aaron Civale, who fell apart in the fifth inning last night against the Royals, giving up five runs; Civale is now 2-7 with a 5.37 ERA in thirteen starts with the White Sox. Or then relieving Civale with Tyler Gilbert, who proceeded to give up six runs in .1 inning of work. Or then pitching Mike Vasil for two innings with the score 11-1 Kansas City. Talk about the return of Mickey Mouse. Sox manager New-Mickey Venable didn’t see fit to use Vasil—now with a 2.38 ERA—in the eighth inning Tuesday night with the Sox up 4-0 but wastes him the next night down by ten runs. And with the Yankees coming to down tonight, Venable should’ve gone with Vasil Tuesday and rested him yesterday. Stupid is as stupid does. Royals 12 Sox 1.

Crash and Burn

Last night, White Sox starter Martin Perez threw seven innings of one-hit shutout ball against the Royals; he left with a 4-0 lead the bullpen turned into a 5-4 loss. Somebody needs to teach manager New-Mickey Venable how to handle a pen. You know who Venable brought in to start the eighth, right? Good ol’ Jordan Leausre, who needed 26 pitches to record two outs. Unfortunately, Leasure also gave up two singles and a walk. Enter Grant Taylor. A two-run single by Maikel Garcia followed shortly thereafter. Back out for the ninth, Taylor loaded the bases on three singles, one out. Venable then switched to lefty Tyler Alexander, who promptly gave up a two-run single to lefthand-hitting Michael Massey. Wait, there’s more. Alexander then hit lefthand-hitting Adam Frazier to load the bases. Still more. Alexander then gave the go-ahead single to Kyle Isbel on a 1-2 count. So, Alexander failed to get out any of the three lefty hitters he faced. Way. To. Go. Colson Montgomery hit a homerun in his fourth consecutive game, and Kyle Teel collected three more hits. None of it mattered, though, because Venable didn’t know which pitcher to put in when.

As Simple as One, Two, Three

The White Sox won their third straight game last night, 7-0 against the visiting Royals. You guessed it, they followed that can’t-lose recipe of pitching, hitting and defense. Starter Shane Smith looked like the pitcher he was the first 2-1/2 months of the season, throwing seven shutout innings, allowing just one hit and a walk. Simply put, Smith attacked, with 21 first-pitch strikes against the 23 KC batters he faced. He also struck out three, which means his performance was double old-school. In other words, Smith induced weak contact his defense was able to handle for outs. I’ve been on the fence all year about Miguel Vargas, and still am. I’ll jump on the bandwagon if he can add fourteen points to his batting average and end the season at .250. But I will say this regardless—the man hustles out of the box. That mentality turned two singles into two doubles. More, please. What do you do with a problem like Lenyn Sosa? Enjoy him, if only in the short term. Last night, Sosa went 2-fpr-4 with two run-scoring singles, giving him 59 RBIs on the season. And to think that two years ago, he looked utterly lost at the plate. More recently, Brooks Baldwin did too, until the end of July, Since then, he’s added 21 points to his batting average, which is what going 17-for-56 in August will do. Last night, Baldwin followed Korey Lee’s two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth with a solo shot of his own. Wait, there’s more. Playing left field in the top of the fifth, Balwin raced into foul territory to retire Adam Frazier on a sliding, cleats-into-the-wall catch. More, please, even though you can never get enough of that kind of thing.

Ask and You Shall Receive

Holy-moly, the White Sox did it for two straight games, employing pitching, hitting and defense to take the rubber game against the Twins, 8-0. Kyle Teel had three singles and two RBIs as the DH while Edgar Quero did the catching, and some hitting of his own, with two singles and three RBIs. And then we have the curious/hopeful case of Colson Montgomery, who missed his chance at hitting grand slams in two consecutive games when he flied out to right field with the bases loaded in the bottom of the first. Did I mentioned Montgomery hit a two-run homerun in the second? Luis Robert Jr. collected a single and run scored, which was OK, but his defense, oh my. Robert made two run-denying, diving catches. The one in the fifth inning was especially impressive, as he raced hard into left-center to make a backhand grab. Are you going to be able to replace this level of defense, Chris Getz? Think long and hard before you move this guy, who finally seems comfortable with the team around him. Starter Yoendrys Gomez also seemed comfortable, throwing 4.2 innings of shutout ball for what would’ve been his third win for the Sox, who picked up the 25-year old righthander on waivers from the Dodgers back in May. Other pitchers find success by switching from starting to relieving; Gomez is trying to go in the opposite direction. The Sox have won all three games he’s started. Why isn’t he 3-0 for his new team? No one knows because no one asked manager New-Mickey Venable on why he pulled Gomez, one out short of qualifying for the win. Gomez didn’t mention an injury in his postgame comments, and Venable didn’t say anything, either. God bless Ozzie Guillen for calling out the Sox beat writers for not asking Venable to explain. You gotta love the guy.

A Simple Formula

Pitching, hitting, defense—do that, and you win games. White Sox 7 Twins 3. Davis Martin had another pretty good start, pitching five innings of two-run ball. For once, the bullpen didn’t collapse, and the defense avoided making any errors while turning a double play. Davis aided his cause by scattering five hits and walking one Twin while striking out six. He also picked a runner off of first. More, please. Ditto the hitting, where Colson Montgomery went 2-for-4 with a grand slam. Miguel Vargas chipped in with a double, a run and an RBI on a 2-for-3 night, a performance slightly better than The Enigma’s. Luis Robert Jr. went 2-for-4 with a solo shot and his 33rd stolen base of the year. Why can’t they play like this all the time? I guess that’s like asking, who wrote the book of love?

Better Late than Never

Well, the White Sox finally got around to DFAing Josh Rojas, he of the .180 BA in 189 at-bats. Maybe next, GM Chris Getz will clean house with the pitching staff. Nothing says “loss” like Aaron Civale walking two Twins before giving up a grand slam with two outs in the fourth inning to Royce Lewis or Brandon Eisert allowing two runs in an inning of “work.” Twins 9 Sox 7. The good news, I guess, is the hitting returned. Kyle Teel went 2-for-4 with an RBI and run scored while Lenyn Sosa had two hits and two RBIs, as did Colson Montgomery, who scored two runs on a double and two-run homer. So goes Montgomery, so goes the rebuild. That and the pitching.