Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Doubleheader loss highlights White Sox' pitching holes, questionable management

From 2009 to 2012, there were many times I heard White Sox fans wish for the front office to "blow up" the team's veteran core and start a rebuilding process. My response to those comments was often along the lines of "Be careful what you wish for."

Rebuilding is a hard and oftentimes frustrating process, and Sox fans are learning that this season. It's difficult, because even in a year where you know your team is not going to make the playoffs, you'd like to at least have hope that your team can win the next game on its schedule. But during a rebuilding year, that hope is not always present. There are certain days where you just know your team has little or no chance at victory.

For me, Tuesday was one of those days. The White Sox were scheduled to take on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in a doubleheader at U.S. Cellular Field. Normally, a fan gets excited about 18 innings of baseball in a day, but one look at the pitching matchups for this twinbill was enough to make a Sox fan hold his head in despair.

The Angels, who currently lead the wild card standings in the American League, were throwing their top two pitchers -- Garrett Richards and Jered Weaver. The Sox were countering with their No. 4 and No. 5 starters, two guys who are lucky to be in the big leagues in Hector Noesi and Scott Carroll.

It was impossible to escape the nagging feeling that the Sox were destined to absorb a pounding in this doubleheader. And, indeed, both Noesi and Carroll pitched poorly. The Angels swept the twinbill by 8-4 and 7-5 scores.

Noesi was handed a 3-0 lead in the first inning after Jose Abreu connected for his 26th home run of the season, but he couldn't hold it. In fact, Noesi embarrassed himself and the team by walking seven men in 5-plus innings. He allowed five earned runs. Meanwhile, Richards settled in and gave his team eight quality innings, and the Sox never had much of a prayer -- despite the promising start.

The good news for the Sox was they only had to use two relief pitchers -- Ronald Belisario and Daniel Webb -- to eat up the last four innings of the game. Given the circumstances, it could have been worse, and the Sox' bullpen was still in relatively good shape going into the nightcap.

As expected, Carroll struggled in Game 2. He gave up three runs in the second inning to put the Sox in an early hole, and by the sixth inning, the Angels were out to a seemingly comfortable 6-2 lead. However, the Sox fought back with three runs in the bottom half of that inning. Dayan Viciedo's two-run homer cut the deficit to 6-5. The Sox had the potential tying run on third base and the potential go-ahead run on first before the Angels escaped the inning.

Weaver had entered Tuesday's contest with an 8-2 record and a lifetime 1.70 ERA against Chicago. On this day, the Sox touched him up for five runs over 5.2 innings. That's good offensive production against a quality, top-of-the-rotation pitcher.

Going into the seventh inning, the Sox trailed by just one run, and I figured they would take Carroll out of the game. None of their three best relievers -- Jake Petricka, Javy Guerra or Zach Putnam -- had pitched in Game 1. All were rested and ready.

Alas, Carroll was inexplicably allowed to start the seventh inning. No, his pitch count wasn't high. He hadn't reached 80 pitches yet. But, he hadn't been effective, and the top of the Los Angeles batting order was due up.

Naturally, Carroll walked Kole Calhoun and Mike Trout back-to-back to start the inning. Finally, Petricka was summoned from the bullpen. He allowed one inherited runner to score before extricating the Sox from a bases-loaded mess, and the damage was done. The Angels had scored an insurance run, and the good vibes from the three-run rally the Sox had the previous inning were snuffed. Los Angeles had little difficulty closing out the win from there.

You see, it's hard enough to win when you only have three legitimate major league starting pitchers on your roster. The Sox came into Tuesday on a three-game winning streak, because Chris Sale, Jose Quintana and John Danks had all won their most recent starts against the Toronto Blue Jays over the weekend.

But when Noesi, or Carroll, or Andre Rienzo take the mound, this team is asking way too much of its offense. You can't expect to be consistently competitive when you send bums like these to the mound.

The problem is made even worse when the manager and the pitching coach continually push their luck, trying to coax one more inning out of a struggling starting pitcher who hasn't earned the right to be out there. Would the Sox have won Game 2 had Carroll been pulled after six innings? Probably not, but it doesn't take a genius to see they would have had a better chance had Petricka been allowed to start his own inning in the seventh.

That's what being a manager is all about -- giving your team the best chance to win. Robin Ventura and Don Cooper should have been happy Carroll got through six innings, given the subpar stuff he was featuring. Instead, they got greedy and asked him to try to get through seven. It wasn't happening, and as a fan, bad management only adds to the frustration of having to watch a pitching staff full of gaping holes.

4 comments:

  1. My concern before the season started was that the Sox had cut the pitching wayyyy too thin after the departures of Peavy, Santiago, Reed, Thornton, Crain, Floyd, Buehrle, and Santos over the past three years. (You could throw Jackson and Liriano in there, too, if you wanted to push the point.)

    I understand the organization had to move some arms to restock positional talent, but, good Lord, somebody has to throw these innings. Coop is good, but he doesn't walk on water. Signing a journeyman starter or two wouldn't have been a bad move. The Sox are actually rather fortunate that Danks has rebounded a bit.

    I can honestly say that yesterday's pitching matchups discouraged me from attending the game. I had the opportunity, but after considering the scenario of Noesi and Carroll against the Angels' offense, it projected as a long night at the Cell.

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    1. I also could've gone to the doubleheader, but like you, was deterred from doing so because of the pitching match-ups. Why would I voluntarily drive in from the northwest suburbs on a highway that's under construction, sit in traffic heading into the city (where there was also a World Cup viewing party taking place en route to Comiskey Park), and pay $50 before even walking into the ballpark (a ticket and parking) to see the hot garbage that was on display yesterday afternoon and evening? It's really sad because I love baseball and the Sox, so you'd think a straight doubleheader on a beautiful night would've appealed to me. But with the way this team has been looking, I had better things to do with my time, money, and the gas in my car.

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    2. It would be interesting to know how many fans are deterred from going to the game because they know Noesi is pitching, or Carroll is pitching, and they don't want to put up with 3 1/2 hours of crap.

      The main problem with Sox attendance, of course, is the diminished season ticket base, but I'm sure the knowledge that a Triple-A pitcher is on the mound doesn't help the walk-up sales.

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  2. The regression of Erik Johnson is something we probably haven't discussed enough here. His struggles have really hurt the Sox, because I think they thought he was big-league ready after the season he had last year. It hasn't turned out that way. He failed to stick at the start of the season, and he's continued to struggle with reduced velocity and walks at Triple-A. I'm not sure we're going to see him again in Chicago this year with the way he's pitched.

    If he had stuck in the rotation, then you'd have four starters, and the Sox would just have to mix and match with Noesi/Rienzo/Carroll in the fifth spot. You'd still have the potential for ugly every fifth day, but obviously, one hole is easier to patch than two, and right now the Sox have two glaring holes in the rotation.

    The Felipe Paulino gambit was a miserable fail, and the Tommy Hanson signing hasn't worked out either. Neither of those two things is shocking. Most reclamation projects don't work out, but I think they were caught by surprise by Johnson's issues. That's left them in a tough spot right now.

    You're right: Somebody has to throw these innings, and there aren't a lot of good options.

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