The White Sox need to stop pitching to Nick Castellanos

Nick Castellanos

2018 Detroit Tigers vs. White Sox: 9-1 (.900 winning percentage)
2018 Detroit Tigers vs. everybody else: 41-68 (.376 winning percentage)

By any measure, the Tigers are not a good baseball team, so their continuing mastery of the Sox is both perplexing and annoying. Yes, the Sox also stink, but they should be able to win more than one of 10 games against a fellow bottom-feeder.

Detroit beat the Sox again Monday, this time 9-5 at Comerica Park. Nick Castellanos led the way for the Tigers, going 5 for 5 with a home run, two doubles and five RBIs.

And, quite frankly, Castellanos' mastery of Sox pitching is the biggest reason the season series is so lopsided.

The Tigers' right fielder has decent overall numbers: .291/.340/.492 with 17 HRs and 64 RBIs. However, a lot of that damage has come against the Sox. He is hitting .419/.457/.814 with four home runs and 14 RBIs in 10 games vs. Chicago.

In other words, 24 percent of Castellanos' home runs and 22 percent of his RBIs have come against the Sox. That's almost a quarter of his season production.

It doesn't have to be this way, either. With the game tied at 3 in the bottom of the fifth inning Monday, Castellanos came to the plate with the go-ahead run on third base and two outs. It was a perfect time to just put him on first base with an intentional walk. Instead, the Sox chose to pitch to him, and he hit a hanging changeup from Sox starter Reynaldo Lopez for a go-ahead double.

Foolish, especially considering the on-deck hitter was Niko Goodrum, he of the .231/.301/.430 slash line. Goodrum was hitless behind Castellanos in Monday's game. He provided no lineup protection whatsoever, but for whatever reason, the Sox allowed Castellanos to beat them again, as opposed to making Goodrum do something at the plate.

The bottom line is the Tigers are not a good offensive team. They rank 14th in the American League with 453 runs scored. That's even worse than the Sox, who are 12th with 467 runs.

Detroit has so few offensive weapons, so as long as Castellanos can be held in check, the Sox should have an opportunity to win games against this Tigers team.

It all seems so simple: Just pitch around Castellanos and make someone else beat you, please.