Just when I was ready to label the White Sox starting rotation as the worst I've seen on the South Side in my lifetime, Sox pitchers came up with two outstanding starts.
Ivan Nova (1-3) went seven innings of one-run ball Monday to pick up his first victory as a member of the Sox, as the South Siders roughed up Cleveland's Trevor Bauer in a 9-1 win.
The veteran right-hander allowed eight hits, but walked only one while striking out five. Even with the quality start, his season ERA is at 7.04.
On Tuesday, Lucas Giolito (3-1) backed that up with perhaps the best start he's had since he joined the Sox. He tossed 7.1 innings of shutout ball in a 2-0 victory, allowing three hits and three walks with eight strikeouts.
Remarkably Giolito threw only four breaking balls among his 105 pitches. He threw 67 fastballs and 34 changeups, and since the Indians never solved that two-pitch combination, he wisely stuck with it.
Nevertheless, this Sox rotation of Nova, Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Manny Banuelos and Dylan Covey is not going to intimidate anyone.
Entering Wednesday's action, the Sox's team ERA was 5.35, and the starting rotation had posted only 11 quality starts in 34 games. Against that backdrop, it's remarkable the Sox won 16 of those first 34 games.
Going back through my lifetime, I was trying to think of another Sox rotation that looked as leaky as this one does. The one that stood in my mind was the 1998 team, which finished the season with a 5.22 ERA.
That Sox club managed to go 80-82, but that was a team with a excellent offense. Albert Belle rewrote the franchise record book, and the lineup also featured Frank Thomas, Robin Ventura, Ray Durham and Magglio Ordonez.
But the starting pitching, oh boy, it was bad. Here's a look at the numbers for Sox pitchers who made 15 starts or more in 1998:
Mike Sirotka: 14-15, 5.06 ERA, 1.427 WHIP in 33 starts
Jaime Navarro: 8-16, 6.36 ERA, 1.737 WHIP in 37 games (27 starts)
James Baldwin: 13-6, 5.32 ERA, 1.484 WHIP in 37 games (24 starts)
Jim Parque: 7-5, 5.10 ERA, 1.628 WHIP in 21 starts
Scott Eyre: 3-8, 5.38 ERA, 1.664 WHIP in 33 games (17 starts)
Jason Bere: 3-7, 6.45 ERA, 1.865 WHIP in 18 games (15 starts)
Yeah, so that's the low bar this Sox rotation has to clear. You could say they should sign Dallas Keuchel (or maybe even James Shields). You could say they should bring up Dylan Cease, but there's no indication any of that is going to happen, so why bother discussing it?
By way of comparison, here are the numbers the Sox rotation is putting up (through Tuesday):
Nova: 1-3, 7.04 ERA, 1.696 WHIP in seven starts
Giolito: 3-1, 4.06 ERA, 1.290 WHIP in six starts
Lopez: 2-4, 6.69 ERA, 1.761 WHIP in seven starts
Banuelos: 2-1, 5.96 ERA, 1.676 WHIP in seven games (three starts)
Covey: 0-1, 4.50 ERA, 2.000 WHIP in three games (one start)
There are still 128 games to get through this season ...
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