My first trip to Guaranteed Rate Field in 575 days

For the first time since Sept. 27, 2019, I was at Guaranteed Rate Field on Saturday night. It was nice to unite with friends. It was great to see live baseball, and much to my pleasant surprise, the White Sox aren't making a big stink out of the COVID-19 protocols.

I had visions of ushers crapping on fans all night about masking and social distancing and whatnot, but fortunately, ballpark security is leaving people alone to enjoy a ballgame. And enjoy it we did, as the Sox beat the Texas Rangers, 2-1, as part of a three-game weekend sweep.

The Sox are finally over .500 now at 12-9, and they'll take a four-game winning streak into Monday's off day. The Detroit Tigers come to town Tuesday to start a three-game series.

A few thoughts on each game this weekend:

Friday, April 23

White Sox 9, Rangers 7: Yermin Mercedes went 4 for 4 with three RBIs to lead a 16-hit attack. The Sox led 5-0 after three innings, and 6-2 after four, only to see the Rangers rally to tie. Mercedes delivered a go-ahead RBI double in the seventh that put the South Siders ahead to stay.

That said, my biggest takeaway from this game is that the Sox need more from starting pitcher Dylan Cease, who lasted only 3.1 innings. He was fortunate to escape a bases-loaded jam in the first inning, and he needed 80 pitches to get the 10 outs he recorded.

The Sox ended up using five relief pitchers, and Liam Hendriks was needed to record a five-out save. This game was a little more dicey than you might like after having a big lead in the early innings.

Saturday, April 24

White Sox 2, Rangers 1: This was a tight pitching battle between Sox left-hander Dallas Keuchel and Texas right-hander Kyle Gibson. The Sox got on the board first when Yoan Moncada scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the sixth inning.

That 1-0 lead held up until the top of the ninth when Hendriks gave up a solo home run to Willie Calhoun. Again, Hendriks was leaned on heavily Friday night, but there is a legitimate concern that the highly paid closer has given up four homers in 8.2 innings this season. 

But let's give some credit to Calhoun on this one. He got on top of a fastball that was up and out of the zone and hit it deep to right-center field. You don't see left-handed batters hit pitches that high too often. Calhoun must have been looking there, and it was good hitting on his part.

As for Hendriks, he doesn't have the feel for his slider than I remember him having when he was dominating in Oakland. His fastball is still good, and he can get by with just that some of the time, but not all of the time. If major-league hitters can just sit on the fastball, eventually they'll catch up to it. I look for Hendriks to be more effective once he can start throwing his breaking ball for strikes.

Despite the blown save, the Sox won on a two-out, RBI double by Nick Madrigal in the bottom of the ninth. The hit scored Luis Robert, who had singled and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Yasmani Grandal. After an intentional walk to Mercedes and a strikeout of Billy Hamilton, Madrigal delivered.

Sunday, April 25

White Sox 8, Rangers 4: So, are we excited about Michael Kopech yet? Yeah, I think it's fair to be happy about what we're seeing from the rookie right-hander.

Lucas Giolito has a cut on the middle finger of his throwing hand, so Kopech made a spot start Sunday in his place. He was dazzling, striking out 10 with no walks over five innings of one-run ball. Those 10 strikeouts occurred over his first four innings, too. Kopech might have tired a bit in the fifth, but he got through the inning to earn a well-deserved win.

Crazy thing is, Kopech really didn't need his secondary pitches. His fastball command was impeccable, and even when he did miss with the fastball, it was a "good" miss, in a place where the Texas batters couldn't hurt him. The only run he allowed was on a hanging slider, which David Dahl hit out of the park in the second inning.

Kopech threw 87 pitches, 60 of them for strikes. Fifty-five of the 87 pitches were fastballs, 11 swings and misses, 14 called strikes and 13 foul balls. The Texas batters could not square him up at all.

The Sox scored eight runs in the first three innings, highlighted by Jose Abreu's fifth home run of the season, a two-run triple by Madrigal and an RBI triple by Adam Eaton.

Jonathan Stiever made his season debut for the Sox in the sixth, and it was a bad one. He gave up four straight hits and did not retire a batter. He ended up being charged with three runs. Garrett Crochet had two inherited runners score on his watch, but he settled down to provide three scoreless innings of relief. Jose Ruiz worked a scoreless ninth, giving the back of the Sox bullpen a needed rest.