Touki Toussaint vs. Justin Verlander.
I've talked before about how some days I check the pitching matchup in the morning, and I'm 100% sure the White Sox are going to lose. Wednesday was one of those days.
During the rebuilding years of 2017 to 2019, you could live with the Sox being at a severe disadvantage in the pitching matchup on some days. But this is 2023. The team is supposed to be contending, but it isn't. And it's especially annoying when you see games like Wednesday's, which ended as a 5-1 victory for the New York Mets.
The Sox had no answers for Verlander, the future Hall of Famer. The 40-year-old right-hander needed only 59 pitches to breeze through the first six innings, during which he allowed no runs on only one hit.
Luis Robert Jr. finally got the Sox on the board with his 28th homer in the seventh inning, but that was the sum total of the Chicago offense. Verlander (4-5) threw 100 pitches over eight innings, allowing one run on three hits. He struck out seven and walked one.
Toussaint? Well, he is a reclamation project who was picked off the waiver wire on June 20. Now he's starting games because Mike Clevinger is hurt, and the Sox have nobody else.
At least give Toussaint (0-3) credit for eating innings. He allowed five earned runs on four hits over six innings. He struck out three and walked four. He was relieved by 29-year-old rookie Jesse Scholtens, who kept the Mets off the board for two innings.
Toussaint and Scholtens ... don't you think they would have fit in nicely on the 2017 White Sox rebuilding roster? I'm sure they're nice guys and all, and they are survivors in professional baseball.
But the fact that they are pitching for the Sox is proof positive that the "contention window" is shut and locked. These guys are no match for Verlander, even in the twilight of his career.
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