White Sox blow opportunity to sweep Guardians

I concluded Thursday's blog by noting that the White Sox need to sweep some divisional opponents to get back in the AL Central race. Taking two out of three games isn't enough.

The Sox had an opportunity to sweep the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday at Guaranteed Rate Field, but they kicked away that chance, losing 3-1.

They lost despite having ace Dylan Cease on the mound. They lost despite Cleveland being without its two best run producers in Jose Ramirez and Josh Naylor. They lost despite loading the bases with no outs in the second inning -- a golden scoring chance that the Sox let go by the boards.

They lost because Tim Anderson couldn't execute a routine play at shortstop. With the score tied 1-1 in the top of the seventh inning, the Guardians placed runners on second and third with one out.

Cease induced a weak grounder off the bat of rookie infielder Brayan Rocchio. Had Anderson fielded it cleanly, he had Will Brennan -- the Cleveland runner on third -- dead in the water at home plate. Instead, the dribbler clanked off Anderson's glove for an error. Brennan scored to give Cleveland a 2-1 lead. The Guardians added another run in that inning and closed out the game from there.

The Sox are 16-29. The Guardians are 20-23. This game was the difference between being three games behind Cleveland and five games behind. 

The Sox are five games behind. This is not how you get back in the race.

2 trades that helped the Cleveland Guardians win the AL Central

Francisco Lindor

Monday night's Game 5 of the American League Division Series between the Cleveland Guardians and New York Yankees was postponed because of inclement weather in New York.

The game will be played at 3 o'clock CDT Tuesday. The winner will travel to Houston to face the Astros in Game 1 of the AL Championship Series on Wednesday.

That's a quick turnaround, so the big winner in this postponement would appear to be the Astros.

Regardless, I've been thinking lately about how the Guardians managed to win 92 games and basically blow the White Sox and Minnesota Twins out of the water in the AL Central this season. 

Hell, Cleveland was picked to finish third or fourth in a lot of preseason magazines, which is only proof that one never knows.

Two trades that Cleveland made in the recent past come to mind:

Aug. 31, 2020: Cleveland traded Mike Clevinger, Greg Allen and a player to be named later to the San Diego Padres for Josh Naylor, Owen Miller, Austin Hedges, Cal Quantrill, Gabriel Arias and Joey Cantillo.

Jan. 7, 2021: Cleveland traded Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco to the New York Mets for Andres Gimenez, Amed Rosario, Isaiah Greene and Josh Wolf.

Look at that return that Cleveland got in that Clevinger deal. Is that about half their roster? 

Naylor is their cleanup hitter and second-best run producer. Miller appeared in 130 games for the Guardians this season as an all-purpose player. Hedges can't hit a lick, but he's Cleveland's primary catcher because of his outstanding defensive work at a premium position. 

Quantrill went 15-5 in 32 starts this season as Cleveland's No. 3 starter. Arias is a 22-year-old who appeared in only 16 regular season games for the Guardians, but hey, he was in the lineup for Game 4 against the Yankees.

Of those six guys in the Clevinger deal, five of them are helping the Guardians right now.

And Clevinger? He missed all of 2021 with an injury. Since the trade, the 31-year-old right-hander has posted a 4.12 ERA and 4.60 FIP over 27 appearances. 

Yes, I think the Guardians are happy with that trade.

I remember when Lindor was traded in January 2021, and many people -- including me -- thought Cleveland got fleeced. We were wrong.

Sure, Lindor is still a good player. He bounced back from a lackluster 2021 to post 26 homers, 107 RBIs and a 125 OPS+ for the New York Mets this season. And Carrasco provided New York with 29 decent starts in 2022 -- he was 15-7 with a 3.97 ERA.

However, I don't think the Guardians are disappointed in the return they got for those two players -- Gimenez and Rosario now are starting middle infielders for them on a playoff team.

Gimenez had a 7.2 WAR and made the All-Star team in his age-23 season this year. He batted .297 with 17 homers, 69 RBIs, an .837 OPS and a 141 OPS+. And oh yeah, he's the likely Gold Glove winner at second base in the American League this season.

That 7.2 WAR equals the best season Lindor had in a Cleveland uniform -- that coming in 2018.

The 26-year-old Rosario isn't quite as good Gimenez, but I don't think Cleveland fans are disappointed in the 4.1-WAR season they have received from their shortstop. Rosario batted .283 with 11 homers, 18 steals, 71 RBIs, a .715 OPS and a 106 OPS+ in 2022. That's not All-Star level, but it's certainly above league average.

So, how did Cleveland get this good? There are a few different reasons. Shane Bieber is an elite, reliable starting pitcher. Triston McKenzie has made strides to join him at the top of the rotation. Emmanuel Clase is the best closer in the AL, and he has two good relievers setting him up in James Karinchak and Trevor Stephan.

But when you're telling the story of this Cleveland Guardians team, you have to look at these two trades, which netted them three-quarters of their starting infield -- including one All-Star -- a starting catcher and a starting pitcher, plus two other players who are at least helping on the margins.

While the Guardians did move three decent-to-great players in those deals, they absolutely got quality coming the other way.

Lucas Giolito (finally) slays the Guardians

Lucas Giolito

Monday night's loss to the Cleveland Guardians was probably the worst one the White Sox have endured in nearly six years. (Think May 28, 2016, in Kansas City.)

If nothing else, the fan base needed a win Tuesday night, because we might have all slit our wrists if we had to watch another game like Monday's.

Fortunately, Lucas Giolito (2-1) came up with his best outing of the season so far, and the Sox beat the Guardians, 4-1.

Final line for Giolito: seven innings pitched, allowing one run on six hits. He struck out five and walked only one. Josh Naylor hit a home run off him in his seventh and final inning, but by then, the Sox already had a 3-0 lead, so no harm, no foul.

Giolito generated 11 swings and misses and got 23 called strikes out of his 91 pitches. That means 37% percent of his pitches fell into the category of either a whiff or a called strike.

The league average at last check was 27%, and I always say if a pitcher is about 30% in that department, that's a strong performance.

The game remained scoreless until the fifth, when the Sox finally solved Cleveland starter Cal Quantrill (1-2). Josh Harrison doubled with two outs and scored on a single by Tim Anderson.

Gavin Sheets added a two-run homer, his third of the season, in the sixth inning to make it 3-0. After the Naylor homer, Anderson's RBI double in the bottom of the seventh scored Adam Engel, who had singled. That brought the score to 4-1. Anderson was 3 for 4. He's now hitting .347.

Jose Ruiz and Bennett Sousa combined to pitch a scoreless eighth inning. Closer Liam Hendriks was given the night off -- he had pitched six of the past eight days, and after five consecutive saves, he contributed greatly to the meltdown on Monday night.

That gave Kendall Graveman a chance for his second save of the season, and he converted -- albeit not without some drama. Graveman got the first two batters out before a walk and a single brought the tying run to the plate.

Andres Gimenez grounded out to Jose Abreu to end the game. It was a bang-bang play at first, and Gimenez was initially called safe. However, the Sox challenged the call, and it was overturned for the final out.

The Sox are 15-14, and they have their first win against the Guardians in five tries.

White Sox remind us that they are pretenders

That six-game winning streak was fun, right?

Well, back to reality. On Monday night, the Sox took an 8-2 lead into the ninth inning against the Cleveland Guardians. They blew the whole thing. The committed two errors during the six-run Cleveland rally, which culminated with Josh Naylor hitting a game-tying grand slam off Liam Hendriks.

The Sox left the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning. They left the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th inning. Then Naylor hit a three-run homer off Ryan Burr in the top of the 11th. 

The Sox lost, 12-9.

The Sox committed four errors and wasted a brilliant six-inning start by Michael Kopech, who struck out seven and gave up no earned runs on two hits.

Just in case you needed a reminder that the Sox are pretenders, there you go. They are 3-10 against the mighty AL Central. World Series contenders my ass.

Good night.