Has Kansas City replaced Oakland as the White Sox house of horrors?

For years and years, the White Sox seemingly couldn't win a game in Oakland to save their lives. Now that the Athletics have moved to Sacramento, the Oakland Coliseum is no longer a place for teams to visit.

But it seems to me that Kansas City has replaced Oakland as the house of horrors for the Sox. During the Pedro Grifol era (2023-24), the Sox went 2-11 at Kauffman Stadium -- including 0-7 in 2024.

During those seven games, the White Sox scored eight runs. Total. Averaging just over one run per game generally gets you beat. Then on Monday night, the Sox got shut out, 3-0, in their first game of 2025 in Kansas City.

The continuation of a trend.

Believe it or not, the Sox scored three runs on Tuesday night. Their cup runneth over! And they took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning. But then this sequence of events happened:

1. Relief pitcher Cam Booser walked pinch-hitter Mark Canha on five pitches.
2. Drew Waters hit a routine infield fly. Sox second baseman Chase Meidroth missed the ball, and it clanged off his face into right field. Canha held at first, understandably believing the ball would be caught. Sox right fielder Michael A. Taylor had a chance to force Canha at second, but his throw airmailed Sox shortstop Jacob Amaya, and everyone was safe. You read that right: The ball hit Meidroth right in the face.
3. Freddy Fermin attempted to give the Sox an out with a sacrifice bunt. But Booser was slow to cover the bunt up the third-base line. By the time he retrieved the ball, the Sox had no play anywhere. Bases loaded, no outs.
4. Kyle Isbel popped up to third baseman Josh Rojas. The ball did not hit him in the face. He caught it. Even if he hadn't, the infield fly rule was called. One out.
5. With the infield at double-play depth, Jonathan India grounded one back up the middle. Amaya ranged to his left and dove to glove the ball. From the seat of his pants, he made a toss to second to try to get the force, but it was errant. Everyone was safe. Tying run scores. Bases still loaded.
6. Kansas City's all-world shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. hit a deep fly ball to center field. Luis Robert Jr. let it drop for a walk-off single. Even if he had made the catch, it would have been a game-winning sacrifice fly.

4-3 Royals. The Sox are 10-26. There are 126 games left to play. 

White Sox opener strategy works ... sort of

Give White Sox manager Will Venable credit for trying something new. 

The Athletics have a left-handed-dominant top of the batting order, and the Sox have nothing but right-handers in their starting rotation. 

It's a matchup made in hell, so Venable used a left-handed reliever to pitch the first inning of all three games in Sacramento this weekend, and then he went to his regularly scheduled right-handed starter in the second inning.

Even though the Sox lost two of three games, it mostly worked. Tyler Gilbert pitched a scoreless first inning Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Brandon Eisert allowed one run in the first inning Sunday. 

The right-handers who followed them pitched well. On Sunday, Davis Martin tossed six shutout innings. Jonathan Cannon got his first win of the season Saturday when he allowed three runs over 7.2 innings. Sean Burke on Friday allowed three earned runs over 5.1 innings, which wasn't great, but it was an improvement over his previous outings.

Here's a look back at the weekend that was:

Friday, April 25

Athletics 6, White Sox 5: The Sox took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the sixth, but Burke got in trouble. With two on and two outs, Jacob Wilson singled to center, and Luis Robert Jr. booted the ball, allowing both runners to score and tie the game at 3.

The A's tacked on two in the seventh and one in the eighth to take a 6-3 into the ninth. The Sox rallied against closer Mason Miller. Lenyn Sosa singled and scored on a two-run homer by Brooks Baldwin. Miguel Vargas lined out to center, and Edgar Quero just missed tying the game on a fly ball to right that was caught at the wall.

Four good ABs in a row, and then Robert Jr. struck out on three pitches, the last of which was nowhere near a strike. It was a tough game for Robert Jr. overall: 1 for 4 with three strikeouts and the crucial error that flipped the game in the Athletics' favor.

Saturday, April 26 

White Sox 10, Athletics 3: Robert Jr. redeemed himself with a solo home run in the top of the first that started a four-run rally. Quero walked, and then there were three straight RBI doubles by Sosa, Michael A. Taylor and Baldwin.

The Sox added two more in the second inning and jumped out to an early 6-0. Cannon (1-3) made it work from there with his best outing of the season. He struck out five and walked two, while allowing six hits over his 7.2 innings.

Taylor finished 3 for 5 with three doubles. Quero and Vargas also had two-hit games.

Sunday, April 27

Athletics 3, White Sox 2 (10 inn.): The Sox had 14 men reach base in this game -- nine hits, four walks and a hit batsman. You would think that would be a recipe for more than two runs, but you'd be wrong.

Joshua Palacios hit a solo home run to start the game, but the Sox didn't score again until the top of the 10th when Robert Jr. plated the ghost runner with an RBI single to put the South Siders ahead 2-1.

Quero then singled, advancing Robert Jr. to third with only one out. It looked like the Sox might break the game open. Alas, Andrew Vaughn grounded into a double play to drop his average down to .157 and kill the inning.

That proved really costly because the Sox needed another run. Jordan Leasure (0-2) gave up a homer to Luis Urias in the bottom of the 10th with the ghost runner aboard, and that provided the winning margin for the Athletics.

The Sox stranded 10 runners, went 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position and hit into two double plays. Woof.

The 10-game road trip is over. The Sox went 3-7 and are now 7-21 for the season. They start a three-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night at Rate Field.

White Sox take 2 of 3 from Red Sox

The Boston broadcasting booth might have given the White Sox some bulletin board material before the start of this weekend's three-game series at Rate Field.

During a Thursday game between the Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays, play-by-play man Dave O'Brien stated, "The White Sox invent ways to lose games." Color commentator Will Middlebrooks added, "The trip to Chicago could be coming at a perfect time." 

Now we all get to laugh and point at Boston because the White Sox surprised most observers by taking two out of three games. Here's a look back at the weekend that was:

Friday, April 11

White Sox 11, Red Sox 1: We're used to Chicago prospects coming up and looking terrible in their major league debuts, so it was refreshing to see Chase Meidroth make a positive first impression.

The rookie middle infielder went 1 for 1 with a single, three walks and two runs scored. It's pretty cool to make four plate appearances in your first game and come out with a 1.000 on-base percentage. Meidroth became the first White Sox player to walk three times in his MLB debut since Ray Morehart on Aug. 9, 1924. 

They should give free admission to anyone who saw Morehart play, but I digress.

Boston committed five errors in this game, leading to six unearned runs for the White Sox. Michael A. Taylor went 3 for 5 with three runs scored, and Lenyn Sosa had two hits and two RBIs to lead the South Siders' offense.

The 12-hit attack made life easy for starting pitcher Davis Martin (1-1), who worked six-plus innings and allowed just one run to pick up the victory. The right-hander struck out six and walked one.

Saturday, April 12

White Sox 3, Red Sox 2: Boston starting pitcher Richard Fitts was sailing along with a 2-0 lead through five innings, but the White Sox caught a break when Fitts departed in the sixth after experiencing pain in his pitching shoulder.

Reliever Zack Kelly walked Miguel Vargas, and one out later, Luis Robert Jr. connected for his first home run of the season to tie the score at 2.

It remained even until the bottom of the ninth, when Robert Jr. worked a leadoff walk against Boston closer Aroldis Chapman. Robert Jr. eventually stole second and scored the winning run on a pinch-hit single by Brooks Baldwin.

Four Sox relievers combined to work 4.1 innings of scoreless ball. Most of the credit goes to Mike Vasil, who pitched two innings, and Jordan Leasure who got five outs across the eighth and ninth innings. Tyler Gilbert (1-0) was awarded the victory after he recorded the final out in the top of the ninth.

Sunday, April 13

Red Sox 3, White Sox 1: Former Chicago lefty Garrett Crochet got his revenge, taking a no-hitter and a 2-0 lead into the eighth inning in the series finale.

In an interesting twist, Meidroth singled with one out in the eighth to break up the no-no. Most fans will recall that Meidroth was one of four players the White Sox acquired from Boston in the Crochet trade this past winter.

Meidroth eventually scored when Matt Thaiss singled off reliever Garrett Whitlock to slash the Boston lead to 2-1. In fact, the White Sox had runners on second and third with only one out, but they could not tie or take the lead. Pinch hitter Joshua Palacios struck out, and Vargas flew out to left to end the threat.

Trevor Story homered in the top of the ninth to restore the Red Sox lead to two runs, and Chapman got three outs in the bottom of the inning to pick up the save. Crochet struck out 11 and allowed only one hit and one walk in 7.1 innings pitched.

It was a tough-luck loss for Shane Smith (0-1), who allowed two runs over six strong innings. Smith's ERA is a respectable 2.04 through his first three MLB starts. Unfortunately, run support has mostly eluded him to this point in the season.

The White Sox are now 4-11. They'll take Monday off before hosting a three-game series against the Sacramento Athletics. I'm not sure we're supposed to call the A's that, but hey, they play their home games in Sacramento, so there's that.

Andrew Benintendi out 4-6 weeks with fracture

The White Sox collected their first spring win of the season Thursday, defeating the Cleveland Guardians, 4-2.

The victory came at a price, however, as left fielder Andrew Benintendi will miss four to six weeks with a non-displaced fracture in his right hand. The veteran was struck with a pitch from Cleveland left-hander Logan Allen in the bottom of the first inning.

The injury comes exactly four weeks before the season opener on March 27, so we should not expect to see Benintendi back in the lineup by then. Mid-April is probably a more realistic timeline.

Earlier this month, I noted that the Sox outfield was pretty much set, with Luis Robert Jr., Benintendi, Austin Slater, Mike Tauchman and Michael A. Taylor all in camp on major league contracts.

The injury gods had other ideas, and now there's a spot open. Dominic Fletcher and Oscar Colas are the other two outfielders on the 40-man roster, so one would assume that opportunity will knock for one of them.

If I'm being honest, I've seen about enough of Colas. I've watched three of the six spring games, and I've already seen the 26-year-old Cuban make two egregious defensive miscues -- including one where a fly ball smacked him right in the face. 

Fletcher, 27, played 72 games with the Sox last season, and he demonstrated that he cannot hit. He batted just .206/.252/.256 with one home run, only eight doubles and 17 RBIs. That said, Fletcher has shown that he is a plus defender at corner outfield spots, and he can stand in center field in a pinch (although Taylor is best suited to back up Robert Jr. in that role.)

When choosing a backup outfielder, I prefer the guy who can catch the ball, so I'll take Fletcher over Colas.

If you're wondering about free agent outfielders, Alex Verdugo, Aaron Hicks, Robbie Grossman, Adam Duvall and David Peralta are all still out there.

Verdugo, 29, is the only one of that group younger than age 35. He batted .233/.291/.356 with the New York Yankees last season. That doesn't wow anyone, and it seems unlikely that Sox ownership will open the wallet to raise the floor of the team to compensate for a short-term injury.

Fletcher or Colas it shall likely be.

Andrew Benintendi for White Sox designated hitter?

In a minor move Tuesday, the White Sox reportedly agreed to terms with outfielder Michael A. Taylor on a one-year-deal worth $1.95 million.

Taylor continues making the rounds in the AL Central. He played for the Kansas City Royals in 2021-22, winning a Gold Glove as a center fielder in 2021. From there, he joined the Minnesota Twins in 2023, where he hit a career-high 21 homers.

Alas, Taylor fell on rough times last season with the Pittsburgh Pirates, slumping to a .193/.253/.290 slash line with only five home runs in 113 games.

The 34-year-old is a lifetime .235 batter with 120 career stolen bases. He has speed and can play credible defense in center, where he has played 921 of his 1,001 career games. He has a 10.4 defensive WAR for his career.

You might be thinking, so what? Taylor's just another extra outfielder at the end of his career. And he's probably here to be the center fielder when Luis Robert Jr. gets traded midseason to a contender for prospects.

But here's my thinking: In the short run, does this get weak-armed Andrew Benintendi out of left field and into the designated hitter role?

The Sox infield is very much in flux going into spring training, but I think I know who the five rostered outfielders are going to be: Robert, Benintendi, Taylor, Mike Tauchman and Austin Slater.

The working presumption has been that Tauchman and Slater will platoon in right field, with Benintendi in left and Robert in center.

My proposal is Slater in left, Robert in center, Tauchman in right and Benintendi at DH. Taylor is your late-inning defensive replacement. Or, sometimes, Taylor plays center while Robert takes some DH plate appearances to hopefully stay healthy.

One of the many problems the Sox had last season: Opponents took extra bases at will on Benintendi's weak arm in left. Heck, they were tagging up and advancing on medium-deep flyouts. That can't continue.

If you think putting a credible defense on the field can yield a few more wins, and I do, the Sox need to consider making this change.

One might argue that Benintendi's bat is too weak to hold down the DH spot. That's fair, and if this were a contending team, I'd agree. 

But, it's worth noting that Benintendi recovered enough from a slow start in 2024 to total 20 homers, with 12 of those coming after Aug. 1. He had a .952 OPS in August and a .807 OPS in September. Really, if Benintendi could pull his OPS up around .750 for a season, that would be fine for a DH on a rebuilding team.

Why not give it a try?