It's time for White Sox to put Dylan Covey in the bullpen

There is nothing White Sox right-hander Dylan Covey could have done to win his start Monday against the New York Yankees.

New York starter Lance Lynn dominated Sox hitters in a 7-0 Yankees victory. Lynn allowed only two singles over 7.1 innings and retired 19 straight Sox hitters at one point, so Covey was going to be in trouble unless he figured out a way to give up negative runs.

That said, Covey continued his well-established pattern of being shelled in the middle innings. Entering Monday night's start, Covey was limiting opposing batters to a .207/.296/.333 slash line the first time through the order. But the second time through the batting order, opponents were hitting .321/.395/.468 off Covey.

We saw it again Monday, as Covey breezed through the first three innings. He retired the first 10 men he faced, but it fell apart on him in the fourth and fifth innings. The Yankees got two in the fourth and two in the fifth, and with Lynn dominating, the game was over at that point.

New York batters went 4 for 8 with a walk the second time through the order, and it would have been 5 for 8 if Adam Engel had not made a spectacular leaping catch at the wall to rob New York first baseman Greg Bird of a 3-run homer. That two-run Yankees fourth inning would have been a five-run rally if not for the tremendous defensive play of Engel.

Here's the problem for Covey -- he's basically a two-pitch pitcher. He's got a good fastball, 95 mph with good sink. His changeup is decent, good enough to get outs if he can locate it and he's ahead in the count. However, his slider is not an out pitch, and it's basically a show-me offering and nothing more.

You can be effective as a relief pitcher with one good pitch and one decent one, but that's not enough of an arsenal to be a good starting pitcher. More often than not, a two-pitch pitcher is going to get hit around the second and third time through the batting order, unless he's pinpoint with his command, which Covey typically is not.

As we've all noticed, the Sox bullpen stinks, so I can't help but wonder if there might be a role for Covey as a one- or two-inning reliever over the long haul. Again, opponents are hitting only .207 the first time they face him in a game. That's good, and I'd be willing to give Covey a shot in that role. It's his best chance for long-term success in the major leagues.

Of course, somebody would have to take Covey's spot in the rotation, and that means the front office would have to bring Michael Kopech to Chicago.

Honestly, Kopech is ready. The Sox's top pitching prospect has allowed two earned runs or less in eight of his past nine starts at Triple-A Charlotte. The command issues that plagued him in June have been ironed out. Kopech has struck out 41 men and walked only four in his past five starts, spanning 31 innings.

At one point, Kopech's ERA had swollen to 5.08 -- that was on June 20. His ERA is now 4.05 as Triple-A hitters no longer seem to be a challenge for him.

That doesn't mean the Sox won't play the service time shenanigans game with Kopech, but right now, the correct baseball move is to put Kopech in the MLB rotation to gain experience, and move Covey to the bullpen to see if he can carve a niche for himself with his more limited arsenal of pitches.

Covey now is 4-8 with a 5.58 ERA in 15 starts this season. He's just not a starting pitcher.

White Sox beat Rays, earn first sweep of 2018 season

Hector Santiago

Guaranteed Rate has a promotion going on where it will pay one month's mortgage for a White Sox fan every time the team sweeps a series. 

I didn't enter, figuring the Sox (41-70) were so terrible that they'd never be able to sweep an opponent this season.

Well, I'll be damned if the Sox didn't sweep the Tampa Bay Rays this weekend. The South Siders picked up three one-run victories in St. Petersburg, Florida, all of them coming in the last at-bat.

In fact, the Sox have won a season-high four games in a row, with each victory coming in their last at-bat. This marks the first time the Sox have swept a road series since they took three in a row from the Toronto Blue Jays in April 2016.

That's a good season and a half, so it's been a long time.

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

Friday, Aug 3
White Sox 3, Rays 2 (10 innings): Second baseman Yoan Moncada is hitting only .167 with a .515 OPS against left-handed pitching this season, but his RBI double while batting right-handed with two outs in the top of the 10th made the difference in this game.

It's too bad Lucas Giolito did not get the win because he pitched well. The right-hander took a one-hitter into the eighth inning, during which he was removed after giving up a leadoff double. Naturally, the struggling Sox bullpen failed to protect a 2-0 lead -- the Rays got two runs in the eighth to force extra innings.

Giolito's final line: 7 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 6 Ks, 3 BBs

His ERA is 5.97, the first time it's been below 6 since April.

After Moncada's double put the Sox ahead, Hector Santiago worked a scoreless bottom of the 10th for his first save since 2012. Tyler Danish (1-0) got the win after recording the final out of the bottom of the ninth.

Saturday, Aug. 4
White Sox 2, Rays 1: With the score tied at 1, Tim Anderson led off the top of the ninth inning with a double. He scored from second with Rays third baseman Matt Duffy made a two-base throwing error on a sacrifice bunt by Leury Garcia.

The lead held up as rookie right-hander Thyago Vieira worked around a two-out walk and a wild pitch to earn his first career save in his third appearance with the Sox. Vieira struck out Willy Adames with a high fastball for the third out and excessively celebrated the achievement by pounding his own chest with his fist multiple times, but hey, we can't tell him to act as though he had done it before, because he hadn't.

The Sox got the win despite an erratic outing from Carlos Rodon, who walked five and struck out four over six innings. Rodon allowed only three hits, however, and that allowed him to put mostly zeroes on the board. The one run he allowed was unearned because of a passed ball by Omar Narvaez.

Jose Abreu homered for the second straight game, his 19th homer of the season, this one coming off Tampa Bay ace Blake Snell.

Sunday, Aug. 5
White Sox 8, Rays 7: The Sox were down 3-1. Then they tied it at 3. Then they went ahead 5-3. Tampa Bay made it 5-4. Then it was 6-4 Sox after Avisail Garcia's second home run of the game. The Rays tied it at 6 with two runs in the seventh.

This seesaw affair took three hours, 38 minutes to play, but it ended happily thanks to a two-out Sox rally in the ninth inning.

Abreu singled and scored when Daniel Palka smashed a first-pitch homer over the batter's eye in center field for an 8-6 Sox lead. Palka's 439-foot blast off Diego Castillo was his 17th of the season and fifth in his past 10 games.

Santiago (4-3), who had got the final out of the bottom of the eighth inning, wobbled in the bottom of the ninth, giving up two doubles and a walk to make it 8-7. But with runners on first and second and one out, he induced a game-ending double play off the bat of Tampa Bay's Jesus Sucre.

One bit of bad news from this game: Leury Garcia strained his left hamstring making a shoestring grab in center field. He has been placed on the 10-day disabled list. The Sox on Monday recalled outfielder Ryan LaMarre from Triple-A Charlotte to take Leury Garcia's place on the 25-man roster.

The Sox open a six-game homestand Monday night, featuring three games with the New York Yankees and three games with the Cleveland Indians.

Gulp.

Might be a tough week against two playoff contenders. 

An awesome read on Eloy Jimenez ...

Just a link today:

https://milbprospective.mlblogs.com/scouting-report-eloy-jim%C3%A9nez-61b6e9cbf8c6

Tyler Maun of MiLB.com interviewed coaches and players who have faced White Sox outfield prospect Eloy Jimenez.

Lots of good, insightful comments in that story. A great read for any Sox fan.

Entering Friday's play, Jimenez is hitting .376/.423/.693 with eight home runs, eight doubles, 17 RBIs and only 12 strikeouts in 111 plate appearances at Triple-A Charlotte.

You just have to think Jimenez will soon be on the South Side of Chicago. He keeps knocking at the door, louder and louder every day.

Taking a vacation ...

Perhaps it's a foul for a baseball blogger to take a vacation with the trade deadline approaching, but I'm taking one anyway.

Blogging will resume Friday, Aug. 3. See you on the other side.

White Sox trade Joakim Soria to Brewers for two pitching prospects

Joakim Soria

Since May 21, Joakim Soria has a 0.74 ERA and has converted 12 of his 13 save opportunities.

I've been surprised that there wasn't more trade chatter surrounding him, given that he's been better lately than some of the other relief pitchers who already have been dealt this month (Zach Britton, Jeurys Familia).

The only Soria talk I've heard, frankly, has come from the Chicago press, which has been pleading with the Sox to help the Cubs out. The North Side closer, Brandon Morrow, is on the disabled list for the second time this season, and naturally, that leads the local writers to believe there was a "natural trade fit" between the two Chicago teams.

Meh. Not so much. The Cubs don't have a deep farm system, but the Brewers do.

And for that reason, the Sox on Thursday traded Soria to Milwaukee for left-handed pitcher Kodi Medeiros and right-hander Wilber Pérez.

More prospect pitching depth, to me, is what the Sox need most of all, so I can't object to this deal.

Medeiros, 22, was the Brewers' first-round pick (12th overall) in the 2014 draft. He's appeared in 20 games this season (15 starts) and has gone 7-5 with a 3.14 ERA.

Perez, 20, is 5-1 with a 2.01 ERA in eight starts with the Dominican Summer League Brewers. The native of the Dominican Republic was signed by the Brewers as an international free agent in 2017.

It will be a few years before we know whether Perez will amount to anything, but Medeiros being left-handed and 22, he could help the Sox as soon as late 2019. Not sure that he projects as a starter, although he's still pitching as a starter, but there's always a need for left-handed bullpen guys.

We'll see. I think Soria will help the Brewers. He's been throwing the ball well for two months, and that's not a small sample size. He's having a good season. The Sox were hoping he would be good enough to be a midseason trade piece, and indeed he was.

In that regard, this was a plan that came together.

Last time through the rotation good for White Sox

Carlos Rodon

The White Sox (36-64) have surprised us coming out of the All-Star break by winning three of the first five games on a two-city, seven game West Coast road trip.

How have they been more competitive? Much better starting pitching. Each of the five men in the rotation has pitched a game since the break, and four out of the five have had strong outings. Three -- Dylan Covey, Lucas Giolito and Carlos Rodon -- earned victories.

Rodon (3-3) was outstanding in Tuesday's 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels. The left-hander took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and allowed only one hit through seven. When he walked off the mound with two men on and two men out in the bottom of the eighth, the Sox were leading 4-0.

Unfortunately, the Sox bullpen allowed both of Rodon's inherited runners to score, which marred his line. But the win is the most important thing, and Rodon got one.

Here's a look at the pitching lines by Sox starters over the past five games:

James Shields: 7 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 5 Ks, 1 BB
Covey: 8.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 5 Ks, 2 BBs
Reynaldo Lopez: 5 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 K, 4BBs
Giolito: 6 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 5 Ks, 4 BBs
Rodon: 7.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 8 Ks, 3 BBs
Totals: 34 IP, 21 H, 12 R, 11 ER, 24 Ks, 14 BBs.

Only 21 hits for the opposition over 34 innings is an encouraging number. You'd like to see fewer than 14 walks, but most of the bases on balls have not hurt.

Sox starters have posted a 2.91 ERA over these five games. The only hiccup was Lopez's start, as he had a bad first inning and allowed five runs Sunday against Seattle. Subtract his start, and the other four guys have posted a 1.86 ERA.

I believe the starting pitcher sets a tone in a game, and things have gone better for the Sox this week because those guys have done a better job in a small sample size than they have throughout the season as a whole.

White Sox win one more than expected vs. Mariners

Back in olden times when the White Sox were fielding competitive teams, we used to say it was a good result when they took two out of three games in a series.

However, in these dark rebuilding times, I often find myself expecting the Sox to get swept in a series -- especially on the road against a possible playoff team.

So, I can't complain about the Sox (34-64) managing a victory over the Seattle Mariners (60-40) this weekend.

For this group, hey, one out of three ain't bad.

Friday, July 20
Mariners 3, White Sox 1: This game started out OK. The Sox got on the board in the first inning on doubles by Leury Garcia and Daniel Palka, but the bats went cold after that against Seattle starter Wade LeBlanc (6-1).

The Mariners' soft-tossing left-hander struck out 10 over 7.1 innings and allowed only four hits. Sox hitters apparently did not know he was throwing a steady diet of changeups, or they simply could not recognize them out of his hand.

We can't blame James Shields (4-11), who went seven innings and allowed two runs. We'll take that from the erstwhile veteran anytime.

Worth noting: Both Palka and Nicky Delmonico were in the starting lineup, while Matt Davidson sat on the bench against a left-handed starter. Makes you wonder whether Davidson's days on the roster are numbered. You wouldn't think two left-handed hitters would get starting nods ahead of him against a left-handed pitcher.

Saturday, July 21
White Sox 5, Mariners 0: Didn't see this one coming. Sox right-hander Dylan Covey had an 11.40 ERA over his previous five starts leading into the All-Star break. Apparently the time away did him some good, as Covey (4-5) pitched the best game of his career. He tossed 8.1 innings of shutout ball, allowing only two hits and two walks with five strikeouts.

Covey's velocity was back up to 95 or 96, with good sinking action. He also featured an effective curveball, which we had not seen in his previous starts. He was in command from start to finish, and that's not something we say often about Sox starting pitchers.

The Sox scored four runs in the fourth inning to take the lead for good, highlighted by Avisail Garcia's 3-run homer. It was Garcia's first game back from the disabled list, and he connected for his 10th home run of the season, this one coming off Seattle right-hander Felix Hernandez (8-8), who pitched five innings and took the loss.

Sunday, July 22
Mariners 8, White Sox 2: No heartbreak in this loss. It was over early as Sox right-hander Reynaldo Lopez (4-8) got shelled for five runs in the first inning on three hits and two walks. Ryon Healy hit the first of his two three-run homers to cap the rally for the Mariners.

That early lead was more than enough for Seattle lefty Marco Gonzales (11-5), who took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before Adam Engel singled and Tim Anderson homered to account for the only two Sox runs.

Healy added his other 3-run homer off Hector Santiago in the eighth inning to break a 5-2 game wide open.

The Sox fell to 7-17 this season against lefty starters, with both losses in this series coming against left-handers. Davidson was in the lineup Sunday, and he went 1 for 4 with a single. His average currently sits at .221.