White Sox win series vs. Royals; Michael Kopech to pitch Tuesday

James Shields

We won't bury the lead this time: The announcement that Michael Kopech is pitching Tuesday was the biggest White Sox news of the weekend.

More on that later, but first, let's recap the weekend series against the Kansas City Royals, in which the Sox (46-77) won two games out of three.

Friday, Aug. 17
White Sox 9, Royals 3: It looked as though James Shields (5-14) was on his way to his 15th loss. When he walked off the mound after getting the third out in the top of the seventh inning, the Sox were trailing, 3-2.

Instead, Shields earned his fifth victory after the Sox scored seven runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. The rally was highlighted by a pair of three-run homers, one by Jose Abreu that gave the Sox a 5-3, the other by Nicky Delmonico that made it 9-3 and put the game out of reach.

Abreu increased his RBI total to 76 with one swing of the bat. His quest for 100 RBIs will be one of the stories to watch over the remaining 39 games.

Saturday, Aug. 18
Royals 3, White Sox 1: This was a brutal offensive game for the Sox, as they went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position and struck out 13 times.

Delmonico homered for the second straight day -- his fifth of the season -- but the highlights pretty much began and ended there.

Dylan Covey (4-10) pitched better than he usually does. He held Kansas City off the scoreboard through the first five innings and took a 1-0 lead into the sixth.

However, he allowed two runs in the sixth and was removed from the game with two outs. That was enough for him to take another loss.

Sunday, Aug. 19
White Sox 7, Royals 6: Reynaldo Lopez gave up six runs in the second inning and was gone by the third with the Sox trailing, 6-0. It wasn't looking too good.

However, the Royals blew that lead with ruthless efficiency. Kansas City starter Heath Fillmyer gave up six consecutive hits to open the bottom of the fourth inning.

Abreu singled. Daniel Palka singled. Avisail Garcia hit a three-run homer. Delmonico singled. Tim Anderson hit a two-run homer. Omar Narvaez hit a solo homer. In a span of about 10 to 12 pitches, the score went from 6-0 Royals to a 6-6 tie.

See ya later, Fillmyer.

The Sox took the lead for good in the fifth when Narvaez singled home Garcia, who had walked, with two outs.

Surprisingly, the Sox got seven shutout innings from their bullpen, led by Hector Santiago (5-3), who worked four innings in long relief. He struck out six and allowed only two hits, and that gave the Sox a chance to get back in the game.

Six relievers were needed in this game, but they all did the job, culminating in Jace Fry striking out the last two batters of the game to earn his second save.

Kopech to pitch Tuesday

The Sox in the third inning Sunday announced on the scoreboard that Kopech would be coming up to make his highly anticipated major league debut Tuesday against the Minnesota Twins.

The only complaint I have about this decision is that it didn't happen two weeks ago. Kopech basically has mastered the Triple-A level, overpowering hitters over his past seven starts, as we've discussed previously on this blog.

Even if he gets shelled Tuesday night, it's a good thing that he's coming to Chicago. It's time for him to learn at the big league level. Rewarding high-performing prospects with a more difficult challenge simply is the right thing to do, service time considerations be damned. And, the Sox need better players. They aren't 31 games under .500 by accident, so let's put better players on the team and try to win more games.

This is just so obviously the right move, and I'm looking forward to the game Tuesday.

White Sox reinstate Leury Garcia from disabled list; Michael Kopech still in Charlotte

Leury Garcia

After Wednesday's game against the Detroit Tigers, the White Sox optioned outfielder Ryan LaMarre to Triple-A Charlotte.

For some, that might have sparked hope that the Sox finally were going to call up an interesting prospect.

Ha! That isn't happening.

Instead, the Sox activated utility player Leury Garcia from the 10-day disabled list. Garcia has been out since Aug. 5, when he strained his left hamstring in Tampa Bay.

Garcia is hitting .280/.310/.394 with four home runs and 31 RBIs in 73 games with the Sox this season.

Kopech still in Charlotte

James Shields, Dylan Covey and Reynaldo Lopez are the Sox's three scheduled starting pitchers for this weekend's home series against the Kansas City Royals.

We keep thinking Covey and his 6.06 ERA are going to be removed from the rotation, but it hasn't happened yet.

The logical choice to replace him, of course, is top pitching prospect Michael Kopech.

That will not happen this weekend, however, as Kopech made his scheduled start Thursday at Triple-A Charlotte. He went six innings, allowing one run on seven hits, while striking out nine and walking none in a 9-4 victory over Louisville.

He also intentionally drilled an opposing batter in the fourth inning to spark a benches-clearing incident.

In any case, Kopech has a 1.84 ERA over his past seven starts. He has struck out 59 and walked only four in 44 innings over that same span.

Despite last night's moment of immaturity, he's ready for the major leagues. How much longer will Sox management claim he is not?

What's working for the White Sox? Jose Abreu and Carlos Rodon

Jose Abreu

White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu always has been a second-half hitter, and August historically has been the best month of his career.

Abreu has a lifetime .330/.389/.571 slash line with 28 home runs, 31 doubles and 79 RBIs in 125 August games.

The calendar says August, and the Sox's most accomplished hitter is once again tearing it up. In his past 14 games, Abreu is hitting .327/.361/.673 with five home runs, four doubles and 14 RBIs.

On Wednesday, Abreu went 3 for 5 with a home run and three RBIs in a 6-5 win over the Detroit Tigers. He now has 21 home runs and 73 RBIs this season, and with 42 games to go, he needs 27 more RBIs for his fifth consecutive 100-RBI season.

He'll have to stay hot, but I'm not going to count him out.

The other bright spot for the Sox: starting pitcher Carlos Rodon (4-3), who earned the win Wednesday.

Since July 1, Rodon has made seven starts, going 3-0 with a 1.60 ERA. He's thrown 50.2 innings, an average of more than seven a start, and he's allowed only 27 hits and two home runs over that span. He has struck out 42 and walked 20, so that means he's allowing less than a base runner an inning.

Against the Tigers, Rodon pitched eight innings, allowing three runs on five hits. He struck out six and walked only one. This particular start is the only one in the past seven in which Rodon allowed more than two earned runs.

The Tigers on Wednesday got all three of their runs in the third inning, and frankly, I'd chalk it up to a fluky inning. Detroit had runners on second and third with no outs before Rodon struck out Victor Reyes for the first out. The next hitter was Jeimer Candelario, and on a 1-2 pitch, Rodon poured a fastball right over the outside corner. Candelario could not pull the trigger, but the umpire missed the call. That should have been strike three and two outs, but instead, Rodon hit Candelario on the next pitch with a back-foot slider to load the bases.

Jose Iglesias followed with a bloop single, and Nick Castellanos hit a grounder with eyes for a single, and all of a sudden the Tigers had three runs on not much solid contact.

But Rodon settled down after those tough breaks and allowed nothing over the next five innings. In fact, four of the six base runners Rodon allowed were in that third inning. He dominated the rest of the game, and the offense supported him.

Matt Davidson's two-run homer in the fourth inning gave the Sox the lead for good at 4-3. Abreu added a two-run shot in the fifth for a 6-3 lead.

The Sox bullpen coughed up two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to make it stressful. The Tigers had both the tying and winning runs on base with two outs before Luis Avilan retired Reyes on a fly ball to center field to end the game.

Somehow, White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito has eight wins

Right-hander Lucas Giolito has the highest ERA (6.15) of any of the five pitchers in the White Sox starting rotation. Yet, somehow, he leads the team in wins -- by a wide margin.

Giolito improved to 8-9 with a 6-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday. No other Sox pitcher has more than four wins this season.

It wasn't the cleanest start for Giolito. He was handed a 3-0 lead before he took the mound, and he handed it right back by giving up three two-out runs in the bottom of the first inning.

However, the Sox rebuilt the lead. Ryan LaMarre hit his first career home run in the second inning, and Jose Abreu's two-run double in the fifth gave the South Siders a 6-3 lead.

Giolito made that stick through six innings, and he did so in dramatic fashion by pitching out of a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the bottom of the sixth. Sure, Giolito benefited from facing 7-8-9 in a offensively challenged Detroit batting order, but it still was impressive to see him battle out of trouble.

He got James McCann to fly out to shallow right field, struck out Mike Gerber and induced a weak pop out to third base from Victor Reyes.

Jace Fry pitched two scoreless innings with four strikeouts, and Xavier Cedeno got three outs in the ninth inning for his first save with the Sox to secure the win for Giolito, who got a season-high 16 swinging strikes during his six-inning outing. Giolito struck out seven and walked only one.

Wouldn't it be something if Giolito still manages double-digit wins despite his erratic season? In 2017, no Sox pitcher won more than seven games -- Derek Holland and Miguel Gonzalez tied for the team lead. Giolito now has passed that modest benchmark.

And, oh yeah, Sox pitchers held Nick Castellanos to an 0-for-5 night and struck out him out three times. What a refreshing change! Cedeno struck Castellanos out looking with two on and two out to end the game in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Hallelujah!

The White Sox need to stop pitching to Nick Castellanos

Nick Castellanos

2018 Detroit Tigers vs. White Sox: 9-1 (.900 winning percentage)
2018 Detroit Tigers vs. everybody else: 41-68 (.376 winning percentage)

By any measure, the Tigers are not a good baseball team, so their continuing mastery of the Sox is both perplexing and annoying. Yes, the Sox also stink, but they should be able to win more than one of 10 games against a fellow bottom-feeder.

Detroit beat the Sox again Monday, this time 9-5 at Comerica Park. Nick Castellanos led the way for the Tigers, going 5 for 5 with a home run, two doubles and five RBIs.

And, quite frankly, Castellanos' mastery of Sox pitching is the biggest reason the season series is so lopsided.

The Tigers' right fielder has decent overall numbers: .291/.340/.492 with 17 HRs and 64 RBIs. However, a lot of that damage has come against the Sox. He is hitting .419/.457/.814 with four home runs and 14 RBIs in 10 games vs. Chicago.

In other words, 24 percent of Castellanos' home runs and 22 percent of his RBIs have come against the Sox. That's almost a quarter of his season production.

It doesn't have to be this way, either. With the game tied at 3 in the bottom of the fifth inning Monday, Castellanos came to the plate with the go-ahead run on third base and two outs. It was a perfect time to just put him on first base with an intentional walk. Instead, the Sox chose to pitch to him, and he hit a hanging changeup from Sox starter Reynaldo Lopez for a go-ahead double.

Foolish, especially considering the on-deck hitter was Niko Goodrum, he of the .231/.301/.430 slash line. Goodrum was hitless behind Castellanos in Monday's game. He provided no lineup protection whatsoever, but for whatever reason, the Sox allowed Castellanos to beat them again, as opposed to making Goodrum do something at the plate.

The bottom line is the Tigers are not a good offensive team. They rank 14th in the American League with 453 runs scored. That's even worse than the Sox, who are 12th with 467 runs.

Detroit has so few offensive weapons, so as long as Castellanos can be held in check, the Sox should have an opportunity to win games against this Tigers team.

It all seems so simple: Just pitch around Castellanos and make someone else beat you, please.

White Sox lose two out of three to AL Central-leading Indians

Carlos Rodon

At least Carlos Rodon is living up to his potential, right?

Coming into the White Sox's three-game weekend series against the Cleveland Indians, I figured the South Siders would, at best, take one out of three. And, I figured the one they would win would be Friday's game with Rodon on the mound.

That's exactly how it unfolded. Here's a look back at the weekend that was.

Friday, Aug. 10
White Sox 1, Indians 0: Daniel Palka accomplished something that no Sox player had done in the previous 118 years of baseball: He hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Sox a 1-0 victory.

It's astounding that it had never happened before in all the games that have been played over the past century plus.

It's too bad the home run did not come early enough to give Rodon the win. The Sox left-hander was brilliant, pitching eight shutout innings. He allowed only four hits, struck out five and walked two. The two walks were both in the first inning. The Indians failed to make Rodon pay, and they really didn't get a sniff after that.

Rodon's season ERA now stands at 2.61. He is pitching like a No. 1 starter, although he needs to stay healthy over the long haul before he can earn the title of staff ace.

Saturday, Aug. 11
Indians 3, White Sox 1: Small steps forward for second baseman Yoan Moncada. After I criticized his poor performance on this blog last week, he went 3 for 9 with a home run and a walk in the series against Cleveland.

He still struck out four times in those 10 plate appearances, but he did connect for his 15th home run of the season for the Sox's lone run in this game. The blast to right field came off a Cy Young contender, Cleveland's Trevor Bauer.

Moncada's incremental improvement coincided with manager Rick Renteria's decision to move him out of the leadoff spot. Moncada batted eighth Friday and Saturday, and sixth on Sunday.

James Shields (4-14) continues a potential march toward a 20-loss season, although he pitched a credible game. He went seven innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on seven hits. He struck out four and walked none. Shields can't win any games, but the veteran's job in a lost season is to eat innings. He is doing that.

Sunday, Aug. 12
Indians 9, White Sox 7: It looked like this one was over in the eighth inning. The Indians led, 9-1, but the Sox made a game of it with two runs in the eighth on home runs by Adam Engel and Yolmer Sanchez, and four more runs in the ninth.

The Indians were forced to bring closer Cody Allen into the game, and the Sox had the tying run at home plate with one out in the ninth before Allen struck out Nicky Delmonico and Sanchez back to back to earn his 23rd save of the season.

It was a good game for Engel, who went 3 for 4 with the aforementioned homer, a triple, three RBIs and another spectacular catch to rob Yonder Alonso of a home run. It's too bad Engel is a .224 hitter, because his skills in center field are of elite big-league quality. I just don't think he sticks over the long haul because of his weak bat.

Speaking of not sticking over the long haul, Dylan Covey (4-9) didn't wait until the second time through the order to get shelled Sunday. He gave up four runs in the first and two more runs in the second. By the end of the third inning, Hector Santiago was on in relief for the Sox.

Covey's season ERA is up to 6.06. As we've stated in the past, it is time to remove this pitcher from the starting rotation. He is not giving his team a chance to win.

Is it time for the White Sox to send Yoan Moncada to the minor leagues?

There are three hitters on the White Sox's 25-man roster that give me a hopeless feeling, meaning when they step in the box I figure it would take a miracle from God for them to get a base hit.

Those three hitters are Adam Engel, Matt Davidson and ... Yoan Moncada.

That's right, I said it: I've lost confidence in the former No. 1 prospect in baseball, the golden boy who had everybody buying his jersey before he had accomplished anything at the major league level.

Moncada had another stinker of a game Tuesday night, 0 for 5 with four strikeouts in a 4-3, 13-inning loss to the New York Yankees. The second baseman is now in a 1-for-25 slump over his past six games that includes 16 strikeouts. In the past week, Moncada has had two games where he has struck out three times, and two other games where he has struck out four times.

The slump isn't new, either. Moncada has been brutal in the 18 games since the All-Star break. During that span, he has posted a .114/.250/.214 batting line with 31 strikeouts in 84 plate appearances.

His season slash line stands at .217/.300/.391. His batting average is now lower than both Engel and Davidson, both of whom are hitting .220 entering Wednesday's play.

Hey, at least Engel makes great catches in center field, and Davidson entertains us by moonlighting as a pitcher. What's Moncada doing other than stinking up Guaranteed Rate Field?

If his name were something other than "Yoan Moncada," fans would be calling for him to be sent to the minor leagues. I'll admit it: I'm getting really close to that point. I'm trying to be patient, but when someone is completely overmatched by major league pitching for an extended period of time, you'd be a fool not to reconsider your opinion on what's best for a young player.

There's only about a month left in the minor league season, so if the Sox were going to send Moncada down, they would have to do it soon. I'm going to stop short of calling for the team to demote Moncada immediately, but if the high strikeout totals and the poor quality of at-bats continues for the rest of this homestand, it will be time for action to be taken.

I'm sure my opinion is the minority one. I'm basically alienated from the rest of the Sox fan base at this point, because I don't think the organization is on the right path. I don't think Rick Hahn and Rick Renteria are doing a good job, and I don't think Moncada, Tim Anderson and Lucas Giolito are getting better.

We've reached a point now where Sox fans are willing to forgive all sins and all mismanagement and all poor play because it's "rebuilding." Enough of this baloney. Let's start speaking honestly. It's past time for Moncada to start showing progress. It's past time for the organization as a whole to start showing some progress at the major-league level.

Sox brass right now is enjoying responsibility with no accountability, and it's beyond ridiculous. They want fans to pay money to watch this product? Why should they? It's no wonder Yankees fans far outnumber Sox fans at Guaranteed Rate Field during this week's series.