2019-20 version of Lucas Giolito appears at right time for White Sox

Lucas Giolito

The best way for the White Sox to move past all the unnecessary drama created by manager Tony La Russa over the past 24 hours was to win a baseball game Wednesday afternoon in Minnesota.

Lucas Giolito made that happen with by far his best effort of the season. The right-hander, who entered the game with an uncharacteristic 2-4 record and 4.97 ERA, dominated the Twins over a season-high eight innings in a 2-1 victory.

He struck out a season-high 11 and allowed only two hits, both to Nelson Cruz, one of which was a home run. Giolito's signature changeup is back in effect. On Wednesday, he threw it 46 times out of 111 pitches, and it led to 13 swings-and-misses by Minnesota batters.

That allowed Giolito to get away with three walks, including two leadoff walks. As the game moved along, he became more efficient with all three of his pitches -- fastball, change and slider. He had 40 pitches through two innings, which made an eight-inning performance seem improbable, but from the fourth inning through the eighth, Giolito used only 58 pitches.

Liam Hendriks, after a rough outing Tuesday, bounced back with a 1-2-3 ninth inning with two strikeouts to earn his ninth save. Hendriks needed only nine pitches to get three outs, and five of the nine were breaking balls. The Sox closer clearly made an adjustment after surrendering the game-winning hit on a fastball in his previous outing.

The elite run prevention was necessary, since the Sox only managed two runs off Minnesota starter Matt Shoemaker, who had struggled before Wednesday. 

Props to Leury Garcia, who we've criticized a lot on this blog. He was good Wednesday. In the fifth, he doubled and scored on a infield single by Adam Eaton. In the sixth, he delivered a go-ahead RBI single that scored Jake Lamb, who had doubled.

Add it all up, and the Sox finished 10-3 in this 13-game stretch against the Kansas City Royals and the Twins. Any fan should be happy with the team's overall 26-16 record.

I'll admit that I'm more pissed off than I should be. It's just an interesting time for the Sox. They are getting national respect for the play on the field. They are ranked No. 1 in almost every MLB power ranking you can find. But at the same time, they are laughingstocks and a national punching bag, because their 76-year-old manager is lecturing players about unwritten rules, while he himself doesn't know some of the written rules of baseball.

Only the White Sox. But we can hope this team is good enough to drown out the noise and continue to win. Giolito's performance was a good first step in that direction.

Tuesday was a demoralizing and angering day to be a White Sox fan

Yermin Mercedes

People often wonder why I'm not enthusiastic about the 2021 White Sox. Yes, they are in first place. And they probably should win their division, even with all the injuries they have.

But I have no confidence in the organization whatsoever. Days like Tuesday are why.

The day started with manager Tony La Russa calling Yermin Mercedes "clueless" and generally ripping the rookie designated hitter to shreds in public.

Why? Because Mercedes committed the "big mistake" of hitting a home run on a 3-0 pitch in the ninth inning of a 15-4 game Monday night -- off a 47-mph eephus pitch from Minnesota utilityman Willians Astudillo.

The only one clueless here is La Russa, who belongs in a retirement home. If you look around the baseball world, most people are supporting Mercedes, who provided a fun moment in a game that was out of hand and generally uninteresting otherwise.

In what alternate baseball universe are we living in where hitting a home run is a "big mistake"?

The only people offended seemed to be the biased observers in the Minnesota TV booth and, well, La Russa, who for some reason is worried about "respecting" the Twins.

I don't care about the Twins and their feelings. The Sox won Monday's game 16-4. My only regret is they didn't win 26-4.

Nobody associated with the Sox should care about the Twins or their feelings. Sadly, La Russa is putting his regard for the Twins ahead of his own team. He needs to knock that off immediately. You support your players in the media, even if you disagree with something they've done. 

If he wants to have a private conversation about this with Mercedes, fine, but you don't call someone who has been a key contributor to your team for the first quarter of the season "clueless" in a public setting.

To make matters worse, the Sox had a 4-0 lead after three innings Tuesday night with Lance Lynn on the mound. They blew the whole thing and lost, 5-4.

They gave up three home runs to Miguel Sano, who came into this game with a .141 batting average. Sano's third home run of the night, a two-run shot in the bottom of the eighth that tied the game at 4 off Aaron Bummer, didn't need to happen. First base was open. The situation called for an intentional walk, or at least a pitch-around. 

"Clueless" La Russa apparently didn't think of that.

Bummer gave up a leadoff hit to Andrelton Simmons in the bottom of the ninth. As the inning progressed, Liam Hendriks lost the game by grooving a fastball right down the middle to Jorge Polanco, who doubled off the wall to score Simmons with the winning run.

And let's not forget the wonderful Sox lineup, which failed to score a single run the last five innings of the game against the reeling Minnesota bullpen.

Yes, the Sox are 25-16. Yes, the Twins are 14-26. But this was the archetypal White Sox choke job in Minnesota, and coming on the heels of the manager's asinine comments earlier in the day, it was just a demoralizing, infuriating day for me as a Sox fan.

The organization just cannot get out of its own way. Even when they have a good thing going, they invent ways to screw it up.

What do we make of Gavin Sheets' red-hot start at Charlotte?

The reports on Gavin Sheets' play at Triple-A Charlotte have been glowing so far. 

Sheets, the White Sox's second-round pick in the 2017 MLB Draft, went 3 for 5 with two home runs and five RBIs in Charlotte's 13-6 victory over Norfolk on Sunday. 

The performance added to the buzz surrounding the left-handed first baseman, as he is now hitting .367/.415/.633 with four doubles, three home runs and 13 RBIs over the first 12 games of the season.

We're already seeing some folks stumping for Sheets to be called up to the majors. 

You can understand why people would feel that way. The Sox are having trouble keeping sluggers healthy. As we've documented, Eloy Jimenez is out five to six months with a pectoral injury. Luis Robert is out 12 to 16 weeks with a strained hip flexor.

Because of these injuries, the Sox's starting outfield in Monday's game against the Minnesota Twins featured Leury Garcia, Billy Hamilton and Danny Mendick. Not exactly the stuff that World Series dreams are made of, right? (And yes, I know the Sox won 16-4 on Monday, but I don't think I would want to ride with that trio in the outfield long term.)

To add an extra layer of challenge to the situation, the Sox will be without first baseman Jose Abreu until at least Friday with left ankle inflammation. 

So yeah, the offense is lacking some key players right now, and to the Sox's credit, they've been using Sheets in right field in Charlotte -- not just at first base -- to see whether he can increase his defensive versatility. I'm sure the thinking is, "What if the oft-injured Adam Eaton gets hurt next? Then what do we do in right field? Is Sheets a potential solution?" 

No harm in kicking the tires on that possibility at Triple-A, and obviously the bat looks good right now.

But here's why I'd pump the brakes on giving Sheets an immediate recall: The hitting environment in Charlotte is extremely friendly, and the Knights have played all 12 of their games at home. Sheets isn't the only guy in Charlotte swinging the bat well. Check out these team stats. Hell, even Marco Hernandez and Seby Zavala are kicking some ass, and neither of those two players are known for high-level offense.

Looking at the schedule, the Knights start a 12-game road trip to Durham and Norfolk on Tuesday night. Let's see if these offensive gains hold for Sheets and some of the other guys at Triple-A. Then we can reassess that situation.

Jose Abreu's dash to the plate helps White Sox salvage split with Royals

Well, the White Sox didn't play the most inspiring series against the Kansas City Royals this weekend at Guaranteed Rate Field. They won only two out of the four games, which is good only in the sense that they lost two out of the first three, and come Sunday, a split was the best they could do.

And on Sunday, they were trailing 3-2 going into the bottom of the ninth inning. They scored two runs and won, 4-3, capped off by Jose Abreu scoring from third on a wild pitch that wasn't all that wild.

If you haven't seen the video of that play yet, be sure to check it out.

First off, I think Kansas City manager Mike Matheny made some bizarre decisions managing his bullpen this weekend. He used his usual closer, Josh Staumont, to finish off a 6-2 win in Game 1 of a doubleheader Friday. (The Sox won the second game, 3-1). Then he used Staumont in a non-save situation again Saturday, when Kansas City won 5-1.

So, presumably Staumont was unavailable Sunday after needlessly pitching back-to-back days in non-save situations. That left erstwhile veteran Wade Davis to try to close Sunday's game for the Royals, and he failed.

Tim Anderson doubled to lead off the bottom of the ninth. He advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Adam Eaton and scored the tying run on a single by Yoan Moncada.

Abreu was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. Yermin Mercedes followed with a single to right field, but Moncada blew through a stop sign by third-base coach Joe McEwing and got thrown out at the plate for the second out.

Fortunately, Abreu took third on the throw, and that ended up mattering. Yasmani Grandal was the next Sox hitter, and of course, opposing teams put on a shift for him when he's batting left-handed.

That means the third baseman is nowhere near the third-base line, and any runner on third can get a pretty good lead in the event that there's a ball in the dirt. From my vantage point -- I was sitting down the third-base line, as you can see in the photo I took before the game started -- Abreu was getting a substantial lead.

And when Davis bounced a breaking ball, Abreu wasted no time breaking for home, even though Kansas City catcher Cam Gallagher did a nice job of blocking the pitch and keeping the ball in the area of the plate. 

Was Abreu safe or out on the bang-bang play at the plate, as Gallagher lunged to try to tag Abreu before he touched the plate? Not sure, but I don't think there was a camera angle that showed anything conclusively. In those cases, the call on the field stands, and the call on the field was safe.

Quite a finish. I've seen plenty of games end on wild pitches, but never one quite like that.

White Sox complete sweep of Twins, will host Royals this weekend

Tim Anderson

The White Sox didn't exactly crush Minnesota right-hander Michael Pineda, but they did finally beat him. The South Siders completed a three-game sweep of the Twins with a 4-2 victory Thursday afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Pineda had made five starts against the Sox since joining the Twins in 2019. He was 4-0 in those starts, and the Twins were 5-0 in those games. Alas, that spell has been broken.

Tim Anderson hit Pineda's first pitch of the game for a home run to left field, his fifth of the season. Jake Lamb homered for the first time this season in the third. Andrew Vaughn added an RBI single in the sixth, as the Sox scored three runs off Pineda (2-2) in 5.1 innings.

Yermin Mercedes added a pinch-hit, two-out RBI single in the bottom of the eighth, which took a 3-2 Sox lead to 4-2. Remember what I said yesterday: Teams that get two-out RBIs win championships.

Those four runs turned out to be enough as Sox pitching wobbled but didn't break. Lance Lynn (4-1) needed 111 pitches to get through five innings. The Sox committed three errors behind him, which didn't help matters. 

But the veteran right-hander made one of the biggest pitches of the game in the bottom of the fifth. With the bases loaded and two outs and a 3-2 count on Mitch Garver, Lynn preserved a precarious 2-1 lead with a blazing fastball that caught Garver looking. That was Lynn's 111th and final pitch, and he made it count.

Matt Foster worked a 1-2-3 sixth. Garrett Crochet walked two in the seventh, but he also struck out two to escape trouble. For some reason, Jose Ruiz was allowed to pitch in high leverage in the eighth. He gave up a home run to Max Kepler that cut the Sox's lead to 3-2, plus two singles.

Minnesota had runners at first and second with one out and a chance to tie the game. Enter Liam Hendriks, who cleaned up that mess, then worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his seventh save.

Hendriks threw 28 pitches in Wednesday's win, so there was some question about his availability Thursday. But not only was he available, he also retired all five men he faced in high leverage.

Give Sox manager Tony La Russa full credit for going all in to win Thursday's game. Hendriks may not be available Friday against the Kansas City Royals. But if the Sox lose to the Royals on Friday because Hendriks couldn't pitch, oh well, I think it was more important to beat the Twins on Thursday.

Now, the Sox (22-13) are a full 10 games ahead of the Twins (12-23) in the AL Central standings. We expect Minnesota to play better and make a push at some point. But in the meantime, it was important to kick sand in the Twins' faces while you can.

Next up, a four-game weekend series against the Royals, which includes a doubleheader Friday. I'm going to Sunday's game, and we'll review the series when blogging resumes Monday.

Here are your pitching matchups:

• Friday, Game 1: Lucas Giolito (2-3, 4.54 ERA) vs. Brad Keller (2-4, 7.31 ERA)
• Friday, Game 2: Michael Kopech (2-0, 1.61 ERA) vs. Jakob Junis (1-2, 5.14 ERA)
• Saturday: Carlos Rodon (5-0, 0.58 ERA) vs. Mike Minor (2-2, 5.75 ERA)
• Sunday: Dylan Cease (2-0, 2.80 ERA) vs. Brady Singer (1-3, 4.19 ERA)
  

White Sox take second game of series against Twins, will try for sweep Thursday

Billy Hamilton

The White Sox are now nine games ahead of the Minnesota Twins in the AL Central after their 13-8 victory Wednesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Sure, it's only May 13, but it's worth noting that the defending division champion Twins (12-22) are 10 games below .500, and they're digging themselves quite a hole. 

Meanwhile, the Sox are 21-13 and remain in first place, one game ahead of the Cleveland Indians.

There wasn't much pitching in Wednesday's game. In fact, as a fan of well-pitched games, it was a little irritating to watch at times. The Sox were ahead 12-3 after five innings, and they were never really in danger, but it wasn't a clean finish for the bullpen.

But instead of dwelling on that, let's look at some Sox offensive highlights:

• Billy Hamilton went 4 for 4 with three runs scored and an RBI. He finished a home run short of the cycle. 
• Andrew Vaughn had only one hit, but it was the first home run of his career -- a two-run shot off J.A. Happ as part of a five-run rally in the bottom of the fourth inning.
• Jose Abreu went 2 for 5 with an RBI triple and a two-run single. All three of his RBIs came with two outs.
• Speaking of two-out RBIs, Yoan Moncada had a two-out, two-run single to cap a three-run fifth inning. Teams that get two-out RBIs win championships.
• Yasmani Grandal continued his bizarre, three-true-outcomes season. He went 1 for 3 with a home run, two walks, a strikeout and three runs scored. His ridiculous slash line now stands at .130/.384/.333.

The Sox will try for the sweep Thursday afternoon, and they'll face their nemesis -- right-hander Michael Pineda. Since Pineda joined the Twins, he's started five games against the Sox. Minnesota has won all five times.

Lance Lynn will get the call for the Sox. Carlos Rodon had his start pushed back to Saturday. Apparently, Rodon is dealing with some minor ailments -- back tightness and an achy hamstring and whatnot -- so the Sox are being cautious with him. Thanks to the off day Monday, Lynn will work on regular rest -- he last pitched Saturday in Kansas City.

Bullpen advantage shows up for White Sox in series opener vs. Twins

Garrett Crochet

If you just saw the 9-3 final score, you would think the White Sox coasted to a victory over the Minnesota Twins in the opener of their three-game series Tuesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Well, this game was actually close through five innings. Sox starter Dylan Cease and Minnesota starter Kenta Maeda both gave up three runs in the second inning, but nothing more. Both starters left after five innings with the game tied, 3-3.

Here's the difference in this game:

Sox bullpen: 4 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 Ks, 0 BBs

Twins bullpen: 3 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 Ks, 2 BBs

The Sox took the lead for good when Jose Abreu connected for his seventh home run of the season, a 2-run shot off Jorge Alcala in the bottom of the sixth. The South Siders added two runs in the seventh inning and two more in the eighth, and that made for a comfortable finish. 

And hey, congratulations to Garrett Crochet (1-2), who picked up his first major league win out of the bullpen. Crochet entered with runners at first and third and one out in the top of the sixth inning, and he kept Minnesota off the board. The Sox scored in the bottom of that inning, and there's your win.

Also of note in this game, Yasmani Grandal hit a 3-run homer in the bottom of the second inning off Maeda to tie the game, after the Twins jumped to an early 3-0 lead.

In case you were wondering about Grandal's bizarre slash line, his 1-for-4 night brings it to .121/.372/.288.