White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson swings hot bat in Kansas City

Tim Anderson

The White Sox won three games out of a five-game series against the Kansas City Royals over the past four days. It wasn't the most rousing series ever -- the Sox scored only 18 runs in those five games -- but at least they left Kansas City with a better record than when they arrived.

Thursday afternoon, the Sox won, 7-4, to improve to 19-19. Since the team won today, I don't want to be too dour, so I'll point out that Tim Anderson had a really good series against the Royals.

He appeared in four of the games. He went 7 for 17 with two walks and an HBP, so he reached base in 10 of his 20 plate appearances. That's what you want from a leadoff guy. Too bad he only scored two runs in the series, but that's not his fault.

Anderson had a good game Thursday, going 2 for 3 with two walks, two stolen bases, two RBIs and a run scored.

The Royals stink. They are 14-23, so it would have been really disappointing to not win the majority of the games in this series.

Up next for the Sox, three games in New York against the Yankees, starting Friday night.

That series will conclude the eight-games-in-seven-days road trip. I came into this week hoping the Sox would go 4-4. They need to win one game against the Yankees to achieve that modest goal.

The Yankees are 28-10. They are legitimate World Series contenders. They are a better team than the Sox. But, they have lost 10 games this year, so the Sox need to man up, find a way to get a win sometime this weekend, and then regroup on the off day Monday.

Despite all the issues, the Sox are only three games behind the Minnesota Twins in the AL Central entering Friday's play.

Big-picture observation from the White Sox-Yankees series

Guaranteed Rate Field on Sunday

The New York Yankees took three games out of four from the White Sox this weekend at Guaranteed Rate Field.

The Yankees outscored the Sox, 32-15. In short, they clobbered the Sox (16-17) in each of their three victories. The two games I attended, Friday and Sunday, were basically over after the second inning.

The one game the Sox won was a 3-2 squeaker Saturday, behind five shutout innings from Dallas Keuchel, of all people.

I don't feel like rehashing this whole series, because it was bad. The atmosphere at the stadium, at least for Friday and Sunday, was dead. I came away feeling fortunate that the Sox managed one win, because it was like watching a varsity team vs. a junior varsity team. 

So my big-picture observation is this: It’s Year 6 of general Rick Hahn’s master plan. By now, shouldn’t we feel like the Sox match up with these top teams such as the Yankees? Instead, we’re hoping and praying to win one game out of four at home.

Is that really the standard? The Sox intentionally punted three seasons from 2017-19. They did so while promising fans that an extended contention window was coming. That contention window is supposed to be right now. 

However, the Sox still haven't proven they belong on the same field with the American League's elite. That's irritating.

White Sox game postponed because of COVID; Yankees up next

The White Sox game against the Cleveland Guardians was postponed Wednesday because of a COVID-19 outbreak in the Cleveland organization.

Seriously? This is still happening in 2022? OK, whatever. I don't care about viruses, so let's get back to baseball.

The Sox will welcome the New York Yankees for a four-game series from Thursday through Sunday at Guaranteed Rate Field. I don't believe in "measuring sticks" in May, but it's worth noting that the Yankees are a league-best 22-8 entering Thursday's action. It will be interesting to see whether the Sox can hold their own and win a couple of games.

Here are the pitching matchups:

Thursday: Dylan Cease (3-1, 2.38 ERA) vs. Luis Gil (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

Friday: Vince Velasquez (2-2, 3.97 ERA) vs. Gerrit Cole (2-0, 2.67 ERA)

Saturday: Dallas Keuchel (2-3, 6.86 ERA) vs. Jordan Montgomery (0-1, 2.90 ERA)

Sunday: Michael Kopech (0-0, 0.93 ERA) vs. Nestor Cortes (1-1, 1.41 ERA)

Some Sox fans have expressed bewilderment that Keuchel is being allowed to pitch in this series. The unexpected off day Wednesday theoretically would allow the Sox to skip Keuchel. Kopech could pitch on regular rest Saturday, and then Lucas Giolito would be lined up to pitch Sunday.

But here's what I think is going on: The Sox have Johnny Cueto getting ready in the minors. They have add him to the active roster by Sunday, or he can opt out of his contract. 

Cueto's fate is intertwined with Keuchel's. Velasquez has outpitched Keuchel and deserves to keep his spot. So the question becomes, "Cueto or Keuchel?"

In his last start, Keuchel had a good outing and picked up a win against the Boston Red Sox. He's getting one more chance to prove he can string together a couple of good performances, and to prove he can still keep the Sox competitive against a quality opponent.

If Keuchel gets cuffed around and the Sox get destroyed Saturday, then I think we see Cueto added to the roster. He'd take the last spot in the rotation, at least until Lance Lynn returns from knee surgery, presumably in early June.

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.

White Sox sweep Red Sox at Fenway Park

Jose Abreu

The White Sox have scored four runs or fewer in each of their past six games. However, they've won all six of them. That's never happened before in franchise history.

As Chris Kamka pointed out on Twitter, the Sox once had a five-game winning streak where they scored four runs or fewer in every game -- from Sept. 18-25, 1904.

Has the dead ball era returned? The run-scoring environment has certainly been low in Major League Baseball so far this season, but this weekend in Boston, the Sox managed to score a run or two more than the Red Sox every day and complete a three-game sweep.

Let's look back at the weekend that was:

Friday, May 6

White Sox 4, Red Sox 2: A three-run third inning ended up being all the Sox needed in this game. Tim Anderson and AJ Pollock singled. Jose Abreu hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Anderson, and Luis Robert hit his fourth home run of the season -- a two-run shot -- to put the Sox ahead 3-0. Boston never caught up.

Vince Velasquez (2-2) pitched five innings of one-run ball to earn his second victory during this winning streak. Four relievers combined to limit the Red Sox to one run on three hits over four innings. Liam Hendriks worked a 1-2-3 ninth to earn his eighth save of the season.

Saturday, May 7

White Sox 3, Red Sox 1 (10 innings): This was an extremely frustrating game for eight innings. Boston starter Nick Pivetta entered the game with a 7.64 ERA, and he blanked the Sox for six innings.

In fact, Boston took a 1-0 lead into the ninth inning. The Sox offense woke up just in time. Jake Burger drew a leadoff walk, advanced to third on a double by Adam Engel and scored on a sacrifice fly by Leury Garcia to tie the game and force the extra inning.

In the 10th, Abreu doubled in the ghost runner to put the Sox up 2-1. Robert then singled to score Abreu and account for the final margin.

Hendricks worked a 1-2-3 10th for his ninth save of the season, making a winner out of Reynaldo Lopez (4-0), who escaped a second-and-third, one-out jam in the bottom of the ninth.

Dylan Cease struck out eight over five innings of one-run ball for the Sox.

Sunday, May 8

White Sox 3, Red Sox 2: Just like Friday night, a three-run third inning was all the Sox needed. The rally featured an RBI infield single by Garcia and a two-run double by Abreu. The Sox had only six hits in the game, but at least they bunched three of them in one inning.

Dallas Keuchel (2-3) might have been pitching for his job, and it showed. He kept Boston off the scoreboard for the first five innings, before cracking and allowing two runs in the sixth. Keuchel struck out five and walked only one, and he ended up getting the win because the lesser-known relievers in the Sox bullpen were able to hold a one-run edge over the last three innings.

Hendriks had worked five out of six days and was unavailable. Kendall Graveman and Aaron Bummer were also unavailable, with Bummer headed to the injured list with a knee problem.

Turns out Ryan Burr, Matt Foster, Jose Ruiz and Bennett Sousa got it done. Burr had a 1-2-3 seventh. Foster struck out the side in the eighth. Ruiz gave up a leadoff double in the ninth to J.D. Martinez, but he recorded two outs after that. Sousa came on and got pinch hitter Kevin Plawecki to fly out to Robert to end the game. For the left-handed rookie, it was his first career save.

The Sox are 14-13.

White Sox put Andrew Vaughn on IL, recall Danny Mendick

The White Sox on Thursday placed outfielder/first baseman Andrew Vaughn on the 10-day injured list because of a bruised right hand.

Utility infielder Danny Mendick has been recalled from Triple-A Charlotte to take Vaughn's place on the roster.

The question here is, what took the Sox so long?

Vaughn was struck on the hand April 29 by a pitch from Los Angeles Angels right-hander Mike Mayers. Basically, the Sox have hoped for a week that Vaughn was a day away from returning, but he's still reporting pain and inflammation in the hand.

The move is retroactive to May 2, because teams can only make retroactive moves three days in the past. So, Vaughn isn't eligible to come off the injured list until May 12. Had he been placed on the IL the day after the injury, he'd be eligible to play May 10.

Vaughn has been one of the Sox's most productive hitters in the early season. He's batting .283/.367/.566. He's tied for the team lead with four home runs and leads the club with 12 RBIs.