Memorial Day 2023

 As a former White Sox announcer would say, make it a safe and reflective one.

Enough with the "Are they back?" stuff with the White Sox

The White Sox played one of their worst games of the season Thursday night, and that's saying something.

Sox pitchers walked 11 Detroit batters. Sox batters struck out 13 times and did not draw a single walk. The Tigers won, 7-2, and that score flatters the Sox. It's a good thing Detroit isn't very good. A contending team probably would have scored 15 or more runs given how badly the Sox played.

But that's not what this blog is about. I was going to say this tonight even if the Sox had won: Can we stop asking the question "Are they back?" every time this team has a stretch where they look semi-decent? 

I feel as though I've heard someone say "Are they back?" approximately 563 times with regard to the Sox over the past 12 months.

Back to what? 

The last time the Sox looked like a legitimate team was the first half of the 2021 season, when they went 54-35. We know that season resulted in a AL Central championship and a quick playoff exit, and that first half was pretty much the high point of this era of Sox baseball.

Here's what the Sox have done since the All-Star break of 2021:

• Second half of 2021: 39-34
• First half of 2022: 46-46
• Second half of 2022: 35-35
• So far in 2023: 21-31
• Total: 141-146

That's a 287-game sample size, folks. The Sox are five games below .500 during that time, the picture of mediocrity.

Yes, even with tonight's loss, the Sox have won eight of their past 12 games. They have displayed more competency as of late, but that is not a sign that they are a legitimate contender. They simply aren't as bad as their 13-27 start suggested, and they were due for some positive regression to the mean.

The mean is mediocrity. Before this season is over, I wouldn't count out the possibility of the Sox getting "back" to around .500, because that is who they are. 

The Sox team you're watching now is the same team you've been watching for nearly two years. They aren't "back" to anything, other than spinning their wheels as an organization.

Michael Kopech dominates for second straight outing

At one point in time, Michael Kopech was the White Sox prospect I was most excited about. I even said as much on a hype video that was played during the opening ceremonies at SoxFest 2018.

However, between injuries and inconsistency, Kopech has never lived up to the high hopes I had for him. Recently, I've been telling friends, "I think he's good enough to be a starting pitcher in the majors, but he's not special."

Two games isn't enough to change that assessment, but that said, Kopech has been special in his past two outings.

On Wednesday afternoon in Cleveland, Kopech struck out nine and allowed only two hits over seven shutout innings, leading the Sox to a 6-0 victory over the Guardians.

This comes on the heels of Kopech's win over the Kansas City Royals last Friday, when he flirted with a perfect game and allowed only hit over eight shutout innings.

Here's the combined line for Kopech over his past two starts:

15 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 19 Ks, 1 BB

Kopech (3-4) has lowered his ERA from 5.74 to 4.24. What's different? Well, he's sticking with his best pitch -- the fastball -- and commanding it exceptionally well. Kopech walked 28 batters over his first eight starts. Now, he's stopped issuing free passes.

Of the 92 pitches Kopech threw Wednesday, 62 were strikes. Coincidentally, he also threw 62 fastballs, which generated 12 of Cleveland's 16 swing-and-misses on the day. 

Some might say both Kansas City and Cleveland are weak-hitting teams, and that's not wrong. But I would counter by saying we've seen the Royals and Guardians crush Sox pitching before, so I'm not going to demean the accomplishment.

It's also worth noting that this was only the 43rd start of Kopech's career. That's somewhat hard to believe, since he made his major league debut almost five years ago. Perhaps there's still some growth to be made, given his relative inexperience -- in terms of starts and innings, not years of service.

It sure would help the Sox if Kopech becomes a top-of-the-rotation pitcher.

The Sox are 21-30.

White Sox bats arrive in late innings at Cleveland

Dylan Cease

Remember when the White Sox were 15-0 against left-handed starters in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season? 

Unfortunately, you can't count on that as an offensive strength for the Sox anymore. Entering Tuesday's game against the Cleveland Guardians, the South Siders were 2-7 this season when facing a left-handed pitcher.

Make it 3-7.

It didn't look good early, but the Sox bats arrived in the late innings to beat Cleveland and lefty Logan Allen, 4-2.

Through four innings, the Sox managed only one hit and trailed, 1-0. But catcher Yasmani Grandal hit his fourth home run of the season -- on an 0-2 pitch, no less -- to tie the game at 1.

Cleveland retook the lead in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI double by Josh Naylor, but the 2-1 advantage would be short-lived.

The first five Sox batters reached base against Allen in the top of the seventh. Andrew Vaughn reached on an infield single and advanced to third on a double by Andrew Benintendi.

Vaughn scored when Cleveland third baseman Jose Ramirez booted a grounder off Grandal's bat. Clint Frazier walked to loaded the bases, with still no outs, and Romy Gonzalez delivered a two-run double to put the Sox ahead, 4-2.

The line stopped moving there, however. Enyel De Los Santos relieved for Cleveland, and he struck out Tim Anderson, Jake Burger and Luis Robert Jr. in succession to strand runners on second and third.

That was a missed opportunity to blow the game wide open, but it turned out that was all the runs the Sox needed.

Dylan Cease (3-3) picked up his first win since April 10 with six innings of two-run ball. The Sox ace was once again lacking his swing-and-miss stuff, as he struck out only three. But he walked only two and limited the Guardians to five hits.

Keynan Middleton, Joe Kelly and Kendall Graveman each worked a scoreless inning of relief. Graveman -- who earned his fourth save of 2023 -- allowed a walk and a hit, but a well-timed double play kept the Guardians off the board. 

The Sox are 20-30. The Guardians are 21-27.

White Sox limited to three hits in loss at Cleveland

So much for the good vibes from that series sweep of Kansas City, huh?

The White Sox managed only three hits Monday and lost, 3-0, to the Cleveland Guardians in the first game of a three-game series in Cleveland. 

Cleveland starter Hunter Gaddis entered this game with a 6.86 ERA in five previous games. He last faced the Sox on Sept. 15, 2022. In that game, he gave up seven earned runs -- including five homers -- over four innings pitched.

But on Monday, he threw six scoreless innings of two-hit ball to earn his first major league victory. 

Embarrassing for the Sox, although we shouldn't be surprised.

What's frustrating is the Sox got exactly what they needed from Triple-A call-up Jesse Scholtens (0-2), who was added to the roster after Mike Clevinger hit the 15-day injured list with right wrist inflammation.

Scholtens pitched five innings and allowed one run on two hits. The only run scored on a wild pitch, which should have been caught by Yasmani Grandal -- frankly, I thought it was a passed ball.

The Guardians got some breathing room in the seventh inning when Mike Zunino hit a two-out, two-strike, two-run homer off Gregory Santos to make it 3-0. 

Zunino had been in a 1-for-31 slump, so giving up a big hit to him right now is tough to accept.

As a matter of fact, everything about this game was tough to accept, but there is a reason the Sox are 19-30.

White Sox sweep Kansas City Royals

Guaranteed Rate Field on Sunday afternoon.

It's only the Kansas City Royals, but the 2023 White Sox have finally swept a three-game series. And given that the Royals took three out of four from the Sox in Kansas City just last week, perhaps we shouldn't be minimizing the accomplishment. 

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

Friday, May 19: White Sox 2, Royals 0

Michael Kopech (2-4) dominated the Royals over eight innings, allowing only one hit while striking out 10 and walking none. The lone Kansas City hit was a broken-bat single by Michael Massey, and he was quickly erased when Jackie Bradley Jr. grounded into a double play. 

Kendall Graveman worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his third save of the season, and Sox pitchers ended up facing the minimum 27 batters. That's the first time the Sox have done that since Philip Humber's perfect game in 2012.

The Sox offense produced only five singles, but four of them came in the second inning, yielding the only two runs that were needed. Gavin Sheets had an RBI single, and Romy Gonzalez added a sacrifice fly.

Saturday, May 20: White Sox 5, Royals 1

Jake Burger's three-run double in the bottom of the sixth inning turned a slim 2-1 Sox lead into a comfortable advantage. Yoan Moncada's two-run single in the first inning produced the other Sox runs.

After giving up a home run to Salvador Perez in the first inning, Lucas Giolito (3-3) settled in to give the Sox six quality innings. He allowed six hits, while striking out four and walking one. 

Four Sox relievers combined to allow only one hit over the last three innings.

Sunday, May 21: White Sox 5, Royals 2

The big hit in this game came from Gonzalez, of all people. The backup infielder entered Sunday's game with a .132 batting average, but with runners on second and third and the Sox trailing 2-1 in the fifth inning, Gonzalez delivered a two-run triple that put the Sox ahead to stay. His average is up to .195 after a 3-for-3 day.

Luis Robert connected for this 13th home run of the season, a solo shot in the fourth, and Andrew Benintendi added the other two RBIs -- a sacrifice fly after Gonzalez's triple in the fifth and an RBI single in the seventh.

Lance Lynn (3-5) gave up a two-run homer to Massey in the second, but nothing more, over six innings. He struck out six and walked two.

Relievers Keynan Middleton, Aaron Bummer and Joe Kelly did not allow a hit over the final three innings. Kelly struck out two in his 1-2-3 ninth inning and earned his first save of the season.

The Sox are 19-29. The Royals are 14-34.

White Sox blow opportunity to sweep Guardians

I concluded Thursday's blog by noting that the White Sox need to sweep some divisional opponents to get back in the AL Central race. Taking two out of three games isn't enough.

The Sox had an opportunity to sweep the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday at Guaranteed Rate Field, but they kicked away that chance, losing 3-1.

They lost despite having ace Dylan Cease on the mound. They lost despite Cleveland being without its two best run producers in Jose Ramirez and Josh Naylor. They lost despite loading the bases with no outs in the second inning -- a golden scoring chance that the Sox let go by the boards.

They lost because Tim Anderson couldn't execute a routine play at shortstop. With the score tied 1-1 in the top of the seventh inning, the Guardians placed runners on second and third with one out.

Cease induced a weak grounder off the bat of rookie infielder Brayan Rocchio. Had Anderson fielded it cleanly, he had Will Brennan -- the Cleveland runner on third -- dead in the water at home plate. Instead, the dribbler clanked off Anderson's glove for an error. Brennan scored to give Cleveland a 2-1 lead. The Guardians added another run in that inning and closed out the game from there.

The Sox are 16-29. The Guardians are 20-23. This game was the difference between being three games behind Cleveland and five games behind. 

The Sox are five games behind. This is not how you get back in the race.