Oh joy, another round of White Sox injuries

Lucas Giolito

Just when you thought the White Sox were getting healthy for the first time in 2021, Tuesday brought another round of injury concerns.

It turns out that shortstop Tim Anderson's day off on Sunday wasn't just a day off. He's still having a problem with his hamstring. He wasn't in the lineup Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates, and he is not expected to play Wednesday. Thursday is a day off, so maybe Anderson can be ready by this weekend's series against the Kansas City Royals. If not, perhaps a stint on the 10-day injured list is in order.

Pitcher Lance Lynn is on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to Aug. 28. He has right knee inflammation, and he is expected to miss one start. Utility player Danny Mendick was recalled from Triple-A Charlotte to take Lynn's place on the roster.

And pitcher Lucas Giolito left Tuesday night's game in the fifth inning with left hamstring tightness. Giolito slipped on the grass while fielding a grounder in between the mound and home plate. He threw four more pitches -- three of them out of the zone -- before exiting.

Final line on Giolito: 4.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 Ks, 4 BBs.

Here's the good news: The Sox were playing the last-place Pirates, so they won 4-2 behind 4.2 innings of scoreless bullpen work.

Ryan Tepera allowed an inherited runner to score, but closed out the fifth without further damage. Michael Kopech, Aaron Bummer, Craig Kimbrel and Liam Hendriks all pitched a scoreless inning. Kopech got the win to improve to 4-2, while Hendriks secured his 30th save.

Jose Abreu hit his 28th home run of the season, and Yasmani Grandal hit his 18th homer. The Sox broke a 2-2 tie in the sixth with two runs, one on a bases-loaded walk by Brian Goodwin, the other on a sacrifice fly by Leury Garcia. 

The Sox are 77-56, and they still lead the AL Central by 10 games with 29 games left in the season. Cross another day off the calendar, and turn the page to September. The Sox still have another month to get as healthy as possible before October.

Yasmani Grandal's return and other crosstown series thoughts

Yasmani Grandal

Sometimes it's amazing the difference one player can make. The White Sox lineup just looks better now that Yasmani Grandal has returned from the injured list.

Give the veteran catcher full credit: He came back ready to hit. In a three-game weekend series against the Cubs, Grandal went 6 for 10 with three home runs, a double and 10 RBIs. 

The Sox (76-56) won two of three games from their crosstown rivals. They are 5-1 against the Cubs this season and captured the Crosstown Cup for the first time since 2016.

With Grandal's return, the Sox lineup is now seven batters deep. The only two weak spots are second baseman Cesar Hernandez, and whoever manager Tony La Russa puts in right field. But once Adam Engel comes off the injured list, La Russa will have more options, and he can mitigate that weakness by selecting a player who has a platoon advantage -- and by batting that player at the bottom of the lineup with Hernandez.

In the meantime, a top seven of Tim Anderson, Luis Robert, Jose Abreu, Eloy Jimenez, Yoan Moncada, Grandal and Andrew Vaughn looks pretty good. All seven of those batters are above league average at their respective positions. 

For the first time all season, the gang is all here, so now it's up to the players to get the job done.

Cease continues strong second half

In this weekend series, the Sox got two weak starts from Dallas Keuchel and Lance Lynn. The Sox overcame the poor performance by Keuchel on Friday night, but they were unable to come from behind twice in a row after Lynn dug them a big hole Saturday night.

Enter Dylan Cease on Sunday, and he dominated the Cubs the way a good pitcher should in a 13-1 victory. 

The right-hander went six innings, striking out 11 and walking only two. He allowed one run on four hits. 

Cease now leads the Sox both in wins (11) and strikeouts (188), and he has allowed three earned runs or less in 10 consecutive starts. During that span, he has lowered his ERA from 4.14 to 3.82.

By contrast, Keuchel is 1-4 with a 7.42 ERA in his past eight starts. Unless something drastically changes in September, it's clear that Cease deserves a spot on the playoff roster over Keuchel.

Cubs fans with short memories

I've seen a lot of comments on social media where Cubs fans have complained about Sox fans rubbing their noses in it after a lopsided crosstown series.

Me personally, I don't feel like bragging too much about the Sox punishing the Cubs. After all, the Cubs stink, and the Sox should be dominating them. That said, I don't blame any Sox fan who wants to stick his or her middle finger in the face of a Cubs fan right now.

It wasn't so long ago that the roles were reversed -- the Cubs were contending, and the Sox were losing almost every day and tanking for draft position. During that period, Cubs fans had absolutely no problem chirping at me when their team was pounding the bejesus out of Carson Fulmer and lighting up James Shields.

In 2018, I couldn't wear my Sox hat out in public without some haughty Cubs fan telling me how much the Sox sucked. I could write a whole blog entry about the smart-ass comments I endured around town that summer.

Now the roles are reversed, and some Cubs fans are expecting Sox fans to lay off them because the "Cubs are not even trying to win." True enough, but the 2018 Sox lost 100 games and started the season by dropping 27 out of their first 36, including the aforementioned two shellackings against the Cubs. Do you think the Sox were "trying to win" then? I would argue not.

Cubs fans weren't nice to Sox fans when we were down, so why should Sox fans take it easy on Cubs fans now? It's apparent that some of these Cubbie faithful have forgotten how they acted when their team was winning. Time to move out of the glass house, folks.

Carlos Rodon picks up victory in return from injured list

Carlos Rodon

White Sox left-hander Carlos Rodon returned to the mound for the first time since Aug. 7 on Thursday, he was effective.

Rodon (10-5) went five innings, allowing two runs on five hits, and picked up the victory as the Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 10-7, in the finale of a four-game series and a seven-game road trip.

Even though Rodon was not overpowering -- he struck out only three -- he was reasonably efficient. He tossed 67 pitches, 46 of them for strikes. When Rodon left the game, some fans on social media were upset that he wasn't allowed to continue.

Personally, I was fine with pulling Rodon. The score was 9-2 in favor of the Sox at that point, and I didn't see any point in wasting Rodon's arm on this particular game, especially coming off the shoulder soreness he experienced after his previous start.

You would like to think the bullpen would handle those 12 outs with a big lead fairly easily, but this is the Sox bullpen we're talking about, and somebody new fails every day.

This time, it was Michael Kopech's turn to fail, as he was pounded for five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. That brought the Blue Jays within two runs at 9-7, but things stabilized for the Sox from there. Ryan Tepera, Garrett Crochet and Craig Kimbrel all worked scoreless innings to close it out, with Kimbrel getting his first save since joining the Sox.

But the bigger story was the Sox offense, which was productive for the first time in a long time. The Sox are 33-5 in games where they hit two home runs or more, and they hit four in this game -- Cesar Hernandez, Luis Robert, Jose Abreu and Eloy Jimenez went deep.

Tim Anderson went 3 for 5 with two RBIs, and Leury Garcia was 2 for 3 with two runs scored and two RBIs. Garcia, who just returned from the concussion IL, gave the Sox a lift with a 6-for-11 series against the Blue Jays.

The Sox are 74-55. They finish this 14-game stretch against winning teams with a 7-7 record. Their AL Central lead is nine going into a weekend series with the crosstown Cubs.

Bummer: White Sox waste good starting pitching in Toronto

Lucas Giolito

Through the first three games of their four-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays, the White Sox have received excellent starting pitching.

Lance Lynn, Dylan Cease and Lucas Giolito have combined to pitch 20 innings, allowing only three runs. That should lead to a 3-0 record, or 2-1 at the very least. Instead, the Sox are 1-2 because they can't hit, and their allegedly lights-out bullpen stinks.

Giolito tossed six innings of one-run ball Wednesday night, but it wasn't enough. Toronto scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and beat the Sox, 3-1.

The bullpen management by Tony La Russa was curious, to say the least. Ryan Tepera worked a scoreless seventh, and that part was fine. But it was baffling that lefty Aaron Bummer got the call in the eighth to pitch against the right-hand-dominant middle of the Toronto batting order.

It almost worked, in spite of the faulty logic. Bummer struck out Marcus Semien and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to start the inning. But the three right-handed hitters that followed -- Teoscar Hernandez, Breyvic Valera and Alejandro Kirk -- delivered three straight singles, the last of which produced a 2-1 Toronto lead.

Finally, La Russa gave Bummer the hook, and he goes to ... Jose Ruiz. To be fair to Ruiz, his defense failed him. Yoan Moncada kicked a grounder by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to load the bases. The inning should have been over. But Ruiz walked Randal Grichuk on four pitches to force in Toronto's third and final run of the night, and that's hard to accept.

Ruiz has proven time and again he doesn't belong in high-leverage spots. I guess if he was going to be the guy to come in, might as well have stuck with Bummer, huh?

Regardless, the Sox can't hit right now. They managed only six hits, all singles, and struck out 16 times in this loss. For this team, it doesn't end well when the home run power isn't there.

The Sox are 73-55. The AL Central lead is nine games, after Cleveland beat Texas on Wednesday.

Four-run first inning enough for White Sox in win over Toronto

Jose Abreu

One night after managing only one run on five hits in the series opener against the Toronto Blue Jays, the White Sox piled up four runs on six hits in the first inning alone Tuesday night.

That turned out to be the difference in a 5-2 victory. In fact, the Sox had three runs on three hits on the first five pitches of the game thrown by Toronto starter Jose Berrios.

Luis Robert singled on the first pitch of the game. Yoan Moncada singled on the third pitch. Jose Abreu lauched a 3-run homer, his 26th of the season, on the fifth pitch to give the Sox a 3-0 lead.

From that point forward, the Sox pounded out 15 more hits for a total of 18, but they could only produce two more runs. That's hard to do when you think about it. Wouldn't you score more runs just on accident? The South Siders stranded 12 runners.

But, the pitching was good enough to make that early lead hold up the entire game. Dylan Cease (10-6) picked up his 10th win of the season, tossing seven innings of one-run ball. He struck out seven, walked one and limited Toronto to four hits.

Cease continues to make a strong case for inclusion in a potential playoff rotation.

The Sox bullpen? Shaky again, but a win is a win. Liam Hendriks recorded his 29th save of the season, and he needed 39 pitches to record five outs. 

With the Sox leading 5-1, Michael Kopech allowed a pair of Toronto singles with one out in the bottom of the eighth, putting runners on first and third. Hendriks entered and walked Marcus Semien to load the bases.

That brought up Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who is good enough to be the AL MVP this season -- he just won't be because of that Shohei Ohtani guy. Hendriks ran the count full before coaxing Guerrero to ground into an inning-ending double play.

Hendriks labored through the ninth, too, allowing a run on three hits. But he induced Santiago Espinal to ground out to second base with two on and two out to end the game.

Exhale.

The Sox are 73-54. The Cleveland Indians lost, 7-3, to the Texas Rangers. The Sox now have a 10-game lead in the AL Central.

Lance Lynn forgets to throw a shutout; White Sox lose in Toronto

Lance Lynn

Before Monday's game between the White Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays, I texted friends and said, "I hope Lance Lynn remembers to throw a shutout. He'll have to if he wants to win this game."

Well, Lynn forgot to throw a shutout. Oh, he was very good, providing seven innings of one-run ball against a tough Toronto lineup. Unfortunately, the Sox offense was once again a near no-show, and the Craig Kimbrel trade continues to look like a terrible move. 

The Blue Jays scored the go-ahead run on a Kimbrel wild pitch in the bottom of the eighth inning and beat the Sox, 2-1.

However, the big story continues to be the lack of offense from the Sox, especially in the past three games while Tim Anderson has been sidelined by "leg soreness."

I'm starting to get concerned about Anderson, because he hasn't played in four of the past five Sox games. It's not a coincidence that the Sox only win in those five games came the one time when Anderson was in the lineup.

They've been held to five runs combined in their past three games, all losses. During Monday's broadcast, it was noted that the Sox average 2.38 runs in innings where Anderson scores a run, and 0.43 runs in innings where he does not.

In other words, he's in the middle of most of their offense. The Sox are 61-43 when Anderson starts, 11-11 when he does not.

We hear a lot about the Sox allegedly having a "stacked lineup," but often, if Anderson is either not playing or in a slump, the offense goes right in the ditch. It's concerning that so much seems to hinge on one guy for a team with championship aspirations.

The Sox are 72-54 and have a nine-game lead in the AL Central.

But again, as we've stated, they've done little to erase some of the season-long criticisms that have been levied against them. The Sox are 13-20 in one-run games, 7-16 on the road against winning teams. Uninspiring.

If the White Sox only win the AL Central, does that qualify as a good season?

Tim Anderson

The White Sox's performance in Tampa Bay over the weekend didn't exactly convince me that this team is bound for October glory.

Admittedly, winning one out of three on the road against the team with the best record in the American League is hardly a disaster. In fact, it was probably an expected result.

However, watching these three games, I just didn't like *how* the results unfolded in this three-game series.

The Sox made it difficult on themselves in the one game they won -- a 7-5 victory in 11 innings Friday night. They got seven quality innings from Lucas Giolito and took a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the eighth.

That's when the super bullpen that is supposed to help carry the Sox in the playoffs is supposed to appear, right? 

Nope. Not this time. Craig Kimbrel and Aaron Bummer combined to give up three runs and send the Sox into the ninth inning facing a 5-4 deficit.

That's when Tim Anderson put on his Superman cape. He homered in the top of the ninth to tie it. Then he singled in the go-ahead run in the top of the 11th and scored an insurance run to make it 7-5.

Anderson went 3 for 6 with four runs scored and basically won the game for the Sox. Great for him, but I would have preferred to see the bullpen lock up a nice, clean 4-2 win.

On Saturday, Dallas Keuchel made a start in his personal house of horrors. Lifetime at Tropicana Field, he's 0-5 with a 6.44 ERA in six starts. In this game, he gave up six runs on nine hits over five innings. He dug the Sox a 6-1 hole in an eventual 8-4 loss that was only somewhat competitive.

Keuchel's approach of throwing sinkers to induce ground balls just doesn't work on the turf in Tampa Bay. Those grounders were shooting past the Sox infielders all afternoon.

But if you thought Saturday was noncompetitive, you should have seen Sunday, when the Sox lost 9-0. Tampa Bay starter Chris Archer left after two innings with a hip injury, but four Rays relievers covered the last seven innings with astonishingly little difficulty. It took the Sox until the sixth inning to get a runner to second base.

Sox starter Reynaldo Lopez was mediocre -- he allowed three runs over four innings -- but he would have had to give up negative runs to have any chance of winning this game. It was ugly in all facets.

So, where does this series loss leave the Sox? Well, they are 72-53, still 9.5 games ahead of the Cleveland Indians in the AL Central.

Barring a historic collapse in the final 37 games of the season, the Sox will win their division and go to the playoffs. And if they do, the achievement is not insignificant -- the Sox haven't won their division since 2008.

The question is, if the Sox win the AL Central, then make a quick exit in the AL Division Series, does that still qualify as a good season? 

It seems as though that's the most likely outcome. The Sox are certainly better than the Cleveland Indians or anyone else in their division, but they would be clear underdogs in a five-game playoff series against Tampa Bay, the Houston Astros or the New York Yankees.

I mean, two or three years ago, every Sox fan would have killed for the opportunity to win the division and go to the playoffs. So, if you're happy about the way the season is going, you have every right to that joy.

But is that enough for this team? I'm going to say no. I'm not going to be happy if this team fails to win a playoff round, and it's because of the comments we've heard coming from the White Sox themselves, and others affiliated with the team.

The players, the front office, the broadcasters, they have all basically indicated that anything less than the World Series would be a disappointment. Hell, the GM said as much on the first day of spring training.

The Sox didn't hire Tony La Russa as manager to bow out in the first round of the playoffs, nor did they make a major move to acquire Kimbrel at the trade deadline to make a quick October exit.

This team expects to compete for a championship, and you cannot blame fans who hold them to that standard.

Unfortunately, the Sox are 7-15 on the road against winning teams this season, and this latest series against Tampa Bay was a kick-to-the-groin reminder that we're still waiting for the Sox to make that step forward from being a nice little team to being a legitimate title contender.