Memorial Day 2022

 Make it a safe and reflective one.

White Sox finally stand up to Yankees in doubleheader sweep

The White Sox lost five of six games to the New York Yankees in 2021, and through the first five meetings of 2022, not much had changed. The Yankees won four of the five.

So, it was a real pleasant surprise when the Sox finally stood up to New York and swept a doubleheader Sunday at Yankee Stadium.

The strange part was I didn't feel as though the Sox played any better than usual. When the Sox have won this season, they've done it with pitching. Sunday was no exception, as the South Siders limited the Yankees to one run in 18 innings. They won, 3-1, and 5-0, respectively.

The Sox offense was generally substandard, as they left a combined 16 men on base in the doubleheader and misfired on numerous scoring opportunities. But hey, you don't have to cash in many of them if you can keep the opposition off the board, and that's what Sox pitching did. 

I will bring up a couple of encouraging signs about the offense, but first, credit has to go to Sox starting pitchers Johnny Cueto and Michael Kopech. Neither of them allowed a run to the Yankees across 13 innings pitched.

Cueto went six shutout innings in Game 1. He allowed six hits, struck out five and walked two. When he left the game in the seventh inning, the Sox were leading 1-0. He got a no-decision because the Yankees tied it in the eighth before the Sox won it in the ninth, but the veteran Cueto has been better than expected since being added to the roster. 

He's yet to allow a run across two starts. His first outing was against the lowly Kansas City Royals, so maybe that's not overly impressive. But six scoreless against the Yankees, the second-best offense in the AL, that gets your attention.

Speaking of getting your attention, Kopech (1-1) retired the first 17 batters he faced in Game 2. He ended up going seven innings and allowing only one hit. He struck out six and walked two, with both walks coming in the seventh inning when he was starting to run out of gas.

Kopech threw 92 pitches, 65 strikes, and got 16 swings and misses. It's hard to believe Sunday was his first victory of the season, for as well as he's pitched. He ranks second in the AL with a 1.29 ERA. Opponents are batting just .122 against him, as he has allowed only 17 hits in 42 innings pitched. He has yet to allow a hit on a first pitch to any batter this season.

I think it's fair to say Kopech has made the transition from reliever to starter successfully. The big test is whether he can hold up physically through the whole season. On Sunday, his fastball topped out at 100.2 mph. So far, so good.

Now, back to the offense. Game 1 was tied 1-1 going into the ninth inning. AJ Pollock's home run off New York closer Aroldis Chapman gave the Sox the lead for good.

It was easily Pollock's biggest hit of the season, as no one would say he's played up to his capabilities to this point. For the season, Pollock is batting .245/.277/.383 with only two homers and 10 RBIs.

But ....

In his last 13 games, Pollock is batting .326/.362/.581 with two homers, five doubles and six RBIs. There are signs of life from the 34-year-old veteran outfielder.

And, then there's Tim Anderson. I don't have any hot takes on Anderson's altercation with Josh Donaldson. You can find those all over the internet. The Sox shortstop capped a 3-for-5 night with a three-run homer in the five-run eighth inning in Game 2. 

Anderson is batting .359/.400/.517 with five home runs and 18 RBIs. He leads all major league shortstops in WAR, wRC+, wOBA, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS.

So, whether you like traditional statistics or the more new-age stuff, Anderson's your guy at shortstop. And while he does have nine errors this season, he has not committed an error in 21 of his past 22 games, so perhaps his defensive slump is over.

And even with those errors, he's a 2.0 WAR player a quarter of the way through the season. That's how good his bat is. If this keeps up, it will be hard to deny Anderson a spot on the AL All-Star team this season. Right now, he's the best in the league at the position, no matter what New York fans have to say about him.

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.