'Sell the Team, Sell the Team! For God's sake, Jerry Reinsdorf, Sell the Team'

The White Sox have lost nine out of 11 games. It's Aug. 29, and they are two games below .500 at 63-65 -- and they are five games behind the first-place Cleveland Guardians.

But at least fans haven't lost their sense of humor, sneaking a "Sell the team" sign into Guaranteed Rate Field on Saturday night.

Sox Machine's Greg Nix followed up by writing a song, which is sung to the tune of "Let It Be" by the Beatles.

There's no game tonight, so here's the song, for your entertainment purposes:

When I find myself watching the White Sox, Steve and Jason on TV, I see a sign in left field, Sell the Team!

Now the home team's Hall of Famer has Leury batting No. 3, Please ol' Uncle Jerry, Sell the Team!

Sell the team, sell the team! Sell the team, sell the team! I hope Jerry Reinsdorf, Sells the team!

Cause all the brokenhearted Sox fans living in the world agree, There's only one answer, Sell the Team!

For though the whole front office has earned the ax as much as thee, Jerry only you can, Sell the Team! 

Sell the team, sell the team! Sell the team, sell the team! I'm begging you please, Jerry, Sell the Team!

Sell the team, sell the team! Sell the team, sell the team! For God's sake, Jerry Reinsdorf, Sell the Team!

And when the season's over, will you be here in '23? I'll give you the answer, Sell the Team!

You've been ruining my summers since back when I was a teen, Now I'm in my 40s, Sell the Team!

Sell the team, sell the team! Sell the team, sell the team! I wish that I could make you, Sell the Team!

Woooooooooooooooooooooo!

Sell the team, sell the team! Sell the team, sell the team! How else can I say it? Sell the Team!

White Sox reportedly signing Elvis Andrus in attempt to fill shortstop hole

Elvis Andrus

There is nothing official yet, but I trust ESPN's Jeff Passan when he says the White Sox are signing free-agent shortstop Elvis Andrus.

The Sox are in trouble at that position. Tim Anderson is out for at least another month after having surgery on his left hand. Danny Mendick, who filled in capably in late May and early June when Anderson was out with a groin strain, is done for the season with a torn ACL. And Leury Garcia is also on the injured list with a back strain.

That leaves Romy Gonzalez and Lenyn Sosa to play shortstop. Gonzalez is a Quad-A player. Sosa is a 22-year-old prospect who needs more reps at Triple-A. He's talented, but not ready for the majors.

Enter Andrus, who will turn 34 next Friday. The Oakland Athletics just released him because he was approaching the amount of plate appearances that would automatically cause his $15 million option for 2023 to vest. Oakland is rebuilding, and would rather play younger players, so it's in the interest of the both the A's and Andrus to part ways.

By no means is Andrus the cure for what ails the Sox, but he'll provide league-average play at shortstop -- an upgrade over both Gonzalez and Sosa -- and an upgrade over Garcia if and when he returns.

Andrus is batting .237/.301/.373 with eight home runs and 24 doubles this season. No, that .674 OPS doesn't thrill anyone, but again, it's about competence. And at the very least, Andrus is a good defender who will solidify the left side of the infield in the short run.

According to Passan's report, Andrus will join the Sox in time for an important three-game series with the Cleveland Guardians that starts Friday.

The Sox are limping into Cleveland, having been destroyed 21-5 by the Houston Astros on Thursday. After taking the first two games of the four-game set against the league-best Astros, the Sox lost the final two games of that series to fall to 61-58.

They are 2.5 games out of first heading into the weekend.

Dylan Cease vs. Justin Verlander: No-decisions for both

Dylan Cease

The top two contenders for the American League Cy Young Award squared off Tuesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field, and ... neither one of them got a decision.

Dylan Cease and Justin Verlander both gave up three earned runs, and although Verlander pitched deeper in the game that Cease, the White Sox bullpen was better than the Houston Astros bullpen, as the Sox rallied for a 4-3 victory.

For the Sox, it is their fifth straight win, and it brings them within one game of the first-place Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central heading into Wednesday's play.

Final line on Cease: 5 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 Ks, 3 BBs.

His season ERA is 2.09. His record remains 12-5.

Final line on Verlander: 7 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 Ks, 1 BB

His season ERA is 1.95. His record remains 15-3.

You have to believe Verlander is the front-runner for the Cy Young at this point. The 39-year-old has better numbers than the 26-year-old Cease at this time. And Verlander has the name recognition that goes with past accomplishments, and he plays for the team with the best record in the American League.

But on this night, Verlander could not hold a 3-1 lead. The Sox rallied against him with two runs in the seventh. Josh Harrison singled, Seby Zavala walked, and Gavin Sheets ripped 1-2 Verlander slider into the right-field corner to tie the game.

The Sox grabbed the lead in the eighth against Houston right-hander Hector Neris. Eloy Jimenez walked, Jose Abreu singled, and Yasmani Grandal grounded into a slooooooooow-developing 3-6-1 double play. That left pinch-runner Adam Engel at third with two outs, but Yoan Moncada delivered an RBI single to put the Sox ahead.

Closer Liam Hendriks earned his 27th save of the season by retiring the top three batters in the Houston lineup in the top of the ninth, punctuating his outing with a strikeout of Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez.

That capped a strong performance for the Sox bullpen, as Jose Ruiz, Vince Velasquez, Jimmy Lambert and Hendriks all recorded scoreless innings -- with Lambert getting the win.

The Sox have two more games on this homestand against Houston, and will look to extend their winning streak Wednesday with Michael Kopech on the mound.

Michael Kopech throws six no-hit innings in Sox win

For the first time all season, the White Sox have won three straight home games. That's hard to believe given that it's Aug. 12, isn't it?

The Sox offense wasn't exactly crackling Friday night at Guaranteed Rate Field, but they managed a 2-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers behind a great start from Michael Kopech and solid relief pitching from three guys.

Kopech, in fact, had one of the most dominant starts of his career. He worked six innings and did not give up a hit. He struck out 11, walked three and got 22 swinging strikes out of the 85 pitches he threw. Fifty-six of those 85 pitches were strikes.

Alas, he did not get the win, because the Sox did not score while he was in the game. Somehow, left-handed Daniel Norris -- who was released by the Cubs last month and had an ERA near 7 for the season -- threw 4.2 innings of scoreless ball for the Tigers.

Removing Kopech after 85 pitches was a controversial decision, and an unpopular one with fans, who criticized manager Tony La Russa on social media and booed the move at the ballpark.

But, we know Kopech is on an undetermined innings limit for this season, and his services are needed again five days from now when the AL-best Houston Astros are in town. From that perspective, the decision is understandable.

It's just weird how La Russa leaves starters in too long as a habit, and sometimes forces players to gut it out through injury (Leury Garcia in last Tuesday's doubleheader, for example), and other times, he pulls out the "abundance of caution" card.

In any case, Reynaldo Lopez relieved in the seventh inning and worked around a leadoff single by Javier Baez. Lopez (5-2) got the win after the Sox plated two in the bottom of the seventh on a two-out, two-run single by Andrew Vaughn with the bases loaded.

Kendall Graveman and Liam Hendriks each worked a scoreless inning, with Hendriks picking up his 24th save.

There was more bad injury news for the Sox, as Luis Robert left Friday's game with a sprained left wrist. He is day to day.

The Sox are 57-56, and they remain 3.5 games back of the Cleveland Guardians, who won their sixth straight Friday with an 8-0 skunking of the Toronto Blue Jays.

I wasn't overly impressed with the way the Sox swung the bats in this game against a lousy Detroit pitching staff. The Sox had eight hits, with AJ Pollock's double being the only one that went for extra bases.

If guys don't start hitting for power, this team will continue to spin its wheels. 

White Sox continue mediocrity, despite favorable schedule

White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease continued his incredible run Thursday afternoon. For the 14th consecutive start, he limited the opposition to one earned run or less.

Too bad he took the loss because he plays for the lackluster 2022 Sox.

Cease allowed one run (a solo homer) on three hits over six innings against the Kansas City Royals. Alas, the Sox didn't score for him, and he was trailing 1-0 when he left the game in the seventh inning.

The Sox bullpen stunk, allowing four runs over two innings in an eventual 5-3 loss.

With the defeat, the Sox fell back to .500 at 56-56. They lost three out of four in Kansas City. Sixteen games into this 19-game stretch against teams with losing records, the Sox are 8-8.

Is that on brand or what?

The Cleveland Guardians are on a five-game winning streak. They now lead the AL Central by 2.0 games over the Minnesota Twins and 3.5 games over the Sox.

I mentioned earlier this season that I haven't been blogging as much because I don't enjoy watching the Sox right now. In fact, I turned Thursday's game off with the Sox trailing 1-0 in the top of the seventh, after I saw Luis Robert dog it to first base on a grounder. He was out by a half-step and would have been safe if he had been running with full effort.

I'm tired of seeing crap like that. Really, the Sox are getting what they deserve. I spend most of my time laughing at their ineptness and laughing at the fans who thought the Rick Hahn rebuild would result in "competing for multiple championships."

The team is a mess.

White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson out six weeks with hand injury

Tim Anderson

Has anyone heard of a sagittal band before? 

Before today, that term was foreign to me. But White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson has a sagittal band tear on the middle finger of his left hand. He will undergo surgery Thursday, and the Sox placed him on the 10-day disabled list Tuesday. He will be out for six weeks.

This could be the death blow for whatever hopes the Sox have of winning the American League Central Division, but then again, Anderson has been poor lately.

In the 39 games since he returned from his last injury -- a groin strain suffered Memorial Day weekend against the Cubs -- Anderson has hit .249/.287/.290 with just one home run. That's pretty much replacement-level performance.

By way of comparison, Leury Garcia has the exact same slugging percentage over his past 39 games (coming into Tuesday's doubleheader against the Kansas City Royals). Garcia's slash line over that time period: .237/.273/.290.

Yeah, it's pretty bleak.

The best we can hope for is that, somehow, Sox manager Tony La Russa decides to give rookie Lenyn Sosa a shot to play shortstop on a regular basis during Anderson's absence, and that Sosa makes a quick adjustment to a new level.

To be honest, the bar isn't hard to clear. All he has to do is slug .300, right?

Sosa hit his first career home run Tuesday night, giving the Sox an early lead in an eventual 3-2 victory over the Royals in Game 2 of the doubleheader. Kansas City won Game 1, 4-2, so in true Sox fashion, the South Siders played .500 baseball for the day.

For the season, the Sox are 56-54. Through the first 14 games of this 19-game stretch against losing teams, the Sox are 8-6. That's decent, but not the big run the optimists were hoping for. The Sox are still 2.0 games back of the Minnesota Twins, pending Minnesota's late result against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

I was thinking the Sox really needed to go 12-7 or 13-6 during this stretch. That is still mathematically possible, but not likely. The Sox have two games remaining in Kansas City, before a three-game weekend series at home against the Detroit Tigers.

On the current road trip through Texas and Kansas City, the Sox are 3-3. (.500 again!) And in those six games, they've scored only 17 runs. 

Yes, offense is still the problem. The Sox needed GM Rick Hahn to acquire two bats at the trade deadline. Instead, he got none, and with Anderson out, it's fair to say the Sox are playing three bats short.

Even in a weak division, good luck with that.

Remembering Vin Scully with one of his most memorable calls

Vin Scully was the best ever when it came to talking off the top of his head, wasn't he? He talked better than I write, that's for certain.

The Hall of Fame Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster died last Tuesday at age 94, and the baseball world is in mourning. I'm sure plenty of people have offered more articulate tributes than I could, so I'll just post this:

It's one of the greatest baseball moments, and one of Scully's greatest calls. It's fun to listen to the entire at-bat, which takes seven or eight minutes.

Taking a vacation

 I am on vacation this week, Aug. 1-5. Blogging will resume on Monday, Aug. 8. Go Sox!