Though it’s hard to be surprised, the deflation continues. For the second straight day, the White Sox couldn’t hold on to an early lead, ultimately losing their fourth game in their last five tries, and second straight against the last-place Detroit Tigers. Another early homer — this time from Sam Antonacci on the second pitch of the game — and a stellar opener performance from Sean Newcomb just wasn’t enough, and the team’s record now sits at 39-36 following the 4-1 loss.
It shouldn’t be surprising
in the slightest that Antonacci’s homer wasn’t enough to get it done alone. Will Venable’s use of an opener in more than half of the team’s games over the past few weeks is somewhat indicative of where the pitching staff is as a whole. They just don’t have the manpower. It doesn’t matter how effective the first leg of a bullpen game is if you wind up with inexperienced rookies like Tyler Davis and Joe Rock taking high-leverage innings against a division rival.
As is increasingly becoming a pattern this year, opener Sean Newcomb was brilliant. He threw a season-high three innings as today’s opener, and was nothing short of perfect: Nine up, nine down, just 42 pitches to get it done. It was more than enough to hold a lead after Antonacci’s smoked home run got them going:
Davis has some good traits on the mound: His four-seam fastball sits at 96 mph, and it’s got a ton of ride to it. But as of now, Davis’ slider is relatively unexceptional, and his only other pitch is a splitter that he almost never uses. Good control is imperative if he’s going to be a solid MLB reliever. With a slightly subpar 11% walk rate, it’s been spotty so far.
Davis did not have good control today. While Newcomb didn’t allow a basreunner, Davis oozed them, issuing a four-pitch walk to Kevin McGonigle and then handing out two more to Matt Vierling and Spencer Torkelson. Usually I have to give at least some breakdown of why a particular pitch location chart is good or bad. I suspect that won’t be necessary here.
It’s frankly a miracle that Chicago’s 1-0 advantage made it to the fifth inning, given the deja vu that must have been hitting the dugout: bases loaded, two outs, Kerry Carpenter at the plate. Fortunately, Rock’s appearance in relief chased Carpenter from the game, and a huge strikeout of pinch-hitter Jahmai Jones kept the lead intact.
On the other side of the ball, Troy Melton was brilliant for Detroit as Newcomb was for the Good Guys, though Melton managed to do it with a few more innings on his line. Antonacci’s leadoff homer remained the only hit in the game heading to the bottom of the fifth, with Melton reaching back to touch the high-90s when he needed to multiple times:
Unfortunately for the South Siders, the Tigers were very much able to smell what the Rock was cooking from that point on. Just like yesterday, a few walks, dinks and dunks wound up being Chicago’s undoing, and it was a 3-1 Tigers lead by the time Rock departed the game after the sixth. The state of the bullpen isn’t ideal right now in any case, but Venable will surely face scrutiny for his decision to leave Rock in for a third inning of work.
The game slipped further out of reach an inning later, when Dillon Dingler took Trevor Richards deep for his 17th longball of the year, first among all MLB catchers by a healthy margin.
I projected pregame that Grant Taylor’s lack of action this week indicated he’d be taking the bulk of today’s innings. I was dead wrong, and the late-game, high-pressure situation that calls out for him never materialized.
Meanwhile, Melton left the game after six sparkling innings, failing to allow a single hit after the first hitter of the game. The White Sox were similarly unable to do much with soft-tossing lefty Tyler Holton, who retired six out of eight hitters faced to keep the Pale House off the board until the Kenley Jansen could close things out in the ninth for his 485th career save. That’s good for third all-time, though he remains more than 100 shy of Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera at the top of the leaderboard.
Beyond Newcomb, Antonacci was the true bright spot for the Sox offense today. He reached base all four times he came to the plate, putting up some kind of benign baseball equivalent to a Gordie Howe Hat Trick, getting on via homer, single, walk, and hit-by-pitch. Call it an Antonacci Cycle. His .293 batting average and .392 on-base are both tops among MLB rookies (minimum 200 plate appearances).
Tomorrow’s series conclusion is also a matinee matchup, with first pitch scheduled for 12:40 p.m. CT from Detroit. Davis Martin will attempt to get the Sox off the schneid, facing righthander Keider Montero. We’ll see you there!
