The Chicago White Sox went 2–5 this week. In many ways, that alone could serve as the recap. But even in a rough stretch, there were a few bright spots worth noting, and a few areas that weren’t so encouraging. Those themes break down into two familiar buckets: hitting and pitching.
PITCHING
In the interest of your actually reading this article, let’s start with the bright spot that was pitching this week. In the last seven days, South Side pitching has a team ERA of 2.94. You might recall from last week that the hurlers
weren’t good in the first three series. They came out of the gate with a team ERA of 6.00+. With this incredibly solid week of pitching, both from starters and the bullpen, it is now sitting at a more respectable 4.70. That is good enough to move from 29th in the league to 26th.
Big performances came specifically from the starting pitching.
- Erik Fedde played in two games, started one, and gave up just three earned runs over 11 innings pitched. He also struck out eight batters and walked just two.
- Davis Martin gave the White Sox their only quality start of the week in a loss to the Royals on Friday. In seven innings, he allowed two runs, walked no one, and struck out three.
- Anthony Kay would have gotten a quality start if they had let him stay out for one more out. Instead, he pitched 5 2/3 innings of shutout baseball, striking out six and walking two along the way.
- Sean Burke went five innings in a 5-3 loss to the Orioles on Wednesday. He only gave up two runs and was set to get the win until Sims came in and blew the lead.
- Honorable mention goes to Shane Smith, who, manager Will Venable pulled in the fourth inning of Tuesday’s start after throwing 99 pitches in 3 2/3 innings. He struck out an astonishing eight batters, but also walked five in his short scoreless outing. It was not enough for him to avoid an option back to Triple-A. He now finds himself in Charlotte trying to get back on track after a rough start to the season.
While the starters stepped up in big ways, the bullpen has some work to do. The offense gave the bullpen a lead on both Tuesday and Wednesday, and they blew them both. Which, if they had won, would have given them a 4-3 record for the week rather than 2-5.
However, pitching cannot protect a lead if the offense doesn’t keep extending it. This brings us to the bummer part of the weekly recap. The one where I tell you the offense didn’t show up and cost the White Sox games they had in reach.
HITTING
Let’s play a game I like to call “How many games were in between the Pale Hose’s most recent home runs?” You get until the end of this sentence to guess. If you said seven, you would be correct. On Saturday, April 4, both Munetaka Murakami and Colson Montgomery homered in a 6-3 win against the Blue Jays. The next time the Good Guys hit a home run was on Sunday, April 12. Tanner Murray hit a two-run bomb to give the White Sox an early lead over the Royals. Props to the rookie for his first major league dinger.
Speaking of rookies, in the top of the seventh on Sunday, Dustin Harris entered the game for Derek Hill. The lefty took a 1-1 changeup nearly out of the ballpark. He would eventually come around to score the winning run on a wild pitch.
Harris also wanted to have himself a day and robbed a home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to keep the White Sox in front.
Exciting rookie accomplishments aside, the South Siders scored a total of 14 runs last week. That is an average of two runs a game. The Royals shut out the Sox on back-to-back nights in Kansas City; they averaged nine strikeouts a game, and only walked 24 times. To put it lightly, there is much work to be done.
I could throw more numbers at you about how low the White Sox rank in various categories or some decent plays on the defense, but truly, this is all you missed last week. The simple game of trying to get all three aspects of baseball (hitting, pitching, defense) clicking into gear at the same time is becoming a challenge for the Chicago club. A tale as old as time, but with many younger faces this time.
After an off-day on Monday, the club starts a three-game set with the Tampa Bay Rays at The Rate on Tuesday at 6:40 p.m. CST, and there are a few things worth highlighting.
Noah Schultz is getting the call! The wait is over, and the 22-year-old southpaw will make his major league debut on Tuesday. The Oswego East High School alum will face off against lefty veteran Shane McClanahan. It is the next step in the wave of bringing up players from this young farm system. The rookie is 3-0 in Charlotte and has struck out 19, walked two, and given up just two earned runs in 14 innings.
Also of note, Chicago traded Lenyn Sosa to the Blue Jays for minor league outfielder Jordan Rich and a player to be named later, or cash considerations. This appears to be a classic Reinsdorf trade. At this time, I have no opinion or clue on who Rich is, but I can only hope this pans out for Sosa in Toronto.
