There is good news from last week, and there is bad news. The good news? The White Sox took two of three from the Cleveland Guardians at home this past weekend and snapped a four-game losing streak. The bad news? The Boston Red Sox are still playing very good baseball and have swept us in the season series, for the first time ever.
But wait, there’s more good news: Cleveland has been dealt with for now, and has been dropped to fourth place in the division. Second place belongs to … the Tigers and Twins?
If you remember, a week ago Detroit’s front office deemed a 3 1/2-game deficit from a Wild Card spot not good enough, and it sold off both Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize. Yet despite this, they have taken advantage of Chicago (5-5), Cleveland (3-7), and Minnesota (4-6) having a mediocre last 10 games. By this time next week, we could see the preseason favorite for the AL Central title claiming a playoff spot heading into the second half of August. With that being said, Max Clark and a healthy Troy Melton are not going to save that team, and the Tigers will run out of steam (sorry to my fiance).
This begs the question, who will claim the top spot of the worst division in baseball? Right now, things are looking sunny for the White Sox.
You would not have thought so after getting steamrolled at Fenway. The series opener on Tuesday was a 14-2 beating. That doesn’t feel great after coming off a series win against Tampa. There was a theory that Davis Martin was tipping pitches (seemingly confirmed by the pitcher himself and Kyle Teel), but has anyone stopped to consider that the righty just really stinks on the road?
This season he is posting a 5.32 ERA in 12 road starts. His BB/9 is 3.41, his WHIP is 1.52, and batters are hitting .295. Now compare that to his 2.84 ERA at home over 11 starts. Home field advantage still very much exists, and it plays to Martin’s favor. In these starts his BB/9 is 2.05, his WHIP drops to 1.11, and batters facing him are hitting below league average at .231. I am not Zach Bove, I do not know how to fix this, but I do know that it should be fixed. Lucky for Martin, he is currently in the front of the rotation, and should the standings remain as they are he will probably have the opportunity to start a playoff game on his home mound.
Thursday was the most stressful game of the season thus far. It was giving playoff energy and, after dropping the second game of the three-game set 4-0 the night before, it felt like a must-win game for the White Sox. It went 13 innings, and the Good Guys lost. The team could get runs across the plate in extras with no problem, but the pitching struggled to keep the Red Sox from doing the same thing. Ultimately, Caleb Durbin walked it off with a single to center field. Erick Fedde, who conveniently moved to the bullpen after the Luis Castillo trade, got pegged with the loss.
You just got walloped by a team that nobody except its fans like, you head home to face your closest division rival, and what do you do? The correct answer is lose 8-2 in the series opener. It was at this point that I thought the season had struck midnight and the team turned into a pumpkin.
It was a Noah Schultz start. Or so it was until Bove went to the mound to talk with his pitcher and then Will Venable went out for a second mound visit with the lefty. Because there were two mound visits in the same inning with the same pitcher, Schultz was required to be removed from the game after a third of an inning of work. What could he have possibly done with that singular out of work? That answer is give up two earned runs. David Sandlin got tapped for clean-up duty and instead made an even bigger mess of the game, giving up six earned runs over 5 1/3 innings. At least Colson Montgomery and Munetaka Murakami homered?
Saturday was the long-awaited Ozzie Guillén jersey retirement day. It was a magnificent day, celebrating a man who brought so much joy to the city of Chicago. I was in attendance for the celebrations, and it wasn’t until the pomp and circumstance was over that the realization hit me of just how much Ozzie did for this city. Plus, it was really cool to see all my childhood crushes in attendance (hey, Joe Crede!).
The White Sox did not embarrass dear Ozzie on his big day. The team went down, 2-0, in the top of the sixth inning but quickly answered with a five-run rally in the bottom of the frame to secure the victory. The club gifted the Guilléns a trip to Japan as part of the number retirement festivities, so it felt only fitting that Mune slugged his 26th dinger of the year to get the scoring going. Braden Montgomery, Chase Meidroth, and Tristan Peters all came up with big RBIs in the victory as well.
Sunday’s rubber match was a wet one. There was only an inning of play before the Sodfather had to get the tarp out. Both starters surrendered runs in the inning, with Cleveland having the 2-1 edge heading into the 2:23 rain delay. What started as a standard Martin outing, resulted in a Hagen Smith MLB debut when the storms finally cleared and play was able to resume.
The No. 2 prospect challenged himself in his two innings of work. He allowed no runs, struck out three, and walked four. The lefty’s stuff looked nasty. The unfortunate part was his pitch count was elevated after walking the bases loaded in the third inning. He was done after 48 pitches. I have no doubt Smith went home with a handful of authenticated balls on Sunday, one of which denoted his first MLB win.
Colson played hero in yet another game this season, launching his 26th long ball of the season. This homer got him back a piece of the team lead with Mune. It also got the White Sox the lead they needed for the 5-3 victory.
This week, the other team from Ohio comes to town (the Reds). The Cincinnati squad seems like they will be much less of a threat than their friends to the north, but looks can always be deceiving. Chicago will need a solid series before they head back to the Motor City. Just because the Tigers sold at the deadline doesn’t mean they do not remain a threat in this ever-weakening division.
As Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, “petting never turned a tiger into a kitten.”
