Baseball

Series Preview – Cleveland vs. White Sox: A Brief Interlude Of Punchlessness

By Sam Fels 1203 0

vs.

RECORDS: Cleveland 21-18   White Sox 18-21

GAMETIMES: Monday 7:10, Tuesday 1:10

TV: NBCSN Monday, WGN Tuesday

ALL OUR FISH HAVE AIDS: Let’s Go Tribe

PROBABLE PITCHERS

Shane Bieber vs. Reynaldo Lopez

Carlos Carrasco vs. Manny Banuelos

PROBABLE CLEVELAND LINEUP

Francisco Lindor – SS

Jason Kipnis – 2B

Jose Ramirez – 3B

Carlos Santana – 1B

Carlos Gonzalez – DH

Jake Bauers – LF

Tyler Naquin – RF

Roberto Perez – C

Leonys Martin – CF

PROBABLY WHITE SOX LINEUP

Charlie Tilson – CF

Yoan Moncada – 3B

Jose Abreu – 1B

Yonder Alonso – DH

Tim Anderson – SS

Nicky Delmonico – LF

Welington Castillo – C

Yolmer Sanchez – 2B

Ryan Cordell – RF

 

There’s not much different between these two teams than there was last week when they met for four by the shores of Lake Erie. The Sox went on to win two of three in Canada, while The Tribe lost two of three to Oakland. Cleveland still can’t hit, their rotation is taking on water, and the pen ain’t what it used to be like that old gray mare.

And Cleveland still isn’t getting signs of life where it needs them. While Jordan Luplow and Tyler Naquin have hit of late in limited duty, the team’s engine is still sputtering. Lindor, Ramirez, and Santana have done just north of dick the last two weeks, and pretty much all season. Lindor did manage five hits against the A’s, and they can only hope that it’s the sign for something. That only one of them was for extra-bases is probably flattening that hope, but it has to start somewhere. Ramirez has one homer in May, and this was after MVP-projections for him (I know, he’s knifing my fantasy team at the moment).

This team is going to trail the Twins all season if those three don’t get doing, because Cleveland’s front office has constantly viewed the outfield as basically a grazing pasture and has needed help there since before their World Series appearance. Letting Michael Brantley walk in favor of Carlos Gonzalez was a particularly inspired piece of galaxy brain.

On the mound, the Sox will see the two starters they couldn’t get past last week in the unfortunately named Shane Bieber and then Carrasco. Bieber gave up three over six, and Carrasco basically fustigated them over the only five innings the game would last thanks to the rain. Carrasco has been in some ways their most dominant starter, striking out a third of the hitters he sees while barely walking anyone. But he can’t seem to get any luck, and when that evens out he should have some bonkers numbers on the year if he keeps that K/BB ratio.

For the Pale Hose, Lopez was pretty much Bieber’s equal last week, giving up just three runs over six innings. It was a nice response to getting clubbed by the suddenly molten Red Sox, which happens. Speaking of clubbed, Banuelos takes the mound for his weekly bludgeoning on Tuesday afternoon. You would think it would only be one more start of being turned into oatmeal before Manny is jettisoned from the rotation, though the only help in waiting is one Dylan Cease as the Sox are probably going to be as patient with him as humanly possible.

The Sox get six at home before an ugly looking trip that takes them to Houston and Minnesota, and both of those teams have been treating pitchers like Gallagher and watermelons (too soon?). Best to get your licks in now.

Baseball

Series Wrap – Sox Sweep Tigers: Shenanigans Edition!

By Andy Jonathan 1558 0

Holy shit, what a weird-ass series.  Night one featured some weapons grade wackiness, and one call that I’ve never seen before in MLB. Night two never happened because it fucking snowed the last Saturday in April, and Sunday featured the White Sox setting a team record for Ks in a game.  There’s a lot to unpack, especially with only two games to talk about.

TO THE BULLETS

– Carlos Rodon had a night he probably wants to have Total Recalled from his memory.  Everything he threw was barreled up hard by the Tigers, and quite a few of them left the yard.  After his previous two performances I’m willing to chalk this one up to just not having it, but he’s yet to make it through the 7th inning and that’s mildly concerning.

– Jose Abreu had a memorable night for multiple reasons, first of which was that he poked a dinger over the left-center field fence, but was too busy watching the flight of the ball to notice that Tim Anderson was also watching the flight of the ball and preparing to tag up from first base.  So nobody was watching anybody since Mr Boston missed Jose chugging down the line, inadvertently passing Timmy at first base and getting not only Anderson out, but having his HR turned into the weirdest single in Sox history. This also cost the Sox at least one run, which the Tigers managed to scrape back immediately the next inning.  That was all right because it set the stage for…

-TIM ANDERSON’S BAT FLIPPING, GAME WINNING EXTRAVAGANZA.  Seriously, I’m falling in love with this guy. I hope he starts throwing the bat farther and farther every dinger until he knocks out a kid up on the Skillz Deck.  He’s the kind of guy the Sox have been missing since Sale left; the type of player who people buy tickets to see.  Butts in seats, baby.

-The night was not all roses and cherry bombs (T-T-T-TIMMY BOMBZ!  Sorry Sam).  Unfortunately, Eloy Jimenez managed to sprain his ankle trying to rob the 5th HR given up by Rodon that night.  Honestly, he was about two miles away from even touching the ball, so it was kind of a useless gesture.  It was later diagnosed as a high ankle sprain, so we will see just how long Young Skywalker will be out of action, but were I to guess I’m thinking its gonna be June-ish

– Game 2 was fucking SNOWED OUT.  Seriously, spring can bite my ass.

-Game 3 was all about the Lopez four-seamer.  The Kid had all of his pitches working today, but none more so than the 4 seamer.  He threw it 69 times today (NICE), and used it as his punch out pitch on 13 of the 14 Ks he had.  This might be the best I’ve ever seen him throw the ball, and he’s improved on every start this season.  Once he realized home plate umpire Tony Randazzo was going to give him the outside corner, he was spotting his pitches right on the edge of the black all game long.  His last strikeout happened on the 104th pitch, and he touched 96 with it.  The Sox rotation needed a start like this, especially after DFA’ing Ervin Santana a few days earlier.

–Alex Colome worked the 9th in both games and came away with a win and a save.  Can’t complain about that trade at all, as he’s come as advertised.
-Jose Abreu seems to be shaking off his slump nicely, as he went 6 for 8 with 5 RBIs (should’ve been 7).  Now if we only had a league average OF to talk about this team might be sniffing .500

-The Sox now stand at 11-14, with 2 more games against the Orioles due up.  Don’t stop now, boys!

Baseball

Series Wrap – Sox Lose 2 of 3 to Orioles: Whatever, Endgame Comes Out Tonight

By Andy Jonathan 1109 0

Sorry for the delay in this, it’s not AJ’s fault. I was drinking. – ED

There’s really not much to say about this.  The Sox came out and absolutely pasted the O’s Monday night to the point where they were pulling fans from the crowd to pitch.  I made the mistake of thinking that all three games would be like that, but forgot that Ivan Nova and Ervin Santana are paid to pitch for this club and (much like the rest of life), you get what you pay for.

Anyways…

-James McCann had four RBIs Monday night, thanks to a mammoth home run to left field on a hanging curve from David Hess.  The Jose Abreu of old made an appearance as well, with four RBIs of his own, and a nice opposite field dinger onto the porch in right field.  If the Sox are going to give Abreu a contract extension past this season, we’re gonna have to see a lot more of stuff like that.

-Monday night also featured the starting debut of Manny Banuelos.  He went a solid five innings and kept the meager O’s lineup in check, and really with this rotation that’s all you can ask for, especially after watching Ivan Nova night 2.  Everything that Banuelos did well, Nova did the exact opposite.  Nearly every pitch was hit hard, and it seemed like even pop flies had triple digit exit velocity.  Add the fact that the Brewers signed Gio Gonzales for pennies on the dollar, making this performance for $2 million more than he’s getting even more insulting.

-Not that Nova got any help from the offense.  One meager run against triple reclamation project Andrew Cashner and his arsenal of two pitches.  Moncada, Tim Anderson and Abreu went 4-11 and stranded 1 runner.  Everyone else went 2-20 and left 15 people on base and god dammit just looking at this box score makes me furious.

-Ervin Santana was just kind of there.  The O’s jumped on him early for 4 quick runs, and by the time he settled in the damage was already done.  The Sox treated rookie John Means’ changeup like it was a gyroball from another dimension, staring at it apparently blinked in and out of this reality. Although to be fair, expecting any different results from a lineup that has James McCann hitting cleanup is probably an exercise in futility.

-It’s not even May yet, and I’m starting to lose faith in the rebuild.  This is the season where we’re supposed to see marginal improvement.  Granted Anderson and Moncada have been pretty otherworldly, and Eloy will eventually turn into a Sun Crusher but everyone else could be replaced by a folding chair with a hat on it and I’d be hard pressed to tell the difference.  Every time I watch Nicky Delmonico bat, I want to turn off my TV because I know the outcome.  Spoiler Alert: it’s a weak grounder to second base.  Yonder Alonso is a giant bag of meh, and Ryan Cordell and Adam Engel are…Ryan Cordell and Adam Engel.  Whatever excitement I had watching Timmy and Yoan is fading rapidly, helped along by another 42-pitch inning from Ivan Nova.

Anyways, that’s two terrible teams in a row that the Sox managed to lose a series to, and guess what?  They get to play them again starting Friday!  Three game series against the Tigers starts Friday, plenty of good seats available!  Let me know how it goes, I’ll be at the movie theater seeing Endgame.