Opening weekend, The White Sox got swept by one their divisional rivals, the Detroit Tigers, as well as lost to one of the best teams, the Atlanta Braves on Monday. In the series versus Detroit, they were all one run games, but the Sox found ways to blow all three of them. Game one and game three were similar, with the starting pitcher on both sides pitching well but the team ultimately not having enough offense to help the pitcher out. Garret Crochet pitched his heart out and they couldn’t score a single run, getting only three hits. Game three, one of their new pitchers, Erik Fedde, didn’t pitch as well, but pitched just enough to keep them in the game. The only real difference was they had the lead twice, once early and once late, before the bullpen blew it in the top of the 9th.
In game two, they showed something they haven’t done much in recent seasons: come back from a three-run deficit. They bounced right back to not just tie the game but have their own three run lead- but their bullpen blew it again. They were down early because another one of their new pitchers, Michael Soroka, didn’t have a great start, giving up four runs and walking three batters. The real reason they lost that game was since the MLB instituted the ghost runner rule during the pandemic, the Sox seem to always be on the losing end of it. The ghost runner is when the game enters extra innings there is a runner, the final player to go to bat in the previous inning, automatically placed on second base to start every inning.
In attending and watching many of those games, it always seems like the Sox reliever lets that runner score. The other team can deploy small ball to advance the runner closer to home, or just simply drive him in with a single base hit. While in the bottom half of the inning, Chicago doesn’t seem to have any ideas of how to bring the runner home, and the game ends with them losing.
The Sox showed that they can lose many kinds of ways. Close pitching games where their offense cannot show up to help the pitcher, playing a close game where both pitchers pitch well on each side but they run out of the little offense they have, or bullpen gives up lead in the end or the middle. Another way is their starting pitching stinks that day, their offense comes to play, THEN the bullpen blows it. Lastly, in the first game versus the Braves they showed us another way to lose a game by doing what they did in two of the three Tigers- not scoring a run or only getting three hits looking lifeless at the plate. But the kicker is they got blown out. Their starting pitching looked bad a second time, giving up four runs. The bullpen was also not pitching up to standards.
The opposing pitcher was Charlie Morton (who is forty years old), and they couldn’t score a single run off him. While another new starting pitcher, Chris Flexen, was the man who gave up four runs on six hits, walked three batters and gave up a home run.
In a positive sign, maybe out of desperation, with many questions marks about this starting rotation as a whole, they signed a veteran pitcher. It is going to be a long season if Flexen and Soroka do not pitch well and Fedde is average, so they signed Mike Clevinger. Clevinger gave them innings last year and an ERA under 4.00. In a long season where they have clear gaps in play, Clevinger is the perfect veteran to go out there every fifth day to eat innings. He can’t do any worse than the status quo.
