RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Sean Newcomb started the week, and closed it, as the team’s opener. | MLB Photos via Getty Images
The White Sox week started by getting walked off on back-to-back nights, there was a midweek goose egg to lose a makeup game to Atlanta, and then the pitching gave up 10 runs to a Mets team that is well worse than .500. Oh, and not to mention, it’s the middle of a 16-game stretch, so Chicago’s pitching staff was extremely taxed.
So much so that when Will Venable was asked this week what the plan was for the North Side portion of the Crosstown Classic, he told reporters there wasn’t one. I am no idiot. I know this was likely a half-truth. There had to be concepts of a plan. That plan was “The Opener.”
Following a loss that was lead off by and ended by Pete Crow-Armstrong home runs, Bryan Hudson was tapped to start Tuesday’s duel against the Cubs. He gave up a pair of homers in his opening inning before he turned it over to Erick Fedde for 4 2/3 innings of scoreless work. In the end, Huascar Brazobán and his one-third of an inning would be enough to lose Fedde the bid for the win and allow Alex Bregman to walk things off in the ninth.
Sean Newcomb opened the last game at Wrigley. He earned one more inning than Hudson did the day prior, keeping the game scoreless before turning things over to the bulk reliever. The strategy worked well for the White Sox, with José Urquidy going six innings and striking out eight Cubbies en route to a 3-0 victory to avoid a sweep. Sometimes veterans still have some of that young stud left in them. It’s nice when they allow it to peak out in-between the past-their-prime outings.
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Only the Cubs (15) and the Orioles (11) hit more home runs than the White Sox (10) this week. The first of those teams does not surprise me, because the North Side Chicago club hit five of them on Monday and Tuesday alone. Three of those were hit by Crow-Armstrong. That is the same number of home runs we hit the entire series. Word of advice to pitching coach Zach Bove and Venable, maybe just walk him next time.
Speaking of hitting long balls at Wrigley Field. Munetaka Murakami graced the Friendly Confines with a Mune Bomb. I can only hope that there are many more balls sailing to the bleachers to come in this rivalry for the young Japanese star.
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With the Crosstown Classic wrapping up this week, it is apparent that this series finally means something again. For all the trash talk that goes on between these fan bases, these two teams are competitive at the same time for the first time in a while. It is exciting to see fans and players invested in this clash.
The season series ended with a 3-3 draw. Half of these games were decided by one run, and 22 balls left the ballpark over the season series. Should playoff baseball be gracious enough to grant itself to both teams this season, October is going to be an exciting month for the City of Chicago.
In-between a series loss to the Cubs and a series win to the Mets was a lone game with the Atlanta Braves. The game was a reschedule of the June 11 rainout. If you can recall all the way back to June, the Pale Hose already took the first two games of the series from the NL East-leading team. A win on Thursday would have completed the sweep, but instead the squad accumulated just one hit and two walks in the 2-0 loss. Anthony Kay had a stellar outing, going six innings, giving up two runs, and striking out six, but Grant Holmes outdueled him by taking a no-hitter deep into the contest.
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Sean Burke was the starter in Friday’s win, not aligning with Will’s opener strategy. The righthander gave up the only four runs of the game in his six-inning outing. He may it have earned himself a quality start or a decision in the outing, but he did stop the bleeding enough to allow the White Sox to catch up on back-to-back-to-back home runs by Miguel Vargas, Randal Grichuk and Colson Montgomery.
Vargas is continuing to rake. The third baseman slashed .381/.581/.619 this week, with two doubles and a home run. He also drew at least one walk in every game of the week except for Tuesday’s. His patience at the plate paid off on Saturday when he went 1-for-1 with four walks. The All-Star actually led MLB this week by being the only player to draw double-digit walks, with 10.
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A special thank you to Jake Rogers who sent a dinger over the right field fence to avoid extra innings and walk the game off in style on Elvis Night. For those who have seen the video of the woman who lost the contents of her purse celebrating retrieving Rogers’ ball, she reported from the train that she was able to get all of her items back in her bag. The catcher and excited fan reunited on Sunday for the return of the home run ball.
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The Saturday loss to New York’s National Leaguers was the solidification of a rough week for Luis Castillo. The righthander only went 4 2/3 innings at Wrigley during his outing on Monday night, but starter had an even shorter outing against the Mets, going just 2 2/3 innings in the weekend’s 10-5 loss. In his brief time on the mound, he surrendered four earned runs on eight hits, one walk, and three strikeouts. At best, Castillo’s trade deadline acquisition would get the team a few key victories, but the hope was at the worst he would be an innings-eater for the team. So far, Castillo isn’t even holding up the innings-eater end of the bargain. In his four starts with Chicago, Castillo has only made it out of the fifth inning one time: his seven-inning outing against the Reds.
On Sunday, Newcomb once again got the opening two innings before Fedde was asked to complete four innings of scoreless pitching. He did his job, and kept the back-end of the bullpen out of the game until the seventh. A walk-off home run by Tristan Peters proved the opener strategy successful, accounting for two-thirds of the wins for the week.
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