After a pair of subpar outings and general blah results through six starts this season, the White Sox hope John Danks can turn things around as they go for their fourth straight victory and a series win Wednesday against the Chicago Cubs.
Read MoreThe White Sox have not been scoring runs at a deafening rate over the past week. In fact, it’s been a bit of a struggle for them as they’re averaging under 3 per game over that stretch. However they are still first in the AL in runs scored and sit in a position that could earn them their first winning streak of the season and put their record back to that familiar and comforting .500 mark. All they have to do is score more runs than Hector Noesi allows…
Read MoreThe White Sox are currently on a three-game losing streak, and are turning to 1-start Ace Scott Carroll to stop the bleeding. It will be interesting to see what sort of outing they get from the 29-year old rookie.
As was to be expected, even in Carroll's debut gem where he soundly defeated David Price, he did not miss bats. Out of 100 pitches, Rays hitters swung 38 times and only missed twice. For someone to succeed without striking hitters out, they have to force a lot of grounders - something Carroll did successfully against Tampa (63.6 GB%).
Read MoreWith 3 wins against this year, a trip to Cleveland might be just the cure to the White Sox little losing skid. A battle of promise never quite fully fulfilled in John Danks against promise still yet to be fulfilled in Danny Salazar. The two faced off against each other in the last series, and a repeat of that would be just fine by me.
Read MoreIt’s Hector Noesi Day. It’s no surprise that the sun is not shining, and on Weather Day at The Cell, whoever it is that controls these things is not kind enough to bring enough rain from the clouds to halt this potential downpour of runs. So be it. We don’t know how the chips will fall. If we knew the outcome, they wouldn’t play the games. For this reason, we’ll move forward with the observation of…Hector…Noesi Day.
Read MoreA split in Detroit considering the pitching situation of a short-notice lack of Sale was a coup. This go-round, on local turf and a short 2-game series, the pitching situation again falls unfavorably. The White Sox managed to pull Verlander and Scherzer as opponents while putting forth a struggling Jose Quintana tonight and a penciled in Hector Noesi the following day. A split, read: not a series loss, keeps the team record above .500 for the season’s opening month.
Read MoreA series win and getting a game over .500 is the aim as the White Sox attempt to take their third game in the four game series against the Tampa Bay Rays. The Sox have scored 18 runs in the series despite being shutout on Saturday night and their best pitching effort came from an MiLB lifer getting his first shot in the major leagues. It’s inspiring but perhaps not encouraging. Relying on the offense to pick up the slack is decidedly less frustrating than the other way around.
Read MoreWhile I' m not necessarily a fan of Adam Eaton's goofy nickname or the all-american mighty mouse identity it represents, but his return merits a certain level of celebration. As much as the White Sox offense has rolled on without him, where the Sox were previously batting a four-pitches-per-plate-appearance, speedy, plus-defending on-base machine, they had Jordan Danks over the past week.
Read MoreSitting comfortably at .500 the White Sox now have the chance to win the series in Detroit before heading back home to take on the Rays. Oddly, the Sox took series against Detroit twice last year, including the first time they faced off which came late enough in the season that the team was already buried in the standings. Hopeless they are not, this go-round, and it’s early enough to be concerning to the Tigers in terms of their own record and forcing themselves to ask just who these White Sox think they are and what is it that they’re trying to accomplish?
Read MoreThe matchup can’t be any worse than Leesman v. Verlander now can it? Andre Rienzo’s got an inning’s worth of work this season for the White Sox, not much to go on, but his 13 innings in Charlotte are not encouraging. He’s allowed 15 hits and 7 walks in that time for an ERA of 4.85 that almost exactly matches his short-sample ERA in the big leagues last season of 4.82.
Read MoreWhile we continue to mourn and hold our collective breath after yesterday's news that Chris Sale will spend an undetermined amount of time on the disabled list, baseball games, unfortunately, must continue. And the White Sox will look to survive their first post-Sale start on Tuesday when Charlie Leesman takes the bump for the second of a four-game set against the Detroit Tigers.
Read MoreWe’ve watched these games with more promise than we have in over a year. We’ve watched the offense succeed, we’ve watched pieces of the pitching staff excel as others struggle, and we’ve watched a team that has not yet cashed it in for the season. But we watch while reminding ourselves that this team is not going to win any divisions. This team is supposed to be taking a step towards being a team that wins divisions. If for some reason this team does want to make a go of things, it would behoove them to win some games that simultaneously notch tallies in the Detroit Tigers’ loss column.
Read MoreThe only thing left to do now is to not get swept. Series win is out of the question and the White Sox are staring at a 5-game losing streak if they fail to pull one out in Texas. Erik Johnson has looked better with each trip out to the mound, his most recent being his best of the season in which he allowed a single run over 6.2 innings. It also represents the last time the Sox won a game.
Read MoreThe players are certainly going to try to pretend like last night never happened as they take the field, and I’m going to do the same. You know, off the field. There are good things to look at here. Namely, Jose Quintana’s excellent beginning of the season and the prospects of it continuing. He’s walking batters a bit more than usual than other than that he’s been at or better than the rates from 2013 in the major categories, including the most important, run prevention.
Read MoreThe White Sox have scored 7 or more runs in 5 different games already this year. They only managed 7 runs total in a 3-game series with the Red Sox. Once clearly on top of the league for offensive production, a lesson in small sample size comes by way of 3 offensively inept games, pushing the Sox down to a second place tie in wRC+ with the Anaheim Angels. They’re going to need an offense today when Felipe Paulino takes the mound.
Read MoreA day after the atrocity that is the White Sox bullpen used up every last pitch in its arsenal in a 6-4, 14-inning loss to the Red Sox, Chris Sale takes the mound in hopes of avoiding the shenanigans that led to that embarrassing conclusion.
Leury Garcia is starting at second base and will likely be unavailable in relief for tonight's 7:10 rubber match against Jon Lester and the Boston Red Sox, but one can rightly assume Daniel Webb, fresh off of a gutsy, 59-pitch performance as the only actual arm left in the bullpen, won't be.
Read MoreThe second lowest run output for the White Sox in 2014 resulted in a win. If one was to bet money, it would have been placed on Chris Sale or Jose Quintana being part of the game story for such a contest. Instead it was Erik Johnson pulling it together, and tonight we hope for another back-end starter to put together enough effective innings to keep the bullpen sharp and effective.
Read MoreSince dropping the finale of their season-opening series against Minnesota, the White Sox have not strayed more than a game above or below .500 through 13 games.
They can break away from that stretch on Tuesday when they welcome the defending World Series champion Boston Red Sox for the first of a three-game series at U.S. Cellular Field.
Read MoreHaving won their first two games of the season against the Indians, the White Sox have already matched their win total against Cleveland for the entirety of the 2013 season. So far, the offense gets most of the credit for the team's 6-5 start, having scored 70 runs in those 11 games - the most in the majors.
Read MoreThe 14 game losing streak against the Indians is a thing of the past. As Collin mentioned in yesterday’s series/game preview, the likelihood that Cleveland could maintain the same dominance over the White Sox that they had last season was low. In fact, a win tonight will match the Sox win total against the Indians for all of 2013. It’s like seeing a kid finally learn to tie his shoe after watching him trip over his laces every day for a year. As it turns out, a victory is a decent bet on this Spring Friday night, because hey, it’s Chris Sale Day.
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