Well look at that, after waiting until the last game in June to record their first shutout, the White Sox pitching staff has another in a week, taking the rubber match from the Seattle Mariners in a 1-0 surprise gift from Hector Noesi and the deservedly maligned bullpen.
Read MoreWhile he has charmed many on the South Side for his surprisingly consistent mediocrity, for being a below-average consumer of innings on a pitching staff that was a phone call away from more Dylan Axelrod or Undead Tommy Hanson, Hector Noesi is relic of darker times in recent Mariners history. He was a hurricane of suck (6.31 ERA in 135 innings in Seattle) in the 2012 starting rotation, and an equally disastrous reminder of the Pineda-Montero trade in brief appearances in 2013 and 2014.
Read MoreWhen the nation was watching through their fingers as the U.S. men's national team faltered out of the World Cup, and judging from the attendance, at work, the White Sox cruised through a charmed opening to the first half of their traditional doubleheader with the Angels.
Jose Abreu maximized the reward of a shaky first inning from Garrett Richards by bombing a three-run opposite-field bullet inside the right field foul pole, Hector Noesi didn't allow a hit through the first four innings despite being absolutely terrible, and the Sox were nursing a healthy lead on a future playoff team.
Read MoreMaybe they should have just let Hector Noesi pitch the whole damn thing.
Second-guessing whether Robin Ventura should have pulled his clearly flagging starter before he ruined the best start of his career for no reason in the eighth inning of a 4-0 game is only forgivable if it's done tongue-in-cheek, but snark is the only path to sanity when addressing a bullpen that coughed up a 4-0 lead and pulled around again in the 12th to finish the job with game-losing wild pitch to cap a grisly, wet 5-4 loss in Baltimore.
Read MoreThe monumental sea change that the Sox ninth inning comeback offered proved to be just a passing wave. After Adam Eaton's RBI double against the platoon advantage in the ninth tied an otherwise dispiriting game at 4, two Daniel Webb walks proved one too many, and a walk-off Brian Dozier single off Ronald Belisario sent the Minnesotans home happy in the bottom half with a 5-4 win in a game the Twinkies mostly dominated.
Read MoreIt seemed like a good time to face the Twins. They opened their rainy ballpark to the White Sox as owners of a 5-game losing streak and were kind enough to run some middle-aged rookie out to the mound. The Sox just don’t know a good thing when they see it. With the opening game dropped they have 3 more games to make good on their trip, which is very much advised because a series loss means they’ll find themselves sitting in last place just in time for a trip through the AL East where heavier competition awaits.
Read MoreHector Noesi actually looked pretty good to start the game on Saturday. He had a very clear plan the first time through the lineup, getting ahead of hitters on strike one, sitting about 92, and then attacking very aggressively once getting to two strikes, dialing it up to 94-95, going up and in on righties, and sweeping his breaking stuff everywhere. At first he only allowed a few unlucky hits on weak contact that went for no damage. Then the fourth inning was a combination of poor control by Noesi, atrocious defense (a Leury Garcia error and a Dayan Viciedo-it-wasn't-called-an-official-error-but-he-messed-up) meant the Royals would put up a 5-spot. Danny Duffy was on his game and that was far more than he would need.
Read MoreFriday the 13th is supposed to be unlucky. Jeremy Guthrie destroys the White Sox. One had hoped that these two things together would cancel each other out and Chicago would once again pull to .500. Those hopes were immediately dashed as Quintana started the game by allowing five straight hits, and the game was instantly out of reach. Jeremy Guthrie, who has been coasting with a K-rate below 5 for years now, struck out 9 batters and easily protected the lead he was staked.
Read MoreAfter a bad, bad week in the windswept hellscape of California, the White Sox needed a pleasant distraction from the everyday turmoil of being themselves; a shining glimmer of what things are headed toward rather than an unforgiving hold shot on what they currently are.
Read MoreAfter an unsuccessful weekend in which Sale lost his halo and the offense continued their failure to inspire much in the way of victories, we’re left slightly deadened to the point of accepting a much-improved Hector Noesi start against division rivals with a shrug of the shoulders. What’s the worst that could happen?
Read MoreHector Noesi tried his best to turn Tuesday's game against the Dodgers into a big pile of terrible, but a little bit of luck couple with Jose Abreu doing his thing proved enough in a 4-1 victory.
Read MoreI don't care about Hector Noesi's success as much as Jose Quintana's. I don't care as much about this game as the thrill of flipping a Clayton Kershaw perfecto into a Jose Abreu triumph, and I cannot possibly have my defensive expectation trashed by an outfield with Dayan Viciedo and Adam Dunn in it. There are no walls to break down tonight.
Do your worst, baseball!!
Read MoreThe White Sox are semi-streaking, over .500 and within a good weekend of a playoff spot.
Naturally, Collin Whitchurch, Nick Schaefer and James Fegan got together to discuss their issues with Robin Ventura's decision-making, whether or not the Sox are staying true to their rebuilding mission, what the heck Hector Noesi is doing, what stud pitcher the Sox should take with their stud draft pick, and...the All-Star Game?
The quote in the title is paraphrased, but rest assured, we cover the topic.
Read MoreThe margins in MLB are slim enough that even something as basic as a three-game sweep against a slumping Indians team requires some surprising extra contributions. On a related note, an opposite-field Moises Sierra single gave the White Sox a 10-inning walk-off 3-2 victory, buttressed by 7.1 outstanding innings from Hector Noesi.
Yes.
Read MoreFor a pitcher to throw 6 innings while allowing 3 runs is the limit of what is considered to be a “quality start”. This is something that Hector Noesi has achieved in two out of his last three starts. He’s pushed the limits, allowing the whole 3, and pitching no more than 6 in both of those successful outings but the point is we can throw a successful tag on it. When he first shrugged his way into the rotation every start was a countdown to meltdown, but that no longer seems to be the case. It’s on his strengthening shoulders that our hopes of an Indians sweep rests.
Read MoreIf someone had to show one clip of the Sox 6-5 win over the Yankees, they would undoubtedly go with Adam Dunn pulverizing an 0-2 fastball from David Robertson for a two-run walk-off home run. They'd show slow-mos of Dunn's swing, they'd flash to how Robertson threw both his arms up in frustration immediately after contact, and they would call it a night, and it would be fine. In terms of video, drama, and just win probability, this is the moment to highlight.
Read MoreStaying in the rotation for the foreseeable future is Hector Noesi. Seemingly the worst option available in major league baseball earlier this year, Noesi's has proven himself in four starts to at least be better than Scott Carroll. His 5.32 ERA with the Sox is even better than John Danks.
Read MoreA mere hours after James depressed us all with his retrospective on Chris Sale's injury spin, the White Sox brought smiles to our faces with this bit of news.
Read MoreThe White Sox have had 2-4 weeks already this season and I'll go out on a limb a predict they'll have another one--and not before long! But this somehow felt worse: the pitching was reliably bad, losing a series to Houston, while increasingly familiar, is also very bad, but it's more the hopelessness of the injury situation.
Read MoreLike last year, the White Sox only do one thing consistently well, but it's hitting, so everyone's pretty happy about it. Saturday's game was mostly defined by Hector Noesi getting roasted in the first inning and the Sox never making it all the way back out of his hole, but the unsteadiness of the Astros pitching staff kept them in shouting range throughout a 6-5 loss.
Early, it looked as if the Sox had finally happened upon their first true Hector Noesi start. A start that immediately revealed the foolishness of giving starting opportunities to a repeatedly failed pitcher, and ended in a four-hour long blowout that sapped everyone of the will to live or keep the failed pitcher on the roster.
Noesi allowed the first four batters of the game to reach, and gave up a line-drive home run to the fourth guy, Jason Castro. It wasn't a grand slam, but that's still the formula for giving up four runs. He allowed two more baserunners in the inning before escaping, and still provided no more insight into why he's so consistently hittable with lively mid-90's stuff.
Yet he mysteriously stabilized to complete five more innings with only a Dexter Fowler solo bomb on his tab, then even more mysteriously was left in to start the seventh, where he gave up a leadoff single that later scored, aided by Scott Downs skipping pickoff throw through Adam Dunn's legs. Noesi finished with six strikeouts to three walks, but two of those free passes came in the first inning. So he was good, when he wasn't dreadful. Aren't we all.
Houston starter Jared Cosart was one of the top prospects in baseball when he was in the lower minors because he possessed nutty stuff and it was assumed his control would settle down. It never did, and it really started hampering how much hitters were fooled by his nutty stuff. He walked three batters in the second inning alone, and threw a wild pitch, as the Sox scored two runs with a Dayan Viciedo single as their only hit.
After using two sac flies in the second inning, the Sox manufactured again as Beckham scored on a leadoff double in the third with groundouts from Conor Gillaspe and Jose Abreu pushing him along.
But the big knock eluded the Sox all afternoon and evening. They stranded runners on second in the fourth and fifth, and after getting the rare positive baserunning play from Alejandro De Aza (stole second after a leadoff single in the sixth), Josh Fields (no, not that Josh Fields) struck out Tyler Flowers and Moises Sierra, and got the otherwise brawnyBeckham to tap out to second to ruin it.
The only rally came off a truly terrible-looking and recently-acquired Kyle Farnsworth, who coughed up two runs behind two more walks, a booming double to the gap from Alexei Ramirez, and a two-out hot-shot grounder from Beckham that just squirted by Marwin Gonzalez at short. But even here, a rippling liner to the right field corner from De Aza teased the Sox. Newly-arrived George Springer flagged the ball down and limited what was nearly a game-tying homer to a sacrifice fly. Gillaspie was left in with a two-out chance to tie the game in a dreadful matchup with LOOGY Darin Downs, and couldn't transcend it.
Houston trotting out Chad Qualls as a closer induced giggles, but neither Paul Konerko, Adam Dunn nor Dayan Viciedo could do much with the veteran mediocre reliever. Konerko was playing after Abreu left the game with a bad ankle. Remember when he was supposed to take a day off for that?
Team Record: 21-23
Next game is Friday night in Houston at 3:10pm CT on WGN
Follow The Catbird Seat on Twitter @TheCatbird_Seat
The Catbird Seat is a White Sox blog by White Sox fans that focuses on intelligent and humorous baseball commentary. Brought to you by ESPN's SweetSpot Network.
An ESPN SweetSpot blog | Design by ofvoid
