Important Stuff from the 4-3 loss to the Twins that happened during the HOF induction
/Not gonna work, Adrian
The White Sox took the lead while Frank Thomas was reciting his love poem to baseball, so they got the thematic punch down in an otherwise miserable day where they were again mystified by Yohan Pinto and left the tying run at third despite having three cracks to make contact compelling enough to bring Leury Garcia home in the ninth. An entire weekend without getting Twain'd is just too much to ask. This day gave us the Frank Thomas speech, already. Don't be selfish. They lost 4-3, in case you wondered.
- I think I've gotten around to saying before that a good White Sox rotation can have one of the John Danks-Hector Noesi-Scott Carroll ilk as a regular member, but not three, and I've been hesitant to even give Carroll that much status. Yet he's rebounded from what looked to be the death cycle of his MLB career after some unfamiliarity luck. He's been functional three of his last four times out, and showed real spunk working out of trouble in his third trip through what was admittedly not a good Twins batting order Sunday. His strike out of Oswaldo Arcia to end the sixth prompted Arcia to break his bat over his knee, which was outstanding.
- The ninth inning--what an experience! Undisputed best hitter on the team Jose Abreu got what he deserved for not hitting a home run like a scoundrel. After lacing a leadoff single, he was immediately pulled for Leury Garcia. While I would normally advise that Robin Ventura needs to be aggressive with Leury to make it worth it to pull his best hitter, but Paul Konerko--who had a 109 wRC+ vs lefties coming in; not quite worth it but not awfu!--had lifted a single into left-center, and Leury made his presence known by making the turn to third. It would be then that Dayan Viciedo--who everyone hopes has the floor of platoon masher--would seemingly earn his worth, but instead made an entry for most worthless at-bat of the season, pulling his head off of a few Glen Perkins (a lefty) breaking balls, striking out, and leaving the responsibility on two platoon lefties. Conor Gillaspie managed to draw a walk and push the game to Gordon Beckham, who nearly blooped a ball down the left field line before flying out. There were three-straight plate appearances (Viciedo, Gillaspie, De Aza) where the Sox couldn't put a ball in play when they really needed just that, but Viciedo was in the position to best succeed and gave a positively rotten effort.
- Adrian Nieto contributed his first home run of his major league home run in the eighth, an opposite field shot out of Target Field. He's still pretty rough behind the plate and Tyler Flowers seems to have gotten wind of this 'Nieto's out-hitting you' talk recently, but it was nice. It happened right after Frank Thomas finished his HOF speech. Nieto is the next Frank Thomas. This thing gets passed on just like the Dalai Lama.
- Ronald Belisario probably isn't going to end this season with a nice ERA and scholars will probably struggle to understand his usage unless we scrawl in our diaries about him. He claims to have been set off by a pre-inning shakedown where umpires demanded his necklace removed and rosin taken off his sleeve, right before he failed to retire any of the three hitters he faced, all of whom later scored. I can understand the necklace thing being an issue. That thing weighs enough it probably threw off his balance.
- Adrian Nieto has a higher OBP than four of the White Sox starters Sunday. This is not meant as a compliment to Nieto. No Beckham or Viciedo next season, please.
Team Record: 51-55
Next game is Tuesday at 6:08pm CT on WGN at Detroit
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