Tag: Texas Rangers

No ReyLo No-No, but Sox win, 2-0

by leighallan, posted in White Sox Game Recap

Before the storm: Reynaldo López had a no-hitter for five innings before being removed with flu-like symptoms. (Clinton Cole/South Side Hit Pen)

Reynaldo López fired five innings of no-hit ball before leaving today’s 2-0 win over Texas with flu-like symptoms, but he and four relievers combined on a one-hitter — no little thanks going to an injury-depleted Rangers lineup happy to swing at any pitch in the zip code. Or any 606– zip code.

Lopez didn’t seem to have his best stuff, but the Rangers, who lead the majors in strikeouts, are so swing-happy he didn’t need it. The only time López was in the slightest trouble was in the third. After two fly outs to right, the first a nice catch by Jon Jay, Jose Trevino got aboard on the first of Tim Anderson’s two errors of the day and Shin-Soo Choo walked. A Danny Santana K took care of the problem.

The sole hit surrendered in the 2-0 Sox victory was a single by Choo leading off the sixth against Aaron Bummer. That was followed by Anderson’s second boot of a routine grounder, extending his commanding lead for most errors in MLB, but Bummer recovered to get two ground outs and strikeout, sandwiched around an intentional walk that loaded the bases.

Otherwise, Bummer, Evan Marshall, Jace Fry and Alex Colomé cruised to a Players’ Weekend celebration. Texas has been a horrible team of late, but it was a fine pitching performance, regardless of opponent.

Meanwhile, the offense looked like it would sting rookie lefty Brock Burke right off the bat. Burke, pitching only his second game in the bigs, gave up a leadoff single to Leury García, hit José Abreu, walked Yoán Moncada, and faced Eloy Jiménez with the bases loaded and one out. Eloy smashed by far the hardest-hit ball of the game, a 109 mph screamer, but it was right at Elvis Andrus at short, and José was doubled off of second.

In the third, Yolmer Sánchez walked, Leury sacrificed him to second, Anderson got on on an Andrus error, and José singled Yolmer home with a shot through the left side.

That was Jose’s RBI No. 99 for 2019. It was called an earned run, the only one Burke has now given up in 12 innings with the Rangers.

An insurance run came in the seventh, when reliever Emmanuel Clase gave up a single to Adam Engel, Yolmer drew a fortunate walk after he should have been called out on strikes, García took a fastball to his ankle on a bunt attempt (X-rays are negative, he’s day-to-day), and José’s 100th RBI on a, well, not-blast:

Abreu’s fielder’s choice roller was so slow Statcast didn’t even measure it, but it did the job.

The Sox only managed five hits, two of those by Engel and none by Anderson or Sánchez, so both of their hitting streaks are de-streakified.

That’s four wins in their last five for the Sox, all five featuring excellent starting pitching. They get a day off tomorrow before the Minnesota Twins come to town for a three-game series starting Tuesday night.

Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 2, Rangers 0

by Ashley Sanders, posted in Six Pack of Stats

May the odds be ever in your favor: According to the graph, the odds were almost always in the favor of the White Sox, and they made sure to prove the odds true. (FanGraphs)

Mal Tiempo collects RBIs No. 99 and 100

Yesterday, the Texas Rangers had the pitching going for them, and for this afternoon, the tables turned. The Chicago White Sox recorded the one-hit shutout and took the season series from the Rangers (4-3).

0

Reynaldo López was firing on all cylinders during this afternoon’s ballgame. He pitched five complete innings, which consisted of 80 pitches. The thrill of that? He threw five shutout AND no-hit innings. Unfortunately, he left the game with signs of dehydration and flu-like symptoms. Wishing for a speedy recovery!

100

José Abreu collects RBIs No. 99 and 100. With that, Mal Tiempo is third on the all-time Chicago White Sox list of seasons with 100-plus RBIs.

1

The collective pitching effort of the Good Guys only gave up one hit to the Rangers. Recently, the South Siders have had some remarkable pitching efforts by starters and relievers. If the batters can keep complementing the pitchers with overall solid defense, this team will be a legit contender in 2020 as Abreu predicts.

25

With today’s save, Alex Colomé registers his 25th save in 26 opportunities. He definitely lives up to his Players’ Weekend nickname: The Horse.

.607

The South Side pitchers totaled a .607 WPA, and they were absolutely magnificent.

60

Today’s wonderfully-pitched ballgame and simple-hitting baseball equated to the Sox’s 60th win of the season. The South Siders are 60-70 overall.

White Sox are shut out in a well-pitched ballgame

by Ashley Sanders, posted in White Sox Game Recap

Congratulations, Pito! There wasn’t much offense on the White Sox side, but at least José Abreu passed a milestone. (@WhiteSox)

The Chicago White Sox had three individual player accomplishments for this Saturday Player’s Weekend game, but they did not equate to a Good Guys victory. Two home runs by the Texas Rangers gave them the season series-tying victory (3-3), 4-0. Time to acknowledge the good before the bad:

First and foremost, a huge congratulations are in order for Mal Tiempo (José Abreu)! This storm hit his career 1,000th (and later, 1,001th!) hit, an opposite-field single in the first inning.

Of course, I have to give a shout-out to my guy, Noah Alan (Yolmer Sánchez). Alan recorded a single of his own, which extended his 11-game hitting streak to 12. Let’s keep it going, Noah!

TA7, with a single up the middle in the eighth inning, extended his personal hit streak to 11 games! Let’s keep it rolling!

As for the bulk of the game, Super Nova (Iván Nova) had it going for him. He pitched five scoreless innings as the supernova exploded this evening. However, defying science, the Texas Rangers were able to stop it. In the sixth inning, Osito (Willie Calhoun) hit a no-doubter to the front rows of Goose Island to give his team a 2-0 lead, breaking open the scoring for tonight’s ballgame.

Jimmy Cordero relieved Nova two-outs in the sixth. He escaped the inning without any further damage. However, with two outs in the seventh, Cordero gave up the second two-run blast of the night, to Danielito (Danny Santana). This doubled the Rangers lead to 4-0.

Kolby Allard (Paaa) pitched a fantastic game. 6.1 shutout innings gave Allard a QS in only his fourth career MLB start and seventh game overall.

The overall pitching of the Rangers overpowered any rally-like development, let alone a lone run in a frame for the White Sox. Although they were shut out tonight, look for some hopeful Stick Talk tomorrow!

The South Siders will finish this four-game set against the Rangers tomorrow at 1:10 CT before an off-day on Monday. Reynaldo López (7-11, 5.25 ERA) will pitch against Brock Burke (0-0, 0.00 ERA), in Burke’s second career MLB game. NBC Sports Chicago will have the broadcast, WGN has the radio, and Leigh Allan is back on your South Side Hit Pen coverage!

The sunglasses emoji will have to wait for another day for its SSHP debut…

Gamethread: Rangers at White Sox

by Ashley Sanders, posted in Gamethread

McCannon: Chicago is our city. (White Sox)

The Big Baby returns to the Players’ Weekend lineup as the South Siders look to take the season series from the Rangers

Today marks game three of a four-game series with the Texas Rangers, and it also marks game two of three for Players’ Weekend.

From the creative cleats to colorful bats, I really enjoy this time of year. With a chance to take the season series from the Texas Rangers with a victory tonight, I might even like this weekend a little bit more!

Iván Nova, I mean Super Nova, is ready to accomplish that feat and keep rolling with his recent 5-0 record. With a chance to improve his personal record to 10-9 and give the Chicago White Sox their 60th win of the season, a supernova is in order!

For the opposition, Kolby Allard will play in his seventh career MLB game. This season, with three games under his belt, Paaa (not a typo) owns a 1-0 record, but a 6.60 ERA. Still a rookie, Allard will try to beat long-time veteran at his own game.

The South Siders will line up as follows to try and get to Paaa:

The Big Baby finds his way back into the lineup, batting fifth as tonight’s designated hitter. Yoyo precedes the Baby in his now-solidified fourth spot of the order, playing third base. Also, keep a look out for Mal Tiempo. Batting third and playing first, Bad Weather is storming up for his 1,000 hit of his career! Let’s see it happen, Pito! (Check out Whitesoxski’s article here on Mal Tiempo)

The Texas Rangers will send out the following to try to stop any supernova from occurring:

That will be a Choo-Santana-Andrus-Calhoun-Solak-Odor-Forsythe-Heineman-Mathis lineup. Hunter Pence is still out of the batting order as an injury precaution, so hopefully, the shrugging emoji can make it into tomorrow’s lineup because Pence is a very fun player to watch!

Of course, TA7 and the rest of the Good Guys have been the most fun to watch! Catch the Good Guys Wear Black on WGN, broadcast and radio. It’s a 6:10 CT start, and with this supernova, I would love to bring the sunglasses emoji in my SSHP gamethread/ game recap debut!

Spot ’em a 3-0 lead? So what?

by leighallan, posted in White Sox Game Recap

The numbers are nice but the story is better. (@WhiteSox)

Dylan Cease’s start couldn’t have been rockier. His follow-up couldn’t have been smoother. And the Chicago White Sox pecked away and then boomed away for an 8-3 win over the Texas Rangers, so the players celebrating on the first game of Players’ Weekend were the ones in the good-guy black outfits.

Four batters in, the Sox rookie had given up a walk, a 103 mph single to Elvis Andrus, a wild pitch, and a 401-foot, 102.3 mph three-run homer to Willie Calhoun. Looked grim.

But …

Cease left the game 19 batters later, having retired the next 11 Rangers before giving up just two more singles and getting a career-high (OK, short career, but still) nine strikeouts. The two singles led off the fifth inning, but a strikeout, a Shin-Soo Choo blast Leury García caught a few feet short of the wall and a routine fly later, Cease was out of the inning.

Cease picked up his third win and registered a game score of 60, by far his best in the bigs. He gets credit for a quality start, tossing 56 strikes out of 95 pitches over six innings. The mighty triumvirate of the bullpen took over, with Evan Marshall, Aaron Bummer, and Alex Colomé cruising aside for a hit batter by The Horse in the ninth.

Forgetting Sarah did get some nice help from Tim Anderson in the seventh:

Meanwhile, the offense picked up two runs in the second, when Lance Lynn showed that even 14-game winners can get sloppy by walking Matt Skole and Yolmer Sánchez with two outs, after which Adam Engel came through with a soft liner just over third that scored them both. (See, Sox guys and bosses and fans — taking walks truly is important. Really. Honest.)

The Sox took the lead for good in the fourth. Jon Jay singled, advanced on one of Lynn’s four wild pitches on the night — that’s right, four of ’em — and scored on a Sánchez single. Yolmer scored on a double by Leury, who was driven in on an Anderson bloop to right.

That made it 5-3, and the Sox added three more in the sixth when Leury singled, took second and third on two wild pitches, then scored on the hardest-hit ball of the night, a 109.6 mph, 403-foot double by José Abreu. Yoán Moncada then belted one that had less velocity and less distance than Jose’s (102/393), but a better sense of direction:

That closed out a big offensive night, with every Sox batter but James McCann getting at least one of the team’s 12 hits, and García, Anderson, Moncada and Jay getting two apiece. In the process, Anderson and Sánchez both extended their hitting streaks.

Game three of the series will begin at 6:10 p.m. CDT tomorrow. Iván Nova. who has gone from 4-9 to 9-9, will try to get on the plus side of the win-loss ledger, opposing Rangers rookie Kolby Allard, who sports a 6.60 ERA and gave up six earned runs to the Angels in five innings last time out. Ashley Sanders is going to try to bring the sunglasses emoji over the South Side Hit Pen, in her recap debut here.

Gamethread: Rangers at White Sox

by leighallan, posted in Gamethread

Wood wagoneers: Rangers sounds less intimidating in Spanish, since “rurales” also means “country folk” and “station wagons.” Maybe that’s why Yoán Moncada hit so well last night.

The White Sox will be trying for their third straight win and second in a row against the Texas Rangers, in what should be a perfect night to begin Players’ Weekend at Downward Facing Arrow Stadium. The challenge will be continuing the pitching domination of Lucas Giolito and (surprise, surprise!!) Ross Detwiler.

Dylan Cease will be taking up that challenge for the Sox, making his ninth big league start and trying for his third win. Cease’s ERA is back up close to six, at 5.93, after getting whacked for five runs in five innings against the Angels last time out. Lefties are batting .338 against him, so it’s good the Ranger lineup only has three southpaws and switch-hitter Danny Santana, who missed last night’s game with a sore hammie.

It’s probably not quite time to go from considering Cease’s mediocre performance as just the rockiness of rookieness, to thinking, “Sure hope Giolito gets him away from the Sox organization to the people who made such a difference for him mentally and physically last offseason.” That time could come soon, though , especially given Dylan had a really rocky June at Charlotte as well.

Dylan Cease ponders the next step in his development. (Clinton Cole/South Side Hit Pen)

Things will probably be tougher for the offense tonight, since tossing for the Rangers will be 14-game winner Lance Lynn. The big (6´5´´, 280) righty has had two losses and a no decision in his last three starts, though in each loss he only gave up one run.

The good news is that one of the few times Lynn got hit hard this year was courtesy of the White Sox, who got to him for five runs in seven innings June 22 (OK, we lost 6-5 anyway, but let’s not mention that). The bright light you’ll see coming from the Sox dugout will be the gleam in the eyes of Tim Anderson, who nailed Lynn for a single, double, homer and four RBIs in that game.

Tim Anderson hears he gets to face Lance Lynn again. (Clinton Cole/South Side Hit Pen)

Sox lineup comes complete with Players’ Weekend nicknames:

Three of the four Rangers who will hit lefty against Cease will be among the first four batters he faces:

Guess the players wanted the lineup in invisible ink. Probably legible if you rub lemon juice over your screen.

If you can’t figure that out (silly you), it’ll be Choo/Santana/Andrus/Calhoun/Pence/Odor-/Kiner-Falefa/DeShields/Mathis.

First pitch 7:10 CDT. NBC Sports on the tube, WGN on the transistor.

Six Pack of Stats: White Sox 6, Rangers 1

by Ashley Sanders, posted in Six Pack of Stats

The comeback kids: Ross Detwiler notched a quality start and recorded a new career-high of eight strikeouts; simultaneously, Yoán Moncada went 2-for-4 with a homer in his first game back from the Injured List. (FanGraphs)

Hakuna Moncada! Ross Detwiler pitches a career game, and YoYo records two extra-base hits in a worry-free White Sox win

Arguably one of his best starts of his career and definitely the best of the season, Ross Detwiler was rolling during tonight’s ballgame. After taking notes from Lucas Giolito’s masterful game yesterday, Detwiler recorded a quality start and set a new career-high in strikeouts. On top of the wonderful pitching, Yoán Moncada and the Good Guys let their bats come to life in what was an excellent game by the Chicago White Sox. Time to go behind the numbers of tonight’s well-executed baseball game:

8

Big Boss Ross had it going for him tonight. Twelve years into his major league career and Detwiler recorded a career-high eight strikeouts. As a lefty without any overpowering stuff, that is incredibly impressive. Hopefully, tonight marks a turning point for the rest of the season!

3

The South Siders only had three pitchers take the mound — not as impressive as Ariel Jurado’s complete game in the Texas Rangers loss — but they only gave up three hits during the span of 27 outs. I am totally behind a whole lot of Sox offense complementing a whole lot of pitching brilliance!

2

In his first game back from the Injured List, YoYo went 2-for-4, which included a long ball. That 112 mph blast went 383 feet and drove in two runs. YoYo pumped up the heat for his second extra-base hit of the game, which was a double hit at 115 mph — the hardest hit ball of Moncada’s short career.

92.7

After Moncada and James McCann went back-to-back on home runs in the third inning, the Sox’s win expectancy jumped to 92.7%. The South Siders made sure to cash that in for their 58th win of the season!

-.243

To give a little love to the Texas Rangers and as mentioned previously, Ariel Jurado pitched a complete game. Having given up six runs in the game, it is a pretty impressive feat for the young righthander. Even though he saved the bullpen for his team, Jurado did accumulate a -.243 WPA in his eight-inning complete game.

998

Looking ahead, José Abreu is two hits away from a career 1,000 hits. A first inning single made No. 998 career hits, so hopefully, No. 1,000 will be here before the Rangers go back to the Lone Star State.

Everybody Loves Ross (Detwiler)

by Lenny G, posted in White Sox Game Recap

It only seemed like 22 minutes plus commercials: Detwiler turned in an Emmy-worthy performance tonight. (@WhiteSox)

Big Boss Ross: Serving lewks from coast to coast.

(This recap was written after this author’s dinner with his mother-in-law, and is gleamed from various Twitter clips and box scores; it will be written in the style of a scene from Everybody Loves Raymond, featuring one if the greatest sitcom in-laws of all time, Marie Barrone [played by the late Doris Roberts] and her put-upon daughter-in-law, Debra).

[INTERIOR] THE BARRONE’S LIVING ROOM

(Raymond and Debra are on the couch, watching the end of the Chicago White Sox and Texas Rangers game on their TV. The game has just ended.)

RAYMOND: (gets up, stretches and yawns sleepily) Oh wow, glad that’s finally over … I still don’t get why a New York paper asked me, a native Long Islander, to watch and recap this random Sox and Rangers game, but a job’s a job!

(Leans down to kiss a glowering Debra on the forehead)

RAYMOND: Thanks for staying up with me to watch … even though it’s our wedding anniversary … it’s the only thing I could come up with to enjoy together …

(Debra shoots him a look of burning annoyance)

RAYMOND: Ooooook … I’ll be upstairs writing this up and … (Raymond awkwardly bounds up the stairs)

(Debra rolls her eyes and reaches for the remote to turn off the TV when suddenly the front door flies open and Ray’s mother Marie bursts into the room.)

Marie: Raymond! Raymond! Your father just won’t stop snoring! He’s waking up the neighborhood! I need to sleep here tonight … (pause) … Debra? Where’s Ray? He said he’d be up late writing a story …

DEBRA: Yeah, Ray just went upstairs to work on it …

MARIE: Oh, thank you dear … but looking at the circles under your eyes … maybe you should … (looks at TV, Jason Benetti is watching Steve Stone talk about house building again) Oh my god! Is that Steve?

DEBRA: Steve? Steve who?

MARIE: Steve Stone! Oh Debra, I forget … you don’t take much interest in my Ray’s line of work .. He was a pitcher in the 70s … one time, the Baltimore Orioles were in town and I bumped into Steve at a store downtown … Debra, if I wasn’t married … [audience hoots and hollers]

DEBRA: That’s wonderful, Marie … but … (Debra goes to turn off the TV)

MARIE: Don’t you dare! Leave it on … (Steve is watching Jason explain tonight’s #SoxMath answer, cutting his eyes to the camera periodically, Marie feels as if he is directly looking at her)

Um … Debra dear, why don’t you … um … be a dear and describe the game to me … what happened in the game? I’m going to get Robert to get on the Tweet machine tomorrow and I want to reach out to Mr. Stone here and I want to sound like I actually care about caseball …

DEBRA: Baseball?

M: Whatever … Debra! Details! Now!

DEBRA: [Debra sighs and debates how fast she can escape to Canada after strangling Marie, decides against it] OK, Marie … ummmm so the game starts … the first Sox pitcher … Ross Det … Rot … wiler? Whatever he starts out really well … he even strikes out all three Rangers in the second inning.

MARIE: Yes, yes … keep going! And punch it up a little!

DEBRA: Right … evidently he hasn’t been doing well in many of his games before, but you couldn’t tell tonight I guess! He went a whole six innings, got eight strikeouts, and only gave up a home runner to um … a guy named … Elvis?

MARIE: Honey, you don’t have to make up names, if you don’t remember … OK, what else??

DEBRA: The Sox had this young man, the announcer called him Yo-Yo, oh he just swatted one a pitch straight out of the park! Well, not literally, but it was fast! Then the Sox catcher, the guy who squats all the time? His name is James McCann and he hit another homer right after the Yo-Yo guy did!

MARIE: Yo-Yos and Irish catchers, got it. Is there anything else?!

DEBRA: Well they kept cutting to this guy in the stands, he had big ears … I think his name was Chuck …he just went on and on about …

(Debra’s voice fades into the background as Marie stares deeply into the visage of Steve Stone, her vision turns hazy and this picture slowly fades in on the screen:

DEBRA: Marie? (Snaps fingers) Marie, are you even listening?!

MARIE: (slowly emerging from a her haze) What? Oh my, I’m so sorry dear … what was it you were saying?

DEBRA: I’ve been trying to tell you! Some guy …I think his name was Kelvin Herrera … he came in the ninth inning and got the final three outs. The Sox ended up winning 6-1! So there! Is that enough for you?! Can I go to bed now?!?!

MARIE: Yes, yes … of course! Thank you so much! Now be a dear and don’t tell Frank or Ray any of this! And please try to keep your anniversary lovemaking noises down to a minimum …Last year I had to tell Frank some raccoons were fighting out by the garbage! (Marie chuckles …) Good night!

(Debra’s mouth hangs open in stunned silence as the audience laughs heartily)

[FADE OUT]

[END SCENE]

Tune in tomorrow night! Special guest star Ricky Renteria stops by to say hello to his old teammate, who happens to be Ray’s dad! But when Frank claims the bunt is a waste of an at bat, fists start flying! How will emergency coach Ray Barrone manage young Dylan Cease against the Rangers’ Lance Lynn at 7:10 p.m. Central on the South Side of Chicago without Debra noticing?!

Clinton Cole/South Side Hit Pen

Gamethread: Rangers at White Sox

by Brett Ballantini, posted in Gamethread

Photo Credit: Clinton Cole/ South Side Hit Pen

The Minnesota Twins swept the Texas Rangers in a four game series at Globe Life Park last week, and we just took two of three from the Twins, combine that with the Rangers’ losing road record and this series is looking favorable for us.

Struggling lefty Ross Detwiler has the reins for the Chicago White Sox against the struggling righty, Ariel Jurado.

Jurado has not had much good luck since the All-Star break, allowing 35 runs (28 earned) with a 1.66 WHIP over 32.2 innings in seven starts. He has given up 15 runs in just 5.2 innings in his last two starts.  He is 0-1 lifetime against the White Sox with a 6.75 ERA. José Abreu has his number with a .600 average in five at-bats.  Jurado has a .317 batting average against him with runners in scoring position, so if we can get on base, surely, we can do some damage.  Let’s face it, with Detwiler on the mound, we’re going to need some run support.

Your starting lineup for the Good Guys – please note Eloy was a late scratch, but WELCOME BACK Yoán Moncada!

And your Lone Star lineup: (you may have to click on it to see the lineup below the photo. Thanks for being difficult, Texas.)

The game is airing at 7:10 PM CST on NBCSN and WGN AM radio 720. Lenny G will have a spicy recap for you after the game. Go Sox!