Chicago White Sox Morning BP: Is momentum swing coming?
For two days the Chicago White Sox have had very good starting pitching in their series against the 30-plus win Houston Astros. Now the question that has to be asked is this … Will the big momentum swing all of us have been waiting for finally occur?
Trust me, I’ve been tough on the White Sox a lot this year, and most of the time it has been for good reason. At times they’ve given us a glimpse of hope, and at other times it has been more like “you have got to be kidding me!” with some of the ways they’ve lost games thus far in 2015.
Seeing how the White Sox have played against the visiting Astros, a team that has a 34-26 overall record, good enough for a two-game lead in the AL West, one must start getting some of that “preseason hope” back White Sox vice president Kenny Williams spoke of.
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Then again, I take myself back to reality and realize this is still the same team that when they get on a losing streak, they really get on one, and have trouble hitting the brakes when things begin to go south.
Tuesday was good to see the White Sox play a solid game without the one and only Chris Sale on the bump, and it was even better seeing that pitcher being Carlos Rodon since he’s going to be with the White Sox for the foreseeable future.
I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself after just a couple wins against the Astros, but I somewhat do what to be excited when watching White Sox baseball.
After games on Tuesday the White Sox are 6.5 games back of the AL Central lead, tied with the Cleveland Indians with a 27-30 overall record. They trail the third-place Detroit Tigers by three games, and the second-place Minnesota Twins by 5.5 games.
With still 105 games left on the schedule there is still plenty of time, but I keep thinking back to the let downs from parts of this season thus far, and the let downs of recent seasons, so I really don’t know what to think of Robin Ventura‘s White Sox club.
It is good to see the White Sox win at U.S. Cellular Field with a 15-12 home record, but they really need to pick up their game on the road, as they are 12-18 during that aspect of their schedule.
The White Sox are 5-5 in their past 10 games, and I still believe they are better than a .500 team in that span. They are also better than a team that is three games under the .500 point for the season on following their game on June 9.
Wednesday is a big game for the White Sox because they’ll be sending Jose Quintana to the mound (is he the third best pitcher in the rotation?) against Vincent Velasquez of the Astros. Quintana is better than his 2-6 overall record, and much better than a pitcher with a 4.28 ERA.
The White Sox will be facing a pitcher who has not made an MLB start or appearance yet in his career, but is the Astros’ No. 4 overall prospect.
This is a good chance for the White Sox to take advantage of a rookie with hopefully some major league jitters, and an opportunity to get their first three-game winning streak since May 15-18, when they swept the Oakland Athletics. They eventually won four straight with a win against the Cleveland Indians, following the three-game sweep of the A’s.
This team still has all of the right pieces to make a run in the division, it is just a matter of them not wanting to continue to try putting a square peg in a circle when they are on the field so to speak.
It will be a stressful, but very interesting rest of this month to watch the White Sox, just to see where they stand once July arrives, because that will be a map to where the season could lead.
Now for the White Sox headlines:
• White Sox first-rounder hails from same city in Florida as club’s ace lefty: By Scott Merkin of WhiteSox.com.
• Jeff Samardzija, White Sox Staff Have Chat About Moving Forward: By Bruce Levine of CBS Chicago.
• White Sox intrigued by Simeon grad, 7th-rounder Blake Hickman: By JJ Stankevitz of CSN Chicago.
• Haviland Shines in Knights 4-2 Victory: By the Charlotte Knights official site.
Next: Carlos Rodon gains 2nd career win