Chicago White Sox: Week in Review 8/5-8/11

The Chicago White Sox had a week in which they hosted the Detroit Tigers and the Oakland Athletics and they were pretty good on the homestand.

The Chicago White Sox played the Tigers for four games including a doubleheader on Tuesday. The first game of this series took place on Monday. Lucas Giolito took on Spencer Turnbull. Giolito pitched pretty well, allowing three runs in six innings despite struggling early. Jimmy Cordero, Jace Fry, and Alex Colome finished up with three scoreless innings and the offense beat up on Turnbull, Gregory Soto, and Buck Farmer. Tim Anderson was 3/5 with two runs and Matt Skole knocked in two with a double that was helped by some lackluster Tigers defense. The Sox defeated the terrible Tigers 5-3.

Game two of the four-game series was the sixth start of Dylan Cease’s career. He only walked one while striking out six in five innings pitched. The White Sox hit Tigers starter Daniel Norris pretty hard, scoring four runs in five and 2/3 innings pitched. Jose Abreu walked once and had three hits including a home run to lead the offense. Ryan Goins tripled and singled to continued his surprising productivity. Evan Marshall, Aaron Bummer, and Colome gave up one run over four innings and the Sox won 5-3 against the truly awful Tigers.

The second game of the Tuesday doubleheader featured a pitching matchup of Hector Santiago and Drew VerHagen. Santiago wasn’t good. There’s a reason the Mets released him from a bad bullpen. Santiago gave up four earned runs in 4.2 innings pitched. Miguel Cabrera was 3/5 against the Sox. Dylan Covey was also bad, giving up three runs in 2.2 innings pitched. The offense for the Sox did their job, scoring six runs. Leury Garcia, Eloy Jimenez and Goins all had three hits. The Sox scored six, but that doesn’t matter much when Hector Santiago and Dylan Covey are pitching. The White Sox lost 10-6.

In game four the White Sox had a chance to win a series against the worst team in baseball. Ivan Nova took the hill. Before the game, the White Sox sent Dylan Covey to Charlotte. He may not be able to pitch, but at least he has accumulated a lot of frequent flyer miles traveling from Charlotte to Chicago and back. Nova continued his recent excellent pitching since the All-Star break. In fact, since the All-Star break, Ivan Nova has pitched 38.2 innings and has a 2.79 ERA.

There are only eight pitchers in baseball to pitch more innings than Nova with a lower ERA during that time period. Thankfully for the White Sox, one of those eight is Reynaldo Lopez. Nova pitched eight innings and gave up no runs. James McCann and Abreu both had three hits. Tim Anderson added four more hits to that. Ryan Goins is the only player who didn’t make it on base for the Sox. The White Sox won the game 8-1.

Series vs Oakland

The White Sox headed back home to play three games against Oakland. Oakland has been dominant against the Sox recently. Game one was Ross Detwiler against Mike Fiers. Detwiler wasn’t great. Mike Fiers was. Fiers pitched seven innings giving up no runs. Detwiler pitched 5.1 innings and gave up two runs. Jace Fry struggled, giving up four runs without getting an out. Anderson had two singles, half of the times the Sox were on base all day. Sox lose 7-0.

Game two against Oakland had a much better result. Reynaldo Lopez took the mound and was very good. He pitched 6.1 innings, giving up no runs. Abreu had two hits, Jimenez homered, and both Wellington Castillo and Leury Garcia scored a run. The Sox gave up no earned runs, but Ryan Goins misplayed a ball at third. This allowed the A’s to score two runs, and make the ninth inning interesting. Colome struck out Khris Davis to end the game. Sox win 3-2.

Game three against the A’s had Lucas Giolito against former White Sox pitcher Chris Bassitt. Before the game, Jose Ruiz was sent to Charlotte as Kelvin Herrera was activated from the IL. Bassitt was a reminder of the Jeff Samardzija trade. Giolito struck out 13, walked one and only allowed two runs on a Matt Olson home run. Giolito made it through six, the bullpen was even more effective, with Jimmy Cordero, Fry, and Herrera pitching three innings without giving up any runs. Unfortunately, Chis Bassitt was a little better. Bassitt pitched seven innings, giving up no runs and striking out seven. Jimenez and Goins both managed to make it on base twice. It was a hard day for the offense as the Sox lost 2-0.

Overall it was a pretty good week on the south side. The team overall was 4-3. They beat up on a bad team and lost to a team that is better. There were some bright spots for sure and they’ll look to build on those.