On Wednesday, we saw something that we haven’t seen so far this season. Michael Kopech had a bad start for the Chicago White Sox. He came in with an ERA under 1.5 through 8 starts which is magnificent no matter how you look at it.
That wasn’t going to stay like that as everyone has a bad game every now and then. The Blue Jays successfully attacked him early and often which is just so rare to see for Kopech. He didn’t have the command of his secondary pitches like we are used to seeing from him and the results spoke for themselves.
Of course, Toronto’s offense is elite. From 1-9, they have guys who can beat any pitcher in the league. They looked like it in this game. They ended up pulling out a 7-3 victory. Kopech was charged with five of those runs and all of them were earned.
It is unclear if Kopech was pitching them differently because of how potent their lineup is but we saw him dominate the New York Yankees twice so that might not be it. He just didn’t have his control which is why he only had four strikeouts and four walks in the game.
The Chicago White Sox needs their starting pitching to be better going forward.
Kopech is going to figure it out soon because he is one of those elite guys but this was just not it for him. A night earlier, Lucas Giolito struggled too which tells you everything you need to know about the Blue Jays’ offense.
This staff needs to be better in order to contain a group like that. Pitching is key and the White Sox have shown that they have it but it hasn’t shown up this week. It is a long season but losing both of these games has them in a really tough spot.
They have a chance to get something out of this series but they need to beat one of the best pitchers in the American League. On Thursday, it will be Johnny Cueto vs Alek Manoah.
Cueto did okay against the Chicago Cubs last week but was put in a tough position late in the game. He is looking to bounce back in this one. Manoah has outstanding stats (1.77 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 5-1 record) so the White Sox have their work cut out for them.
Hopefully, Cueto has more success than Kopech or Giolito did because they need him badly. It is not an easy task so winning will really instill him as the number five starter on this team going forward.