Who was good and who was bad for the Chicago White Sox against the St. Louis Cardinals?
The Chicago White Sox won a series on the road thanks to an offense that bounced back after being shut out on Friday night.
The St. Louis Cardinals opened the series with a 3-0 victory after starting pitcher Sonny Gray was outstanding on the mound. It was also the ninth time the White Sox were shut out this season.
Think about how bad that is for Chicago. The Sox still have been shut out more times than they have won this season.
The Sox can also thank umpire CB Bucknor for help in winning Game 2. The White Sox held a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the 10th with bases loaded when the heavens opened up and the rain came down hard.
After a three-hour delay, play resumed and Bucknor called that game as if he was late for a dinner reservation. Tanner Banks was able to end the game with a strikeout. Although the called third strike probably should have been ball two.
CB Bucknor is doing CB Bucknor things. Bases loaded in the 9th, down a run, after a 3-hour delay. I’d be so mad if I stayed and had to go home on this call. pic.twitter.com/iPibdANlfh
— Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen) May 5, 2024
The White Sox should take the luck whenever they can get it based on their terrible win-loss record. There might be an offense even worse than the Sox and it is the St. Louis Cardinals. Well, the Cardinals have a slightly better team batting average, but they struggle to score just like the White Sox. Chicago outscored St. Louis 11-6 over the two final games of the series as the Sox won the finale 5-1.
It was not all Bucknor in assisting the Sox. The White Sox got some good performances this weekend from the lineup and their pitching to pick up two victories. There were also two bad performances worth pointing out.
Seven players and one unit were good in this series...
Eloy Jimenez hit a solo shot in the seventh inning to break a 1-1 tie and start a big inning.
Eloy Jiménez sent that one to the stands! pic.twitter.com/xTGZ2qDgye
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) May 5, 2024
The Sox ended up scoring three more runs in the inning. Eloy hit rock bottom on April 19th as his slash line was .095/.208/.095. Since then, he has at least gotten a hit in 11 of his past 14 games.
Garrett Crochet had a scare yesterday when he took a liner off of his leg. He was able to stay in the game and pitched well. He gave up a home run over six strong innings as he allowed just three hits and struck out six.
Crochet is now up to 53 strikeouts on the season which is good for a tie for 2nd in the league. He still has an ERA over five but he has a 1.01 WHIP.
Rookie Bryan Ramos had an outstanding debut at the plate yesterday. The Sox' fourth-best prospect, and likely the future at third base, was called up over the weekend after Danny Mendick had to be placed on the 10-day IL with a minor back issue. Instead of having Danny try to play through the pain and tinker his swing to overcome it, the Sox are letting him rest.
Also, the Sox plan on playing Ramos instead of him just collecting per diem money. He ended up going 1-for-3 with a RBI.
First RBI for Bryan Ramos! 👏 pic.twitter.com/pCu6wKRmz3
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) May 5, 2024
The Sox needed a body and did not want to make any other 40-man roster moves. It feels like the White Sox are doing something right for a change.
Paul DeJong got some revenge on his former team. He was traded away by the Cardinals at last season's trade deadline after playing six-plus seasons in St. Louis. DeJong had a great game on Sunday as he went 2-for-4 with two doubles, two runs, and a RBI. He also had a hit on Saturday.
Gavin Sheets was 2-for-4 along with a run on Sunday. He now has a .270/.362/.460 slash line. We might have to have a serious discussion about Sheets actually being a good player.
Korey Lee came up big on Saturday. He went 2-for-4 with two RBI. He has to be the everyday catcher from here on out as he is up to a .271 average along with a .475 slugging percentage.
The White Sox bullpen bounced back nicely after getting torched by the Minnesota Twins last week. The pen threw 11.1 innings of scoreless ball. Jared Shuster saved the bullpen on Friday as he threw 3.1 scoreless innings after Brad Keller failed to go late into the game.
Two starting pitchers were not good for the Chicago White Sox.
Keller made his first start in a White Sox uniform on Friday. As expected, he was not very effective. He lasted just 4.2 innings, allowed three runs along with five hits, walked two, and struck out five.
Why the front office keeps insisting on going with veteran starting pitchers in a lost season is beyond reasoning. Keller was signed midway through spring training, so it is not like many contenders are going to think they need him for a playoff push.
All he is doing is taking away big-league innings from Jonathan Cannon, Nick Nastrini, or heck, even Shuster. The Sox should be seeing what they have in those three young arms instead of wasting everyone's time with a guy who at best can only hope to salvage his career by becoming a long reliever.
Erick Fedde also had one of his worst starts in his brief time with the White Sox on Saturday. Fedde was only able to make it through 4.1 innings as he gave up five runs. Fedde struggled to get Nolan Arenado much like Keller had issues the night before. Arenado crushed a three-run home run in the fifth against Fedde to end his day. On Friday, Arenado drove in two of the Cardinals' three runs off of Keller.
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