Since The White Sox took the series with the Twins and clinched a playoff spot, they have been 1-4 and have scored a total of 16 runs. Any aspirations they had to lead the division is all but gone after the loss of Wednesday’s game against the Cleveland Indians.
Lucas Giolito (6IP 4H 2ER 3BB 11K 119PC) and Shane Bieber (5IP 2H 0ER 3BB 10K 98PC) lived up to the billing of dueling aces. Both pitched well enough to win even though neither factored into Cleveland’s victory. This could be the prequel to the opening round matchup in the playoffs.
Rick Renteria played with fire yet again. He kept Giolito in the game longer than he should have. Giolito deserved to come out and start the 6th inning even though he already had 95 pitches. But once there was one base runner, Giolito should have been pulled. Of course, Renteria didn’t do that at all. Giolito struck out the first batter for his 10th strikeout of the game, but he walked the next batter. Renteria needed to yank his ace, but he didn’t.
Then, Giolito allowed a double. Great time to pull him, right? Wrong; he let Giolito keep pitching with runners on second and third. Did I mention his pitch count was well over 100? Giolito allowed a sac fly, which gave the lead back to Cleveland before striking out the last batter.
Giolito ended up with 11 strikeouts, but he was also in line for the loss. The White Sox had phenom Garret Crochet warming up at the end of the 5th inning, leaving Giolito in made absolutely zero sense.
The White Sox were able to scratch across a run in the 8th inning when Jose Abreu hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game at two. Jason Bennetti and Steve Stone talked about Alex Colome warming up. But instead, Gio Gonzalez and his 4.5 ERA stepped onto the mound. And, of course, one of the batters he would have to face was Jordan Luplow. Luplow isn’t usually anything to worry about unless you’re a left-handed pitcher, which Gonazalez happens to be.
Gonzalez got the first batter pretty quickly and up stepped Luplow. “WALK HIM!!!” I screamed [at the television], but again Renteria ignored me and had Gonzalez pitch to Luplow. He got down 3-0, and either he or James McCann thought Luplow wouldn’t swing at a get me over strike on 3-0. Wrong, wrong, wrong; he gave Cleveland their second straight walk-off homerun and knocked the White Sox out of first place.
My biggest worry for the entire rebuild has been that the White Sox would be good, and Renteria would be the reason they don’t make it as far as they should. Renteria has nothing to do with how bad the offense has been hitting lately. Let me reiterate that I hate almost all of his lineups. He needs to change that right now.
The White Sox will run out Dallas Kuechel, who has done a great job of stopping the bleeding during the season. Hopefully, he is up to the task on Thursday night. Cleveland will run out Zach Plesac, who has dominated the White Sox this season and will look to inch Cleveland closer to the number two spot in the AL Central.
At this rate, it may make more sense to get into the 7th spot and play the Athletics in the playoffs. They would be an easier team to face in the first round. Or just go out and win these last four games to create some real momentum heading into the playoffs and just keep winning.