The Chicago White Sox start a make-or-break journey to Cleveland and Minnesota on Monday, dealing with the groups forward of them within the American League Central within the ultimate week earlier than the All-Star break.
The Sox may play themselves out of competition with a poor journey, or they may make a press release they’re nonetheless the workforce to beat within the second half by dominating the Guardians and Twins.
But the way in which the season has gone, likelihood is they’ll be near the place they have been Sunday, trying up on the Twins and repeating their mantra: “It’s still early.”
Whatever your notion of the Sox, know that supervisor Tony La Russa believes the media hype in regards to the significance of the eight-game journey is merited, although he’s sticking to the mantra.
“We need to play competitively and come out with competitive results,” La Russa mentioned Sunday morning within the Sox dugout. “The one thing you have to temper the hype with is when it’s over, you’re still in July. But it’s an important road trip. It’s an important game today.”
The Sox got here again Sunday to beat the Detroit Tigers 4-2 and cut up the four-game sequence, ending the homestand towards the Twins and Tigers with a 3-4 document.
The Tigers gift-wrapped this one within the eighth inning with a dropped two-out pop fly, which the Sox gladly accepted.
“If a team gives you an extra out, good teams take advantage of it,” AJ Pollock mentioned. “And we were fortunate enough today to be able to take advantage of it. … We’ve seen some teams take advantage of us when we didn’t make plays, and it’s nice to be that team (on the other end).”
The rating was tied at 2 within the eighth when left fielder Robbie Grossman botched a fly off the bat of Luis Robert to maintain the inning alive. After an intentional stroll to José Abreu, Pollock singled off Gregory Soto to provide the Sox their first lead. Eloy Jiménez adopted with one other run-scoring single, and nearer Liam Hendriks shut down the Tigers within the ninth for his seventeenth save.
The Sox improved to 41-43 and path the division-leading Twins by 5 video games as they hit the highway for the final time earlier than the All-Star break.
It’s straightforward to have a look at the final two video games towards the Tigers as “big” wins, however each time the Sox assume they’ve taken a season-turning step ahead, they arrive out flat the following evening. Hendriks mentioned it’s necessary to “regain the authority figure we had last year,” referring to the workforce’s confidence degree in 2021.
“Just gain that (attitude of) ‘We are better than everybody else and we can do this,’” he mentioned. “We need to get that mindset back. That’s something we’ve had spurts of, but it really hasn’t caught fire yet. I’m hoping games like (Saturday) and today in a row will help spark that fire a little bit.”
Theories for the first-half malaise are widespread, however the commonest appears to be that the Sox have performed too “relaxed.” TV studio analyst Frank Thomas repeated that criticism after Thursday’s loss to the Tigers and known as for some “snappage” within the dugout, suggesting gamers get in one another’s faces as they did again when he performed.
Game analyst Steve Stone was simply as blunt throughout Friday evening’s telecast: “You cannot sleepwalk your way through the rest of the season.”
Whether the Sox gamers heard the critiques — or cared — is unknown. Maybe they merely shrug off the observations of the workforce’s TV analysts, believing all the things is okay and the successful finally will begin occurring due to the expertise within the clubhouse.
But Thomas and Stone are two of probably the most educated and outspoken analysts round, and in contrast to many team-approved announcers who sugarcoat their workforce’s shortcomings, they’re not afraid to level out the Sox’s issues.
Michael Kopech is among the most promising younger pitchers the Sox have had in years, however he wanted to step up Sunday after 4 straight losses and a 6.86 ERA in that span. Instead Kopech walked the primary batter on 4 pitches, then served up a two-run residence run to Javier Báez that put the Sox in a fast gap.
Kopech recovered and pitched into the sixth with out permitting any extra runs. But he must pitch deeper into video games if he desires to be thought of an elite starter.
When he didn’t cowl first base on a grounder to the bag within the second, La Russa and the trainers got here out to the mound to see what was fallacious. Sox followers held their breath. Back on June 12, Kopech left a begin towards the Texas Rangers after solely 13 pitches with knee discomfort.
But apparently the one factor fallacious with Kopech on Sunday was he didn’t correctly subject his place.
“I just got over a little slow,” he mentioned. “How the first inning went, maybe there was some concern there were some underlying issues going on. I felt as good as I have been. I just didn’t have my best stuff.”
Little issues like which have made this an aggravating season for Sox followers. The Sox have to be cognizant of the notion they don’t run the bases effectively, play poor protection and make psychological errors each day, equivalent to when Robert let a fly ball fall subsequent to him throughout Friday’s loss.
“Not a good look,” Stone mentioned.
“Nope,” play-by-play man Jason Benetti responded.
There was silence within the sales space for a number of seconds. Sometimes the silence says all of it throughout a Sox telecast.
A few wins over the Tigers was a pleasant solution to finish a mediocre homestand. But it’ll take a for much longer streak of well-played video games to persuade everybody the Sox are again to the place all of us thought they might be.
They not can depend on their reputations, whether or not it’s La Russa, Kopech, Robert or anybody else within the clubhouse.
It’s time to show themselves — once more.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com