White Sox 3, Guardians 2: That’s two in a row, baby
Erick Fedde tosses a gem and improves to 3-0 on the season
We’re finally .500! Well, that’s a bit of a stretch, but technically, the White Sox ARE 4-4 over their last eight games. Let’s go!
Erick Fedde was simply fantastic tonight. He earned his third victory and third quality start of the year. The righthander tossed six innings and surrendered only six hits, striking out three without a walk. If he keeps this up, he’s undoubtedly headed to a contender at the deadline, which makes me sad because I love a feel-good story. Reinventing himself with the KBO and making his way back to the bigs is a Hallmark movie in the making. His stuff played well tonight as he stayed ahead of the hitters, and his cutter was really effective, generating five whiffs.
Cleveland’s Ben Lively wasn’t fooling the White Sox with his stuff tonight. He couldn’t blow it by anyone and got squared up a lot early on, allowing the Pale Hose to score early. However, as usual, the Sox hitters got too aggressive against the bullpen and found themselves making outs.
There wasn’t a lot of offense tonight, but there was enough to get the job done. In the first, Tommy Pham — the hero we didn’t know we needed —hit a leadoff double. Then, Andrew Vaughn promptly drove him in on a 105.5 mph two-bagger. When Vaughn hits, the club seems to win. With consistent production from AV and Eloy Jiménez, the offense might actually be productive more often than not.
The Good Guys tacked on another two tallies in the bottom of the second. Rookie Bryan Ramos extended his hitting streak to five games when he doubled on a sharp, 394-foot line drive to center. Paul DeJong followed with a single, allowing Ramos to score from second. DeJong promptly swiped second and eventually came around to score on a single by Pham, giving Chicago a 3-0 lead. It was indeed a well-executed inning of professional baseball. I’m a little shocked I just actually wrote those words about the 2024 White Sox.
Pedro pulled a Pedro by making things interesting in the seventh inning by leaving Fedde in too long. After he loaded the bases with nobody out, rookie Jordan Leasure came in from the pen to save the day. He got Bo Naylor and Tyler Freeman out on swinging strike threes and forced a ground out by Kyle Manzardo.
After getting the first two batters out, veteran John Brebbia did his best to blow the lead in the eighth by giving up back-to-back jacks to White Sox killers José Ramírez and Josh Naylor. Alas, Grifol had seen enough and came in with the hook, giving the ball to Michael Kopech for the four-out save. Kopech got the job done, coaxing a first-pitch fly out to escape the eighth, and also had a 1-2-3 ninth inning for the save.
The second game of the series is tomorrow night, at the same time and place. We’ll be back here at South Side Sox with all the coverage.
Futility Watch
White Sox 2024 Record 10-28, tied for the worst 38-game start in White Sox history with the 2018 White Sox) and tied with 17 teams for 23rd-worst start in MLB history
White Sox 2024 Run Differential -88, tied with one team for the 26th-worst 38-game start in MLB history
White Sox 2024 Season Record Pace 43-119 (.263)
Race to the Worst “Modern” 162-Game Record (2003 Tigers, 43-119) TIED
Race to the Worst “Modern” Record in a 162-Game Season (1962 Mets, 40-120) 2 games behind
Race to the Most White Sox Losses (1970, 106) 13 games ahead
Race to the Worst White Sox Record (1932, 52-109-1*) 9 1⁄2 games ahead
Race to the Worst American League Record (1916 A’s, 38-124*) 5 games behind
Race to the Worst MLB Record (1899 Spiders, 21-141*) 22 games behind
*record adjusted to a 162-game season