White Sox (Crochet) vs Red Sox (Criswell): 9/7/24, 7:15pm

[Brock Beauchamp]

Could be a tough night, as the hometown Sox need to face what is literally the White Sox's only good player.

[vegasbob]

Having seen the rarest of rare in Sox Nation, a Friday night win at home, why not a big bat day vs Crochet ?

If they can just get on a roll, it will keep us guessing as to which series or loss was the one that kept them out of the WC .     There's a lot of candidates if the Red Sox miss by only a game or two.

[Maxbialystock]

The hitting seems to have collapsed, having gone from about 5 runs per game to less than 3 runs per game, which is a 40% drop in scoring.  

 

[vegasbob]

So the return of Trevor Story which should be quite a story in itself.  Puts Rafaela on 2B  to add to his repertoire of being all over the place this year. Much to his credit.

Alas that means farewell to Mickey Gasper .  Mickey will go down in the record books as having a lifetime BA of .000 , not entirely rare , but combined with an OPS of .250  Mickey did  work 4 walks in his 16 PA's . He K'ed 9 of those 16 PA's, and unfortunately never scored .    

[mvp 78]

 

[Maxbialystock]

7 righties makes all kinds of sense because the Sox have a pretty big OPS gap between hitting lefties and hitting righties.  

Someone, one of the newbies I think, claims the Sox have never played defense, ever.  Not true.  What  is true is that the Sox prefer to play hitters first, glove men second.  Ted Williams never came close to a gold glove.  

Tonight's lineup actually is not that bad on defense with Story at SS, Duran in LF, and Rafaela in CF.  Devers is OK (not that good) at 3B, but I like Casas these days at 1b because he is especially good at grabbing throws to 1b.  Romy's fine at 2b.  Jansen's probably better defensively at C than Wong.  Musclebound O'Neill is not good in RF, but you can't have everything.  I can't decide whether Ref has enough arm to start at DH, but for now he gets a pass.  

[vegasbob]

Here's an original idea , Cooper, let's give up a 2out, 2 run HR in the first, so the guys can play from behind .

Especially because the Sox are hitting so well, it doesn't matter

[vegasbob]

Like I said , thew Sox are hitting very well and Crochet has no chance .

 

Well, Criswell is still our pitcher, so who knows.    Crochet has issues

[Maxbialystock]

Who are all those other idiots who posted on the OP?  Most of them criticized Cora for going with 7 righty bats in the lineup tonight, and we're still in the 1st inning with 4 Sox runs in and Wong on 2b with 1 out.  

[vegasbob]

Tyler O'Neill , who has not exactly won the Nation over, hits a 400' line drive about 50' off the ground that may have cleared Lansdowne had it not hit the banner  preventing  continued flight.    AND with Raffy on base

Very strong  guy.  It will be interesting to see who goes after him on what type of deal over the winter.

[Bryce Whitlow]

16 minutes ago, vegasbob said:

Tyler O'Neill , who has not exactly won the Nation over, hits a 400' line drive about 50' off the ground that may have cleared Lansdowne had it not hit the banner  preventing  continued flight.    AND with Raffy on base

Very strong  guy.  It will be interesting to see who goes after him on what type of deal over the winter.

I could easily see a team do a bit of an overpay on him over like three years. Something like a Soler type deal. 

Edited September 8, 2024 by Bryce Whitlow

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

It's hard to believe the White Sox are 32-110. Not!

[FredLynn]

33 minutes ago, vegasbob said:

Tyler O'Neill , who has not exactly won the Nation over, hits a 400' line drive about 50' off the ground that may have cleared Lansdowne had it not hit the banner  preventing  continued flight.    AND with Raffy on base

Very strong  guy.  It will be interesting to see who goes after him on what type of deal over the winter.

He is very strong but unfortunately the sport is baseball, not power lifting. 
id be happy to hand him his coat on the way out the door.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

18 minutes ago, Bryce Whitlow said:

I could easily see a team do a bit of an overpay on him over like three years. Something like a Soler type deal. 

As long as it's some other team.

[vegasbob]

Don't be fooled.  Criswell gets away with some weak pitching to a bad team, and struggles getting the 3rd out, a common problem with some of our pitchers.   But he is carrying the lead into the 5th, where AC will jerk him with 2 outs , lol

[vegasbob]

6 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

It's hard to believe the White Sox are 32-110. Not!

With  the potential loss of this game, and only 19 to go, White Sox  won't reach 40 wins

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

There's nothing good about kicking a dead horse like the White Sox.

The only thing I see that's good about their season is that Steve Stone still works the booth for the White Sox and I never could stand the guy as a play-by-play announcer.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

15 minutes ago, vegasbob said:

Don't be fooled.  Criswell gets away with some weak pitching to a bad team, and struggles getting the 3rd out, a common problem with some of our pitchers.   But he is carrying the lead into the 5th, where AC will jerk him with 2 outs , lol

well, Criswell has been better than what the SOX picked up at the TDL.

[Bryce Whitlow]

I don’t think anyone could say it’s logical to re-sign O’Neill, but im certainly enjoying what will probably be his last handful of Moon Shots at Fenway. 

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Based on what I've seen of AL teams this season, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see Houston again as the AL champions .

[Bryce Whitlow]

1 minute ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Based on what I've seen of AL teams this season, I wouldn't be the least surprised to see Houston again as the AL champions .

They feel inevitable 

[FredLynn]

6 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Based on what I've seen of AL teams this season, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see Houston again as the AL champions .

As long as it’s not the Yankmees….

[FredLynn]

Rafaela Ks missing the ball by a foot and Devers swings at a ball that hits his foot. Unbelievably bad K zone recognition. These guys have checked out.

[FredLynn]

7-5 now

Go WS!

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

"Put a little Shugart on it honey." Another WOOful pitcher.

[Maxbialystock]

26 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

well, Criswell has been better than what the SOX picked up at the TDL.

Agree with both of you.  Criswell does not impress me, but there is absolutely no arguing with 5 IP, 2 ER.

I have been impressed with Story tonight, especially in the field.  On one of those double plays, I think his short toss was perfect and necessary.   Plus he's consistent.

moonslav needs to chime in because I also like the overall defense tonight and am OK with Wong's error on the grounder, which he should have caught.  

But the amazing stat is that Cora went with 7 righties and stayed with them after the Chisox lefty starter was pulled after just 2 innings.   The Sox have scored 7 runs with 7 righty bats.

So of course in comes the renowned BoSox bullpen, friend to all, and dispenser of largesse.  Score now 7-5 because Shugart gave up 3 runs in 1.1 IP.

 

 

[Maxbialystock]

Now Bernardino wants to give up a dinger.  You know, to tie things up.  

[Maxbialystock]

Good last pitch by Bernardino to get the last out in the top of the 7th.  

[Maxbialystock]

That was a superb 97 mph fast ball to finally strike Abreu out.  Also a great slider to get O'Neill.  

Kuhl strikes out all 3 Sox hitters in the 7th.  

 

[FredLynn]

Kenley has the ability to easily blow this. We can hope.  Gotta improve that draft pick order.