Chicago White Sox

The problem with a season full of close games is that, at some point, there will be late-and-close innings that the high-leverage guys just can't get to. It's a tough choice no matter who Robin Ventura picks. For instance, he used Matt Thornton for a third consecutive day. He allowed the first two batters to reach, and eventually needed Ramon Troncoso to face Trevor Plouffe with runners on second and third. That's how Troncoso ended up pitching in the eighth inning of a tie game. And Ventura would've gotten away with it, had Troncoso not issued a two-out walk to meddling Clete Thomas to bring Joe Mauer to the plate. Instead of leading off the ninth, Mauer had a chance to keep the eighth alive (funny how that keeps happening when a team bats their best hitter second!). He did just that with a single, and then Troncoso summed up the inning in an at-bat for Ryan Doumit -- Troncoso got ahead 0-2, then gave up a crushed double to left-center to drive in the decisive runs. That crushed a comeback that was kinda stirring, but more the result of two teams that deserved each other. This game had all the makings of a Minnesota rout from the very first batter. Mike Pelfrey set the Sox down easy 1-2-3, while Dylan Axelrod's night started with a Gordon Beckham throwing error that allowed Thomas to reach. The next batter, Joe Mauer, took an out-and-up fastball and went with it over the left-field fence for a very quick 2-0 lead. They weren't done. Thanks to Axelrod missing up with his fastball and an inability to locate a breaking ball, the Twins touched him up for two more runs. Axelrod got away with more misplaced pitches in the second before settling down, and that allowed the Sox to get back into the game. Conor Gillaspie softened Minnesota's first-inning blow by delivering a big blast to right field in the second. With Paul Konerko on base, that cut the Twins' lead in half. The next runs would be more of a fight. In the fifth, the Sox put runners on second and third after a Beckham single and a Tyler Flowers double. One run came in on Alejandro De Aza's grounder to short, but Flowers tried advancing to third, and ended up drawing the throw. What should've been a dumb baserunning play turned into a smart one when Flowers extended the rundown long enough for De Aza to reach second. The Sox merely took an out and upgraded their speed at second. But they didn't upgrade the awareness. One batter later, Alexei Ramirez hit a weak grounder back through the box. Second baseman Brian Dozier kept it in the infield, but he didn't have a play at first. Anticipating a throw to first, De Aza rounded the bag generously, and ended up straying too far. Dozier threw back to third, and Plouffe applied the tag for the third out. That run was huge, because in the sixth, Axelrod gave up an RBI single to restore Minnesota's lead to two -- and two runs was the most the Sox could score. They finally chased Pelfrey in the seventh when Dayan Viciedo and Beckham started the singles to put runners on the corners. Reliever Casey Fien came in to face Tyler Flowers, and his second pitch went to the backstop ... and bounced right back to Doumit. Viciedo held his ground, but even the Wild PItch Offense is struggling to drive in runs these days. Flowers did cash in the run with a sac fly to center to make it a 5-4 game. That was just the first out, but even though another wild pitch advanced Beckham to third, neither De Aza (strikeout) nor Ramirez (routine flyout) could cash him in. The tying run finally scored in the eighth. Alex Rios drew a walk, stole second, and after an Adam Dunn strikeout, came home on Paul Konerko's fourth hit of the night, a single up the middle. Pinch-running Jordan Danks advanced to second on a Gillaspie groundout, but Viciedo popped out to right field. The White Sox never led, and they're back to 10 games below .500 as a result. Record: 29-39 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights

Yet again, It was that kind of night for Dylan Axelrod and the White Sox (Jesse Johnson, USA TODAY Sports). The White Sox are still in the midst of what is supposed to be the easy part of their schedule, but with the way they are playing, you wouldn’t know it.  The White Sox offense actually supplied a rare comeback, scoring single runs in the seventh and eighth innings to tie the Twins at five.  But Ramon Troncoso gave those two runs right back in the bottom of the eighth inning, giving the Twins a 7-5 series-opening victory. Dylan Axelrod had a horrendous start to the game, giving up four runs on five hits in the first inning, but came back give the Sox six innings, thereby avoiding a Duane Heath appearance.  Axelrod did give up ten hits to the Twins in those six innings, leaving many hittable pitches out over the plate. Paul Konerko led the White Sox’s offensive charge, going 4-4, including a game-tying RBI single in the eighth inning, knocking in Alex Rios, who singled and stole second base to get himself in scoring position. Conor Gillaspie hit a two-run homer in the second inning to cut the Twins’ four-run lead in half.  The homer was his fifth of the season.  While Gordon Beckham had two hits to raise his average to .324, he committed a costly error on the Twins’ first batter of the game, which in part led to the Twins big inning. All in all, the loss is the White Sox’s fifth in the last sixth games and leaves them ten games below .500 in last place in the American League Central Division. Rick Hahn hinted that the Sox are not sellers yet, and might even look to make a couple of additions.  But if this year’s poor performance thus far hasn’t convinced the front office that a rebuild is the way to go, what will? Stay tuned for the answer.

A quick look at the Chicago White Sox's 7-5 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night at Target Field. How it happened: The White Sox battled back to tie the Twins at five in the eighth, but Ryan Doumit's double to deep center off White Sox reliever Ramon Troncoso brought home Clete Thomas and Joe Mauer with the winning runs for Minnesota. The Twins struck four times in the first off White Sox starter Dylan Axelrod. Leadoff hitter Thomas reached on an error on Sox second baseman Gordon Beckham and Mauer’s two-run home run brought him home.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013 Today’s News Tonight’s Game White Sox vs. Twins at Target Field, Minneapolis (7:10, CT, WCIU) in the opener of a three-game series. Starters: RHP Dylan Axelrod (3-4, 4.26) for the Sox, RHP Mike Pelfrey (3-6, 6.12) for Minnesota. Sox Starting Lineup: De Aza, CF; Ramirez, SS; Rios, RF; Dunn,1B; Konerko, DH; Gillaspie, 3B; Viciedo, LF; Beckham 2B; Flowers, C. A Great Way to Start the Day So I had to chuckle about how my day started. To help Jerry Reinsdorf out with a response, I needed to find Kirk Gibson’s game-winning home run from Game 1 of the 1988 World Series between the Dodgers and the A’s.  I think for most people around my age, this was one of the moments of growing up as a baseball fan. So I went onto YouTube, typed in “Kirk Gibson 1988 World Series,” and what pops up but the entire NBC broadcast of the game, with Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola superimposed over a Dodger Stadium sunset as the telecast opened.  I fast forwarded to the end, to Gibson’s game winner.  The footage was hilarious … there was Tim Belcher, a skinny Mark McGwire, Dennis Eckersley.  In the Dodgers dugout were Bill Russell, Mike Scioscia, Orel Hershiser, Steve Sax. Man, it brought back memories of watching these games with my dad (a Dodger fan). And there is no better way to start a random day than to hear Scully’s call of Gibson’s at-bat and blast. Classic baseball from the 1980s. Mike Sirotka in the House Former White Sox pitcher Mike Sirotka, who won 45 games for the Sox from 1995-2000, stopped by the clubhouse before last night’s 4-2 win over the Astros. Sirotka, a Houston native who has moved back to his hometown after living in Arizona for 10 years, had hip replacement surgery about three weeks ago, but aside from that looks like he could still pitch.  Mike talked to Paulie for a bit and stopped in to say hello to Robin and Coop.  A member of the LSU team that won the 1993 College World Series, he and Robin swapped stories about Skip Bertman, the legendary Tiger coach who won five CWS championships. Play of the Day Dayan Viciedo’s two-out, three-run triple in the sixth inning last night that gave the Sox the two-run lead that they never relinquished. It was Dayan’s second triple in as many games. http://wapc.mlb.com/play/?c_id=cws&content_id=28112277&partnerId=as_mlb_20130618_8945034 Did You Know… …that Jesse Crain hasn’t given up a run since April 12? For the record: His 27 games and 27 scoreless innings are career highs. His 27-game scoreless streak matches J.J. Putz (2010) for the franchise record. It is the second-longest streak in MLB this season (Rex Brothers of Colorado has gone 29 straight games). The 27-inning streak is tied with Putz for the 12th longest in team history (record is 45 by Doc White in 1904). The 27 scoreless IP streak is the second longest this season to Chris Sale (28 IP) and the longest active. Quote(s) of the Day RV after last night’s victory: On Crain: “Jesse, he’s been great…Any situation, any big moment for us he’s been there…It’s amazing what he’s been doing–he’s just been locked in, healthy and everything else.” On Viciedo: “It was good for Viciedo to get a hit. You hope it kind of gets him going a little bit. We’ve been missing that. To finally get it (the big hit) with him doing it, it’s good to see.” On Nate Jones and the outstanding effort by the bullpen: “With Jonesy going out there, he’s been great for us, he’s cleaned up what (was going wrong) for him. He comes out tonight and does a great job and then you get Matty (Thornton), Jesse and Reeder (Addison Reed, who collected his 20th save) in there.” Tomorrow’s Schedule White Sox vs. Twins at Target Field (7:10, CT, WCIU). Starters: LHP Chris Sale (5-5, 2.43) for the Sox, RHP Kevin Correia (5-4, 3.97) for the Twins. Photo of the Day Jesse looks to extend his streaks t

The White Sox managed to take 1/4 games from Houston, and continue to slog through this miserable season. Tonight the White Sox are handed another extremely winnable game, which of course is no indication that they will actually come out on top. At 29-38, Chicago is in last in the AL Central, but is only 1.5 back from their hosts, the Twins, who sit at 30-36. Dylan Axelrod has done admirably filling in to the injury riddled starting rotation, which is still the only component of this team keeping the White Sox above the historic misery of the Marlins and Astros. Axelrod has managed a league average ERA of 4.26 (ERA+ of 101), despite having mediocre stuff and very weak peripherals. The White Sox’ 6th-starter-turned-4th-starter only strikes out 5 batters per 9, walks 3 per 9, and gives up 1.2 homers per 9. Usually guys like him have to walk almost no one in order to survive, but Axelrod has been quite fortunate so far. Let’s hope that luck holds. I haven’t looked it up, but I’m 99% certain that Clete Thomas has at some point been described as “scrappy.” (Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports) If the White Sox offense weren’t one of the worst I’ve seen in some time, normally I’d say they should be licking their chops at the prospect of facing One-Pitch Mike Pelfrey. Given their respective home parks, the former Mets prospect has matched Axelrod’s peripherals quite eerily – 4.9 K/9, 2.9 BB/9, 0.8 HR/9. He has not been as fortunate as his counterpart tonight, and boasts an ERA over 6. At this point Pelfrey basically just throws his 2-seamer and crosses his fingers. I’m actually optimistic that this low-K-rate righty will prove very hittable for Adam Dunn, whose homers are accounting for a disturbingly high percentage of the White Sox’ scoring capability. Alejandro de Aza – CF Alexei Ramirez – SS Alex Rios – RF Adam Dunn – 1B Paul Konerko – DH Conor Gillaspie – 3B Dayan Viciedo – LF Gordon Beckham – 2B Tyler Flowers – C The Twins will counter with the following: Clete Thomas – CF Joe Mauer – 1B Ryan Doumit – C Josh Willingham – LF Justin Morneau – DH Oswaldo Arcia – RF Trevor Plouffe – 3B Brian Dozier – 2B Pedro Florimon – SS Once again, an opponent is batting their best hitter second, so listen for Hawk to rant about that at some point. Further, you may remember Clete “AL Central Grit Extraordinaire” Thomas from his Detroit days. He absolutely cannot hit, so look for him to reach base 2-4 times tonight. The Twins lineup is not very good, but unlike the White Sox, at least possesses a credible 2-4. Note: Apparently Mike Pelfrey is the anti-Buehrle and takes forever in between pitches a la Steve Trachsel so you may want to keep a book or crossword puzzle on hand to keep yourself entertained.

Thomas Campbell-USA TODAY Sports Throughout the ups and downs of the 2013 Chicago White Sox season, reliever Jesse Crain is one of the only guys who has remained consistent. Actually, the right-hander has been a whole lot better than consistent— he’s been downright nasty. Crain was impressive once again in his 1.2 innings of work last night in the Sox’ 4-2 win over the Houston Astros. Allowing no runs on zero hits and striking out three, Crain extended his scoreless appearance streak to 27, which tied former Sox hurler J.J. Putz for the franchise record. With a 0.57 ERA, a 0.98 WHIP and a 4.67 strikeout-to-walk ratio, it’s easy to see why Crain is beginning to be talked about as a 2013 All-Star candidate. If the 31-year-old reliever was Chicago’s closer, there would be no doubt he’d find himself at Citi Field come July 16. However, with his status as the team’s setup man and the lack of acknowledgement that sometimes comes along with that position, Crain isn’t quite the All-Star shoe-in he should be. In my mind, when it’s all said and done, Crain will end up representing the White Sox at the 84th MLB All-Star Game this July in New York. Sox skipper Robin Ventura has been added to the AL All-Star coaching staff, and if need be, he should be able to help Crain get a spot on this year’s roster. If selected to the AL All-Star roster in a few weeks, Crain will be making his first All-Star appearance in his 10-year career. However, if he’s able to continue to dominate opposing hitters like he is currently, Crain’s trip to the All-Star game could become an annual thing even at age 31. Matt Malecha is a Chicago White Sox writer for RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattMalecha and add him to your network on Google.

In 2010, the Royals gave–I mean, just handed–490 plate appearances to Jason Kendall. In turn, Kendall slugged .297. That’s, of course, really, appallingly awful, but it came alongside a .256 batting average from the catcher’s position. Even crazier, Kendall only struck out 45 times all season. He made far too much contact to look overmatched at the plate upon casual observation and was good for a solid single per game. Hawk lavished praise upon the old veteran whenever he got the chance to see him and the Royals clearly didn’t feel a strong push to improve, either. Did they notice? Did they bother to check and see that he just didn’t hit the ball hard anymore? Alexei Ramirez isn’t slugging under .300 yet, but that’s kind of like setting a stack of papers by Lake Michigan and immediately boasting that they haven’t blown away yet. Ramirez has homered twice in his last 400 plate appearances, his on-base percentage and walk rate have collapsed–likely for related reasons–and three years after winning the Silver Slugger award, he’s one of the worst hitters (64 wRC+) in a lineup where that’s a bone-chilling distinction. When Alexei Ramirez was a 26 year-old rookie in 2008. He hit 21 home runs in just 509 plate appearances. He didn’t seem likely to repeat the feat, his power obviously was more functional than huge and his total seemed inflated by how simple it can sometimes be for a right-handed hitter to yank a ball into the left field bullpen at U.S. Cellular Field. But he clearly had enough to turn-and-burn on mistakes and force some caution out of opposing pitchers. When he hit 48 home runs over the next three seasons, it fit in well enough with the common conception of his abilities. Maybe you didn’t realize it then, but these were very good days in terms of getting offensive production from the starting shortstop. In that 2010 Silver Slugger season, FanGraphs’ pitch values rated Ramirez as below-average against fastballs. It’s a statistic with a fair amount of variation and doesn’t take sequencing into account. I don’t like to cite it until it starts reaching extreme conclusions. Which is what it did when it cited Ramirez as the third-worst fastball hitter in baseball in 2011. Or the very worst in 2012. There are enough stragglers this season that Ramirez is only 14th-worst, but there’s plenty of more compelling evidence these days. From Texas Leaguers, this is Alexei’s spray chart against fastballs in 2008. Note all the success he has turning on heaters to left field. Also from Texas Leaguers, here is Ramirez against four-seamers this season. I realize not everyone grew as fond of Alexei as I did over the past five-plus seasons, but this thing hurt for me to look at. There’s no pull and no power. There’s only one ball that made it to the warning track in this picture. Ramirez cannot get around on high velocity anymore and he certainly was never going to thrive driving the ball to center and right field. It will also not surprise you to know that Ramirez’a walk rate has collapsed while pitchers pound the zone with fastballs they don’t think he can punish. At age 31, it’s hard to come up with an explanation sunnier than that Ramirez has lost the bat speed that once made him a dynamic, or even capable offensive player. The glove is clearly still there, but that’s not much comfort with $29.5 million owed to Ramirez in the next three seasons after this one. The White Sox’ perilous lack of infield depth simultaneously explains why locking up a productive middle infielder through his late 30′s seemed like the only sane option at the time and why Ramirez will likely remain a regular even after Carlos Sanchez arrives. But like so many of the entrenched White Sox position players, things look bleak for Alexei going forward barring a late-career adjustment that would

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For fans of the comfortable White Sox winner, this season won't register as a favorite. Out of the 67 games played thus far, 54 have been decided by three runs or fewer, including the Sox's 4-2 victory over Houston on Monday. I've talked about my favorite stat a few times before -- the Sox average fewer runs in victories than any other AL team, and it's not even close. That hasn't changed, and when you also add in the opponents' run totals, it's even sillier. Here are the average White Sox victories from the last three years. This year, when the White Sox win -- which means we're selecting largely from games that feature their better execution -- the average victory yields a save situation: 2013: 4.48-2.24 2012: 6.27-2.73 2011: 5.58-2.50 The lack of easy nights is hard on uniformed personnel, too. The hitters feel guilty for never being able to give the offense a lead, and the starting pitchers are seldom forgiven for having the temerity to allow a crooked number early in the game. But there's one group that can emerge from this neverending parade of nail-biters as stars: late-inning relievers. Whether we're talking about more familiar counting stats like saves and holds, or newer ones like leverage index and WPA, there are opportunities abound for resume-building if a reliever can cut it. That makes Jesse Crain this season's war profiteer -- or rather, a WAR profiteer. Crain retired all five batters he faced on Monday, good for his 27th consecutive scoreless appearance (tying J.J. Putz for the White Sox franchise record), and his league-leading 18th hold. When it's June 18, and you haven't allowed a run since April 12, your stat line is likely to be wackadoo: W-L G IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP Jesse Crain 1-1 33 31.2 22 2 2 0 9 42 0.57 .98 Over at FanGraphs, Dave Cameron wrote up Crain's case as the most compelling late-inning trade target, and he provides a nice statistical summary of everything we've seen contribute to Crain's success -- using the curve, using it to grab early strikes, and using it to set up the high fastball. Add it all up, and to use a stat that adds it all up, Crain has been immensely valuable. By FanGraphs' WAR calcuation, Crain accounted for 1.7 WAR before Monday, making him the Sox's third-best player behind Chris Sale and Alex Rios. Baseball-Reference.com's WAR is even more bullish, attributing 2.4 WAR before Monday, which is ahead of everybody but Sale. But it doesn't take much for a player to distinguish himself on this year's Sox team. Crain's brilliance requires a greater context, and when you stack him up against the rest of the league, he still stands out, and how. This is where we note that WAR is tricky for pitchers, especially relievers, because FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference.com's formulas share different philosophies. FanGraphs takes the defense out of it by using FIP, so it weighs strikeouts, walks and home runs allowed heavily. B-Ref bases its formula on runs allowed, which means a pitcher gets credit/punished for how the hits he allows are distributed, and also the quality of the defense behind him. It usually doesn't result in big differences by the end of the season, but some pitchers can defy the general agreement between the two. Crain is one of those cases, because thanks to his 0.57 ERA and his heavy relief workload, B-Ref calls him one of the 10 most valuable pitchers in the American League: B-Ref FanGraphs Clay Bucholz, 4.1 Hisashi Iwakuma, 3.8 Felix Hernandez, 3.7 Chris Sale, 3.6 Yu Darvish, 3.0 JESSE CRAIN, 2.4 Anibal Sanchez, 2.4 Hiroki Kuroda, 2.3 Max Scherzer, 2.3 Bartolo Colon, 2.3 Felix Hernandez, 3.2 Anibal Sanchez, 3.1 Justin Verlander, 3.0 Yu Darvish, 3.0 Max Scherzer, 2.9 Clay Buchholz, 2.9 Doug Fister 2.8 Derek Holland, 2.8 Chris Sale, 2.4 James Shields, 2.3

Before sending a couple of strong drives to the warning track on Sunday, Dayan Viciedo was closing in on a full month of being completely awful and useless at the plate. Stepping up to the dish with the bases loaded with two outs in the sixth inning, Viciedo had walked four times in his last 101 plate appearances, which equaled the number of times he had doubled and was four more times than he had homered. Perhaps not the most fearsome man for the moment. And yet, Viciedo reached out and hammered a hanging slider off the outside corner past the diving reach of Astros center fielder Brandon Barnes. As Viciedo’s handiwork slowly rolled up Tal’s Hill in center, Adam Dunn, Paul Konerko and Conor Gillaspie all lumbered home to seal the White Sox offense’s biggest inning a week. The four-run sixth and 4-2 victory over the hapless Asstros snapped yet another four-game losing streak for the Sox, who avoided the preposterous shame of a four-game sweep in Houston. If I were Joe McEwing, I would have tried to break Viciedo’s hand with a high-five too. The decisive blow from the maligned and tailspinning left fielder was only the climax of a series of improbable events. Earlier in the inning, a 27-bouncer off the bat of Paul Konerko rumbled under the glove of Astros starter Bud Norris, through the grasp of shortstop Ronny Cedeno and dribbled out of the infield for an RBI single. It was the second of what would be four-straight two-out hits to steal a win and quality from Norris, who entered the sixth with only 69 pitches. His counterpart, Jose Quintana, was far less efficient. He labored through 104 pitches (four of those coming on an intentional walk to Chris Carter for whatever reason) without getting out of the fifth inning. The combination of an out-of-rhythm Quintana and a Carlton Fisk-aping Hector Gimenez behind the plate led to a game that ran over three-and-a-half hours despite only featuring six runs. Nate Jones stepped in and blew away Chris Carter–who Robin Ventura really didn’t want to face Quintana–to clean up the fifth, but allowed two-straight leadoff singles when he came out for the seventh. A platooned combination of Matt Thornton and Jesse Crain modeled for the train shows, struck out the side and snuffed out the last Astros’ scoring threat. Thornton striking out Jason Castro might have been the most impressive element, since the Astros catcher continued his four-game rampage with two more booming RBI doubles. Castro went 7-16 in the series with four doubles, two home runs and seven runs batted in. Good God, the humanity. Team Record: 29-38 Box Score Follow James Fegan on Twitter @JRFegan