For the first time in his young life, Dariel Abreu got to see his father play major league baseball in person, taking in the game from some nice seats behind home plate. The adorable little five-year-old Abreu has his father’s same high forehead, his same gummy smile, and showed a precocious ability to blend into his surroundings by wearing the accepted dress of rich dudes with good seats: a jersey pulled over a collared shirt.
1. As Dariel is still very young, it’s time to start learning life lessons: like having the first taste of the sardonic pleasure of harming the playoff hopes of another team; especially a team owned by Jeffrey Loria. After the Sox put 14 men on base in five innings against the newly-acquired Andrew Cashner, Loria might want to get back on the phone with San Diego.
While the four runs the Sox scratched across pushed Cashner above a 5.00 ERA for the season–what an acquisition!–and 4-for-12 with runners in scoring position is a pretty good average.
2. But the Sox did manage to hemorrhage runs in fun and interesting ways. Tim Anderson grounded into a double play to kill a bases loaded situation in the first, Jose Abreu and Todd Frazier both chased junk and struck out to spoil another based loaded situation in the second, Melky Cabrera added his own double play in the fourth. For good measure, both Abreu and Frazier managed to get gunned down at the plate as well.
After Abreu singled and Frazier boomed a double off the wall to lead off the fifth, Abreu was thrown out easily at home on a chopped fielder’s choice from J.B. Shuck. And though Frazier would score that inning off an Anderson sacrifice fly, he was called out on a close play in the seventh after Omar Narvaez laced a singled through the right side of the infield.
Still scratching out four runs after possibly costing themselves four via random goofups is the mark of a good offense, but the Sox are not a good offense, so who knows what to do with this result?
3. Carlos Rodon delivered six one-run innings for his second-straight quality start, but the control and the wondrous stretches of his superlative night against the Orioles last weekend. Left-hander Christian Yelich was comically overwhelmed by his slider, and gave Rodon three of his four strikeouts, with the other coming on a 96 mph fastball blown by Giancarlo Stanton. If you’re going to only neutralize a small part of the Marlins lineup, that’s a good portion to focus on, but wildness and imprecision–he couldn’t spot his changeup to save his life all night but bless him for trying–forced him into laborious situations.
The Marlins scored their only run off Rodon in a 36-pitch fourth where he allowed Martin Prado to advance on a wild pitch, walked Marcell Ozuna, gave up an RBI single to catcher J.T. Realmuto and got into a 12-pitch war with utility man Miguel Rojas, all when he was just one out from ending the inning. He eventually got Rojas to fly out to left. The 122 pitches he used to get through six innings was a career-high.
4. Walking Adeiny Hechavarria and allowing a double to Ichiro Suzuki did some damage to the veneer of the Ace Reliever Jacob Turner project, but after Dan Jennings allowed a sacrifice fly to bring the game to 4-2 in the seventh, Nate Jones came on to deliver four bulletproof outs and turned over a two-run lead to David Robertson. After two-straight blown saves, Robertson’s knuckle curve was liquefying humans Friday night, and he struck out two in a perfect ninth inning.
5. Among the offensive heroes, Adam Eaton collected four hits in his first four at-bats and scored a run, and Narvaez walked in his first three at-bats and singled in his fourth, and now sits at .444/.600/.500 in 25 plate appearances. Tyler Saladino and Abreu both had two-hit nights, and drove in a run apiece.
So it was a fine victory and felt good and there’s no reason to feel existential dread about anyth–
White Sox 55-60 through 115 games.
Just as they were 55-60 through 115 games in 2015.
Just as they were 55-60 through 115 games in 2014.— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) August 13, 2016
Team Record: 55-60
Next game is Saturday at 6:10pm CT at Miami on CSN
Lead Image Credit: Steve Mitchell // USA Today Sport Images