Here’s a quick snapshot of their hitting as a whole:

They’re just…bad at everything.  They strike out at an above average rate (I ranked the lowest K% as 1 and the highest as 30), yet that swing-and-miss profile doesn’t yield above average power.  They are walking more than they have in the past, but not enough to prop up their otherwise low power and low contact proclivities.

So far this season they have been held to two or fewer runs by the following mediocre-to-bad-to-horrible pitchers: Clay Buchholz, Dillon Gee, Ivan Nova, Cody Anderson (x2)*, Hector Santiago, a Matt Harvey who could not feel his fingers and now may never pitch effectively again, Yordano Ventura, Jered Weaver, Erasmo Ramirez**, Mike Pelfrey, Mike Foltynewicz, Mike Fiers, and Kyle Gibson.

*In fact, out of nine appearances in the majors this year, Anderson has shut down the White Sox twice and then gotten absolutely annihilated in the other seven.  They are literally the only team he can pitch against.

**Out of 36 appearances this year, Ramirez was only allowed to start one game.  He threw nearly six innings of shutout ball.

This is hardly scientific–I am just listing pitchers that I consider to be extremely beatable, chucking out good starts against them of less than 5 innings, and I’m not even including last night’s vivisection at the hands of Matt “Still Moonlights in Salt Lake City for the Angels” Shoemaker–but that list alone represents 15.5 percent of the games the White Sox have played this year.

By contrast, the Indians have a roughly league average offense, sitting at 16th in MLB by TAv, and it looks like they’ve had six such similar games where they were shut down by a weak pitcher.*

*Ian Kennedy, that same Mike Fiers, Tyler Duffey, Joe Kelly, Derek Holland, and Wade Miley.

This is just one way an offense can fail, but this is my response to yet another embarrassing outing by the offense that has been defended by some who say, “Well, Shoemaker was just dealing yesterday.” And maybe he was! But I find it hard to believe that one fringe major leaguer after another just happens to have the game of their life against the White Sox on such a consistent basis.  It really is, in fact, the offense’s fault.  And if you’re going to dig yourself a hole against the dregs of the league, it’s hard to imagine that you’ll make up the ground against actual good pitchers in the other games.

I suppose it isn’t surprising–the lineup has a modest high end trying carry dead weight at multiple positions.  The primary DH is the 12th worst hitter in the majors, and there’s only one qualified hitter in all of baseball worse than him who isn’t a shortstop, catcher, or center fielder.  That’s on top of punting offense at catcher and center field, and shortstop only recently getting upgraded.

Even marginal major leaguers can have really great games on any given day, and sometimes you just get beat. And, over the course of a season, every team will have multiple games where they just can’t put an attack together against bad pitchers.  That’s fine.  The problem is, virtually every major league pitcher has a way of getting hitters out, and at a certain point you have to acknowledge that the White Sox play 162 games against other major league teams and they cannot afford to get eviscerated by mediocrities with such regularity if they want to sniff the playoffs ever again.

Lead Image Credit: Patrick Gorski // USA Today Sports Images

1. Erik Johnson was OK! He had all the normal shortcomings of Erik Johnson (shaky control, fastball sitting 89-90, struggles to keep the ball in the yard) but more muted than usual.

Well, most of it was muted. Johnson flashed a nice slider at times, struck out five, and gave the Sox 6.2 innings in the second half of a doubleheader, on a Monday of a week that has no off-day. This was a useful service.

But Johnson fell behind frequently due to poor control, had to try to comeback with 89-90 mph stuff, and gave up three home runs to the likes of renowned power hitters Jose Ramirez, Rajai Davis and Juan Uribe, who had a combined six home runs coming into Monday.

2. Johnson wound up walking three and getting tagged for five runs, which is bad, and going forward there’s not much confidence in his ability to shoulder responsibilities much greater than this going forward.

But after the Sox emptied out the best of their bullpen to win the opener, a full slate of work lying ahead of them, and nothing from the offense that provided motivation to extend the pitching staff, they did things like bring Johnson out for a seventh inning he was clearly ill-suited for, and relieved him with Matt Purke with runners on. It was a disheartening watch, but it will look a lot more sage if the Sox can nail down close victories with Chris Sale and Jose Quintana the next two nights.

3. The thing holding down the Sox offense was Indians starter Cody Anderson, who entered the game with a 7.99 ERA, but pumped mid-to-high 90s with a nice overhand curve and probably shouldn’t be as awful as his start. Even then, letting Anderson cook to the tune of a career-high nine strikeouts against zero walks was probably not an ideal effort.

4. The only burst of White Sox offense were aided by Indians defensive incompetence. The Sox briefly tied things up in the bottom of the third when Todd Frazier banged a ground rule double to the left-center gap. Melky Cabrera was able to bring him home when he drilled a two-out single to left, and a close play at the plate was avoided when Ramirez booted the ball in left.

Austin Jackson led off the eighth with a triple to deep right that was aided by Lonnie Chisenhall letting the ball kick off his glove as he stumbled to the dirt. It would have been a tremendous running catch had he complete it, so it was credited as a hit despite the ugliness. Jackson was then promptly gunned down at the plate on a contact play.

5. Carlos Sanchez was optioned down to Triple-A Charlotte before the game to make room for Johnson. Sanchez has been nothing short of atrocious in his limited trips to the plate (10 strikeouts in 29 plate appearances with no walks nor power), and has no clear role with Tyler Saladino around, but making a permanent spot on the roster and using the 26th man for Tommy Kahnle is pretty bizarre as well.

Team Record: 27-19

Next game is Tuesday at 7:10pm CT vs. Indians on CSN+

Sale’s first start of the season saw him pitch around one trouble inning in which he issued a walk and a barrage of singles to put together an otherwise brilliant outing. That walk was his only, and he characteristically stacked up an impressive collection of strikeouts to along with it. Last season Sale threw 29 innings against the Indians garnering his best results among division opponents in terms of run prevention. The Indians also proved themselves one of the least susceptible teams in the league to his strikeouts. That success suggests either a modification in approach against a lineup lauded for its on-base skills, or just small sample size noise.

Cody Anderson started 15 games his rookie season and the results were encouraging for Indians fans. He allowed three or fewer runs in all but 3 of those starts, and finished the year with a 3.05 ERA. His peripherals are not nearly as favorable as the immediate results. He doesn’t strike out many batters, which feeds heavily into his 119 cFIP, but his most K-inducing outing came against the White Sox. He struck out six over 6.7 innings, while walking five, which was a career high as well. Through all those walks he managed to somehow allow only one run, a solo shot by Melky Cabrera, assisting the Indians to a 12-1 victory.

The White Sox offense seems to need help. Even their modest 3-2 record belies their meager offensive production. It’s just as much how they’ve scored the runs they’ve come upon as it is the total. Currently it’s Adam Eaton and not much else, and he’s out for Saturday while his wife is in labor. Todd Frazier has lent some encouraging power, and Jose Abreu has had some early success, but he’s also yet to draw a walk and has collected a team leading 7 strikeouts. Over and over we’ll have to remind ourselves that it’s early, that things should even out to some degree. Each day could be a turnaround for somebody. My opinion is that somebody should start with today.

White Sox Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson – CF
2. Jimmy Rollins – SS
3. Jose Abreu – 1B
4. Todd Frazier – 3B
5. Melky Cabrera – LF
6. Brett Lawrie – 2B
7. Avisail Garcia – DH
8. Alex Avila – C
9. J.B. Shuck – RF

Indians Lineup:

1. Rajai Davis – CF
2. Jason Kipnis – 2B
3. Francisco Lindor – SS
4. Mike Napoli – 1B
5. Carlos Santana – DH
6. Yan Gomes – C
7. Juan Uribe – 3B
8. Jose Ramirez – LF
9. Colin Cowgill – RF

Lead Photo Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports