From the Locker Room: Dallas Keuchel Tips His Cap to Oakland
If there was a Cool Hand Luke on the White Sox staff this season, it was Dallas Keuchel, more so even than ace Lucas Giolito. Inducing soft contact, pitching deep into games, being both a savvy veteran and workhorse: Kid Keuchy was pretty much an ideal free-agent signing.
But after giving up just two home runs all season, Keuchel served up two to the Oakland A's in Game 2, among a spate of hard contact that begs the question, who kidnapped Keuchy?
"I just wasn't able to find a rhythm and settle in," Keuchel said postgame. "They did their homework. My game plan going in, it’s going to be first-pitch swings, or they’re going to let me establish balls and strikes early. Credit them, they did a little bit of both. It's on me to establish that first inning...It was just feel of things. Thankfully, I’ve had a pretty good run of movement and command, but I feel I forced some fastballs away, could have gone with the cutter or slider. If I had know [the cutter and slider would have] been that good I’d have kept throwing them.. I went with what got me here, and they did some damage with them."
Like his teammates, Keuchel saw a lot of value in the late-inning rallies against A's close Liam Hendriks.
"The eighth and ninth helped us out today," he said. "We were getting shut out by a good pitcher and a good team; the momentum can help us put our best foot forward. We were ready today, we just got outmatched. Whoever starts tomorrow is going to come out and do their job, and put us in a good position to win. We have the chance to win a series."
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Dallas Keuchel footage courtesy of the Chicago White Sox.
Actor (final credit: murdered by Albert Einstein in "Carnage Hall"), musician (Ethnocentric Republicans), and Nerf hoops champion, Wiffleball aficionado and onetime bilingual kindergarten teacher, Brett Ballantini also writes about baseball, basketball and sometimes hockey, for the NBA, MLB, NHL, and Slam, Hoop, Sporting News, the Athletic, SB Nation and others. He was CSN Chicago’s Blackhawks beat writer when their 49-year Stanley Cup drought ended in 2009-10, and took over the White Sox beat after that. He currently is the editor-in-chief of South Side Hit Pen and beat writer for Inside the Rays. He also wrote a book about Ozzie Guillén but is running out of space, so follow him on Twitter @BrettBallantini and he'll probably tell you even more about himself than you ever wanted to know.