Gamethread: Rangers at White Sox
Lightweight: White Sox discovered designing their own bats for game two of Players' Weekend was a step too far. (Carving by Peter Shuyff, inhabitat.com)
The good times were bound to stop rolling at some point, but they sure came to a crashing halt last night, with inept offense and defense. The only bright spot, other than Jose Abreu's 1,000th hit and Tim Anderson and Yolmer Sánchez keeping their hitting streaks alive, was the fourth straight solid starting pitching performance, so you can't Blame it on the Bossa Nova, because Iván pitched very well.
Let's hope it was just a one-day blip on what has otherwise been the best stretch of the year for the Chicago White Sox.
That blip came against a Texas starter who had all of three big league games under this belt this year and a 6.60 ERA going in, following three starts and a 12.38 ERA with Atlanta last year. Kolby Allard's 6 1/3 scoreless innings lowered his ERA almost two full points, to 4.64, so it was a generous act by the Sox offense.
That generosity often shows up against major league newbies for some reason, which may not bode well for this afternoon's attempt to make it three-out-of-four in the series with the Rangers. Texas is tossing lefty Brock Burke, who has all of one appearance in the bigs. Burke started this season in the Arizona Rookie League and has played at five league levels this year.
Worse, Burke's only start for Texas was six innings of shutout ball against the Angels. On the plus side, that means in order to change his ERA by two points, as the Sox did for Allard, it would have to be two points upward.
It will be Reynaldo López on the mound for the Sox. Last time out, ReyLo got hammered by the Twins, though four of the seven of the runs he gave up were unearned. That start, and the previous one against the Angels, ended what had been a streak of half a dozen mostly solid starts since the All-Star break.
Gotta hope for the good ReyLo this time. He has faced the Rangers once this year, but that was in the pre-break doldrums, when he gave up three earned in 5 1/3.
Incidentally, if you Google "ReyLo," one of the first images is this:
Lopez will be throwing to Welington Castillo:
The Rangers will be playing only nicknames, not actual players, so that should be a break:
Another beautiful day for baseball, with a temp of 73 at the 1:10 p.m. CT start and no chance of rain. NBC Sports on the idiot box, WGN on the boombox.
