The chatter surrounding the White Sox is remarkably fraught with doom. To some extent, that’s natural for any team expected to finish near the top of the league and instead stuck at .500 in the quarter of the season. The White Sox managed to simultaneously underperform and outperform expectations, their record falling short of what the team offers on paper while comfortably exceeding their -42 point differential. A perfect and aggravating mediocrity.
Baseball rarely promises events – does the opposite, really, just by looking at how often batters end up on base – but a good baseball team, or a good player, makes you believe it anyway. You know, the vibration-based part of the performance review. For example, Tim Anderson has so much storytelling prowess that Earth occasionally recalibrates to make him the main character. From game to game, that’s one of the many things the White Sox have failed to show consistently this season: the promise that they can make things happen.
The final game of their home series against Boston on Thursday night made that point very clear. Dallas Keuchel, who hasn’t had a great 2022 so far, allowed three runs in the first inning and then three more in the second to boost his ERA to 7.88 on the season. Had the game been a blowout, it might have been easier to call off, but then Andrew Vaughn hit a three-pointer and punt brace with no one in the third. In the bottom of the fifth, the White Sox were down a very surmountable 7-5, courtesy of a two-run homer from Vaughn, who might just be a good baseball player. For a moment, just a moment, the team was within striking distance.
It didn’t last! The game was derailed in the eighth as the Red Sox built a 14-5 lead that the White Sox’ four straight walks could not make up for. Infielder Josh Harrison came out to throw in the top of the ninth and threw, according to Statcast, a slider, changeover and curveball. The Red Sox won, 16-7, as the game limped on dying legs to cross the four-hour mark.
This is, of course, a take on the game. I watched most of it with my older sister, a basketball fan who doesn’t care about baseball at all, who was working on a puzzle. That’s what she had to say.
At the beginning: “Wow, [the commentators] looks so relaxed.
At different points in the game: “I like the way they talk about the weather” and “They’re having a shocking time talking about the weather” etc.
After Jason Benetti used the phrase ‘where does this come from’: ”Where did this come from’! Excellent expression. »
After Nationwide’s jingle (vocals): “Nationwide is on your side.” Moments later: “Nationwide is stuck in my head.”
Phillies game-time bonus material we’ve watched before: “Bryce Harper sounds like a name I’ve heard before.”
What’s the takeaway here? Good question! I tend towards doomericism quite often, but I also strongly believe in mediating extreme negativity so that it brings joy (see: Pat Beverley), not pain. In the upbeat context of “Bryce Harper sounds like a name I’ve heard before”: Rejoice! The White Sox are bad; kicking off the feast of commiseration. At the same time, save the moments of an impending comeback that occurs at this point in the season when even the most infuriating games can still be pleasantly filtered through pointless chatter and soothing pastimes. The White Sox really should be better, and I don’t mean that in a defeated, scolding sense. I rather think an improvement is expected once they get Lance Lynn back, or Luis Robert, or Eloy Jiménez, or when Dylan Cease’s ERA hopefully eventually lines up with his xERA and his FIP, or when the offense will remember how to walk – whatever the bigger picture of watching someone go up to bat and believing they’ll get a hit is.
In other words, here’s a two-week-old tweet from White Sox commentator Steve Stone regarding the state of the White Sox doomer:
“So of course there are a few/others.” Poetry. Words to live. Be careful, don’t bite your head on the way out.