The White Sox fell flat on their faces in the opener of today’s doubleheader, losing 11-1. Nothing seemed to go right in one of the more frustrating displays of Sox baseball in recent memory. In the first inning, Dallas Keuchel seemed defeated by a couple of early errors by shortstop Tim Anderson and Third baseman Jake Burger. Though he escaped big trouble in the first inning by only giving up one run, the wheels completely fell off in the second inning. The second inning began with yet another Tim Anderson error (he had three on the day, all in the first two innings), and the Guardians began an all-out assault on the Sox’ veteran lefty.
Dallas was consistently hit hard, struggled with location, and gave up nine runs in the second inning without recording an out. YIKES. I will save all of our wonderful readers and die-hard Sox fans any additional pain by recapping this dreadful inning play-by-play, though naturally, this horrendous inning included a Grand Slam from the King Sox Killer, Jose Ramirez. The graphic and video below are all you need to see if you care to re-live the nightmare that was today’s second inning:
Shane Bieber retired hitter after hitter in this one, posting a stat line of: 6 IP, 4 hits, 1 ER, 7 Ks, 0 BBs. He kept Sox hitters off-balance all game, effectively tunneling his pitches (Stone and Benetti mentioned he’s one of the best in the business at this) and keeping the Sox guessing. His slider looked extremely sharp, he located his fastball in spots that were difficult to hit, and he coasted to an easy win.
Though no hitter in particular looked good in this one, Luis Robert, in my opinion, was noticeably on an island in his at bats today. He went 0-for-4 with 2Ks, and now hasn’t recorded a hit since April 13th. In his last five games, he is 0-for-20. Though there isn’t an alarming amount of strikeouts in that span (four), he has posted a lot of weak contact. It’ll be crucial for him to get out of this slump at the top of our lineup to help spark this offense as we progress through the early months of the season. Tony La Russa gave Luis the second game of the doubleheader off, a much needed rest for both his body and his mind during this slump.
W: Shane Bieber (1-0) | L: Dallas Keuchel (1-1)
StatCast Breakdown
Box Score
Offensive and Pitching Recap:
White Sox Scoring Recap:
Top 6th: Anderson doubled to deep center, Engel scored. 10-1 Guardians.
Notable Performances
Tanner Banks: 4.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
Tanner Banks, as mentioned above, looked great today and stopped the bleeding after Keuchel gave up 10 runs. In his first taste of the big leagues, Mr. Banks is proving that he belongs and is making his case to stay on the MLB roster even after some of our injured players return.
The Next Matchup
Game 2 of 4/20 doubleheader vs. Cleveland (RECAP: Guardians 2, White Sox 1:
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