I’ll be honest with you: there’s not a ton to write about in this postgame report today. The White Sox were abysmal with runners in scoring positions, leaving 13 runners on base and going 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position. To compound matters, the White Sox hit three sacrifice bunts today without converting – on a day where the White Sox were struggling to score, they gave away three of their most valuable commodities – their 27 outs – for free.
The good news: Carlos Rodon was absolutely dominant once again today, and only made one mistake all afternoon on the Tommy Edman homer. More good news: the White Sox took two of three from a first place team and head into the weekend series against the Baltimore Orioles, giving them an opportunity to add some more wins to the ledger.
Other notes: Michael Kopech left the game with hamstring soreness, and he is day-to-day.
With the loss, the White Sox fall to 28-20.
W: John Gant (4-3) | L: Carlos Rodon (5-2)
Savant Leaders
Notable Performances
Carlos Rodon: 6 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K, 22 Swinging Strikes
Rodon was absolutely dominant once again today, and outside of one mistake pitch to Tommy Edman, he kept the Cardinals well in-check all afternoon. His ERA sits at 1.29 on the season, and there’s no denying how incredibly Rodon has been to start this season. He is the fourth pitcher in White Sox history to allow one run or less with no walks and 10-plus strikeouts over 6-plus IP in a start.
Michael Kopech: IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K
Nothing much to point out here, other than Kopech’s injury. He pitched well, and left with hamstring tightness and is considered day-to-day.
Nick Madrigal: 3-for-4, 3 1B, BB
Madrigal quietly had a great performance at the top of the lineup today, contributing half of the White Sox’ hits on the afternoon. With the performance, Madrigal raised his average back over .300 on the season.
Yermin Mercedes: 0-for-4, K, 10 LOB
In a game where the White Sox only managed 6 hits, every situational failure is going to be magnified. Today, Mercedes’ failures are going to be magnified, as he stranded ten runners on base over the course of his afternoon. Mercedes has cooled down after his incredibly April, so it will be great to see his bat hopefully heat up as the season continues.
Matchup of the Game
You could really sense where this game was heading in the third inning. The White Sox had runners on first and second with no outs, which turned into second and third with one out after Adam Eaton’s sac bunt. However, Yoan Moncada struck out, Jose Abreu walked, and Yermin Mercedes was unable to bring either runner home in a microcosm of what the Sox’ offense looked like today.
Player of the Game
POTG honors have to go to Carlos Rodon today for keeping the White Sox in the ballgame all afternoon. Not much else to say about this one except flush it and show up against Baltimore tomorrow.
Next Game
As previously mentioned, the White Sox start a four-game series with Baltimore tomorrow night in Chicago. Dylan Cease will take the ball against Bruce Zimmerman and the 17-32 Orioles. Let’s go get four games, starting tomorrow.
Only an analytic nerd would complain that the 3 Sox sacrifice bunts wasted 3 outs.Fact is, they put runners in a scoring position in a tight pitchers dual including giving the team an opportunity to score runs without the need for a base hit. In my mind they were productive outs and not wasted outs in a game where hits were hard to come by for both teams.You and your like are ruining baseball with so much focus on advanced analytics.
Respectfully, we can agree to disagree here. Analytical nerds are here to provide a different perspective on the game we all love.