Series Recap - Red Sox @ White Sox
The Boston Red Sox fucked around and scored 33 runs in a 3 game series. If you're new to baseball, that is a large number of runs in a short time.
Tuesday night was too much fun to even get all of my notes down in my notes app. And if you want a visual of what a fun game baseball looks like, here it is:
This game was like in Mario Kart when you hit the acceleration button at just the right time and shoot ahead of the pack from the jump. Kiké took the first pitch of the series and declared himself back to feeling himself, hitting a ball 112 MPH off of Cease. 5 batters later, Trevor Story hit another home run and I am honestly starting to get worried to go baseball games with this man in our lineup. Cease's night would end after only 3 innings 7 runs (more like deCeased amiright??? Folks?). The White Sox would bring in Jose Ruiz who was greeted in the same way we greeted Cease, but this time it was Devers putting a solo shot into the stands. Add in a dinger from Vazquez in the 5th, which I am just now realizing was on another pitcher's first batter they faced, and that about covers the home runs for the night. In total, every one of the Red Sox starting 9 had at least 1 hit and Bogey was the only one without an RBI. The Sox offense would score at least one run in each of the first 5 innings before mercifully coasting into the win column, with the help of yet another stellar performance from Nick Pivetta, allowing 3 earned in 6 innings. I really tried to pay attention to what he seemed to be doing particularly well and I came to the conclusion that he is throwing his breaking ball with so much more confidence. That knucklecurve was looking absolutely filthy. Anyways, Red Sox win 16-3.
What Tuesday's performance highlighted was just how quickly the bats can turn silent. This felt like the April Red Sox all over again. It looked like our offense would roll for the second night in a row, scoring in the first from a Verdugo RBI knock, but we let Giolito off the hook with runners on first and second. That would be the theme for the remainder of the game, as we would go on to leave 12 runners on base going 2-9 with RISP. If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times, nothing is more frustrating than watching runners be left on base. It's especially frustrating when Rich Hill comes out and does exactly what we need him to do. Hill carried a no-no into the 5th inning, but ran into issues when he let up a leadoff double. Devers would be charged with a throwing error on a ground ball, putting a second runner on. You could feel exactly what was going to happen next, and it was a fucking 444 foot moonshot off the bat of Jake Burger to put the White Sox up 3-1. Tanner Houck would look fantastic yet again, finishing out the game with 3 innings of work, only allowing 3 hits and matching that with 3 Ks. I have really liked the two of them being paired up this year, and Houck can pitch an extra day in between Rich Hill's starts. Series tied at 1 game a piece, White Sox win 3-1.
Friday was the rubber match and Kiké thought it would be way more fun to replicate Tuesday's game than Wednesday's, so he kicked us off in the same way he kicked off the first game. Up 1-0 after the first batter is always a good feeling. The inning would continue with Story and Verdugo both driving a run. 3-0 good guys. Next inning, Story was back up with 2 on and 2 down. He did the fucking thing again. We have this guy for the next 6 years, and that is a steal at any price. 6-0 Red Stockings. In the third, Wacha ran into a quite bit of trouble, loading the bases with no outs. He would give up a double to Andrew Vaughn, clearing the bases, but would then sit down the next three. 6-3. Verdugo would add his second RBI double of the night to move it to 7-3 in the fifth. Wacha yet again got himself into some trouble in the home half of the fifth inning, with Vaughn taking him deep this time for a 2 run home run. 7-5, and a little too close for comfort. My most trusted reliever John Schreiber came in and shut them down for the remainder of the inning and one more after that. Then something beautiful happened. The bottom of our lineup gave us insurance runs. Vazquez and Arroyo joined in the fun, both picking up an RBI of their own. Vazquez is really tired of hearing about extensions for some of our guys without his name being included, as his average is now up at .279. I'm now realizing this is getting long so I'll see if I can quickly recap what happened for our offense because there are other things I want to touch on - Dougie again, Vaz again, Dalbec joins in, all getting an RBI. Bradley gets on because Sousa thought there was a close play in right field, driving in 2 more. Plawecki 2-run home run in the 9th. 16 runs. and despite Matt Barnes' best efforts to blow it by only throwing 9 strikes on fucking 27 pitches, we would go on to pick up the series win 16-7.
I had the subtitle for this blog as "Nothing cooler than scoring 33 runs in a series", but really there is when you only score 1 run in the middle game. The White Sox are lucky to have not been swept at home. But you won't find me complaining about a series win on this, or any other platform. Train keeps rolling, 4 series wins in a row, two series coming up at home against inferior opponents, get to .500 then we fucking go.