Michael Kopech made a very specific kind of White Sox history on Wednesday afternoon with his seven dominant innings against the Guardians. Don't worry, you won't be quizzed on all the criteria.
What's more remarkable is that he's largely done it with his fastball. He threw it 70 percent of the time in his near-perfect performance against the Royals last Friday, and two-thirds of the time against Cleveland on Wednesday. His other offerings are present and accounted for -- the slider and changeup are sharing second-pitch duties -- but as James Fegan put it, they both exist to serve the fastball.
The recipe seems a little too straightforward to hold up against better offenses, and there aren't a lot of comps. Seattle rookie Bryce Miller is doing the exact same thing during his dynamite first month, but three of his five starts have come against the Tigers and A's, while the Braves handed him his only loss.
Still, now that Kopech stopped feeling around for a release point and has switched to fire-bombing the strike zone, it'll actually be fun to see him try. I want to see how this approach works against a team like the Angels, and I want to see where he goes if the returns ever stop diminishing. It's a plan without a whole lot of moving parts, but it's an actual plan.
Besides being individually meritorious, Kopech has played his part in an impressive 11-game stretch by White Sox starters. Ever since Kopech walked six batters over 4⅔ innings against the Astros on May 12, every pitcher has turned in starts that are, at worst, reasonably effective. That even includes Pedro Grifol's first dalliance with an opener, as Jimmy Lambert and Jesse Scholtens handled six innings between them on Monday against Cleveland while filling in for Mike Clevinger.
| Pitcher | Date | IP | H | R/ER | HR | BB | K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dylan Cease | May 13 | 6 | 4 | 0/0 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Lucas Giolito | May 14 | 6 | 7 | 4/4 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Lance Lynn | May 16 | 7 | 7 | 3/1 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Mike Clevinger | May 17 | 6 | 6 | 2/2 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Dylan Cease | May 18 | 6.1 | 5 | 3/3 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Michael Kopech | May 19 | 8 | 1 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Lucas Giolito | May 20 | 6 | 6 | 1/1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Lance Lynn | May 21 | 6 | 4 | 2/2 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Jimse Lamboltens | May 22 | 6 | 3 | 1/1 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Dylan Cease | May 23 | 6 | 5 | 2/2 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Michael Kopech | May 24 | 7 | 2 | 0/0 | 0 | 1 | 9 |
| Total | 70.1 | 50 | 18/16 | 6 | 16 | 59 |
That's a 2.04 ERA, and there's little room for complaint. Sure, there might be qualms about the strikeout rate, particularly during Cease's outings, but the Sox are averaging 14.5 pitches per inning over this stretch, compared to 18 over their first 40 starts of the season. That's about four fewer batters over the course of six innings, or four fewer chances to record a K. The Sox will happily make that trade-off every time.
It's also exceptionally timed, because the White Sox have gone 8-3 while averaging only four runs a game. The offense isn't providing much room for error, but great artists turn constraints into inspiration.
Much like Kopech, the White Sox have stumbled upon a rather simple formula for success, at least within the AL Central. They have the division's most stable five-man rotation, and when it's leveraged properly, it gives them a better-than-average chance to win just about every day. When you look at this run, it makes last month's 10-game losing streak seem mathematically impossible. Then again, the White Sox broke a lot of things in April.
As long as the Sox have their original five starters functioning -- or at least missing a minimal amount of time -- they should be able to correct that math. That caveat just happens to be a real meaty one, and with Davis Martin unable to provide reinforcement due to Tommy John surgery, the Jenga tower got a little more top-heavy. Hopefully Grifol will continue to practice deploying the opener while Clevinger is out, because while the rest of the rotation is making it easy to go on auto-pilot over the first two-thirds of the game, it'll only take normal injury luck to make improvising a large part of his future.
