While assessing Mike Clevinger's quality start on Wednesday, Pedro Grifol said he didn't like the term "quality start."
"Again, this is another really good start for him," Grifol said. "I'll use the term 'quality start' even though I don't like that term. He threw the ball really good."
Earlier in the century when 200 innings was the benchmark for a starter, a quality start wasn't exactly high praise. But when it comes to the back end of the rotation and spot starters, the quality start is a perfectly fine standard to aspire to.
Case in point: José Ureña tonight. He hadn't thrown a quality start in any of his previous five MLB outings this year, so if he gave you six innings of two-run ball, you'd probably be happy to lock in that kind of success and realize that gunning for anything more risks asking too much. Ureña was perfect through three before giving up a pair of solo shots in the fourth, so the Times Through the Order Penalty had been in effect.
Instead, Grifol left in Ureña long enough to give up four runs in the seventh inning, which seems like something that should never happen for a guy picked off the scrap heap. Royce Lewis issued a warning when he started the seventh with a 105.2 mph lineout to center, but Grifol still left in Ureña to give up a one-out single to Alex Kiriloff, a double to Willi Castro, a two-run single to Matt Wallner, and a two-run blast to Kyle Farmer that made it a 6-0 game, and rendered Andrew Vaughn's seventh-inning homer meaningless.
There's some consolation, in that the state of the bullpen makes three scoreless innings impossible to ask. Or maybe the state of the rest of the roster, because Deivi García's four runs in the ninth inning were unearned. Korey Lee couldn't keep a two-strike García curveball in front of him when Kyle Farmer chased it, and then Lee fired high and wide on his attempt to get Kyle Farmer at first. García then issued a walk, but rallied with a strikeout and a weak grounder to the left side. Tim Anderson made a good effort to get Jorge Polanco at first, but Polanco beat the long peg, and Farmer kept running on the long peg and made it home for a 7-2 lead.
García then created his own problems with a walk that loaded the bases, and a walk that brought in the run. That's when Grifol went to Sammy Peralta, who gave up a two-run single that made it 10-2. Whether it's asking for a seventh inning or asking for four outs, you have to understand who can be expected to do what.
Bullet points for the rest, because I missed most the game while teaching curling:
*Ureñá's ERA rose to 8.48 due to the long leash. He struck out eight without a walk over the first six innings.
*The White Sox managed just six hits and a walk while striking out 10 times against Kenta Maeda and Co.
*Vaughn reached 20 homers for the first time in his career.
*The Patreon login should work now for everybody. My hosting company says the issue is resolved, and it seemed to work correctly on my test.
