The White Sox entered the ninth inning of their game against the Mariners on Saturday afternoon leading 6-5, only to fall behind 7-6 on their second two-error sequence of the game.
They rallied to walk it off by letting Peyton Alford walk thee bases loaded on 13 pitches to set up Edgar Quero's game-winning hit. After eight runs and four errors, you can take the first impressions from the first game, crumple them up and throw them into the garbage.
In other words, it was classic sun-drunk baseball in the late innings of early spring, but John Schriffen treated it like a sorely needed win that put the Sox within two games of first place in September.
WALK-OFF WIN! pic.twitter.com/hcsqTA3z7G
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) February 24, 2024
"Edgar Quero is the HE-ro! He delivers a fair ball into left, and here comes the winning run! The White Sox walk it off in the ninth! South Side, stand UP!"
This is not to say Schriffen was wrong for doing so, because he's called comparatively little baseball compared to every other sport. He's going through the rhythms of the game just like everybody else on the field, and these are all reps he can use for later.
It just happens to be emblematic of what stands out most for me through two games: Schriffen's is emphatic in his enthusiasm for this job, in a way that can be jarring.
I'm holding off on any judgments about that because Schriffen should be excited, and he should be extremely focused on the task at hand. Jason Benetti could spend spring training games calling the action from a remove because he built enough regular-season credibility to properly relay the stakes of an exhibition game. Schriffen is still learning the team, learning about playing off Steve Stone, figuring out pacing, and he won't be calling another White Sox game for ... (checks spring training broadcast schedule) ... 10 days. These games do count for him, so he probably can't afford to get meta.
My instinct is to adjust for erroring on the side of ebullience and earnestness, and judge him more on the quality of information he delivers over the course of the season. Benetti had some trademarks I could do without, but as an analytically oriented viewer, I know I could trust the reliability of his reading with regards to both the White Sox and their opponents (the latter is why he got such high marks in leaguewide polls). He also had the ability to offer counterpoints to Stone's conventional wisdom, which started as a way to play up their differences, but eventually relaxed into presenting a more well-rounded view of the game as it's played in the 2020s.
Benetti was afforded the time to relax into the job, and Schriffen will require the same. Right now, he's offloading all analysis onto Stone's plate. That's understandable and advisable this early -- in one of his own reads, he suggested that Luis Robert Jr., who didn't know Charlie Montoyo's name last year, could learn a lot from Kevin Pillar -- but I'm looking forward to eventually finding out what he knows. Benetti revitalized Stone not just by leaning on his knowledge, but knowing how to occasionally press it for more, or push back against it.
Spare Parts
One choice Schriffen's made early that I don't understand? Presenting himself, on more than one occasion, as a foodie who doesn't like spicy food, which is effectively saying, "I like to eat foods that taste good to me." Patently uninteresting stuff. Now, this story Scott Merkin relayed about Schriffen participating in an illegal animal deal in Colombia for a story for ABC News? That's what you lead with.
The White Sox added another fringe outfielder to the mix by claiming Peyton Burdick, a former third-round pick of the Marlins, from the Orioles. Burdick, who turns 27 on Monday, was a college teammate of Jesse Scholtens at Wright State University, and has run into classic 'tweener issues at the upper levels.
While Jerry Reinsdorf is asking the state of Illinois for $1 billion to fund a new ballpark, a real estate group owned by his associates have spent $44.7 million buying vacant lots around the United Center in the West Loop for reasons that remain unknown.
Columnist Steve Greenberg is traveling around Florida spring training sites to ask former Sox about why the rebuild collapsed, and Hendriks' view is the most interesting yet, because he was willing to say that some teammates didn't like him.
According to Hendriks, some Sox teammates didn’t like it, in particular how open and accessible he was with the media.
“Some guys thought I was seeking too much attention,” he said. “But when you answer questions in a non-generic way, they tend to come to you a little bit more. And I’m not one to shy away from a conversation, whether it be uncomfortable, whether I’m going well, whether I’m going poorly. I want to be as transparent as I can, because baseball is a very stoic man’s sport.
The discourse surrounding the new pants resembles Major League Baseball's defense of the juiced ball during the 2019 season. In both cases, they maintain there isn't any difference of note in the manufacturing of the product despite widely different observations from fans and players. When it came to the baseball, they then changed it at the next possible opportunity without saying anything.
Good news: The White Sox show up twice in Jayson Stark's preseason survey of executives, coaches and scouts. Bad news: It's for considerable support under "Least Improved Teams" and "Least Recognizable Rosters."
The Scotties (Canadian women's curling championship) wraps up today, and it's shaping up to be an excellent. Two Manitoba teams -- including one skipped by the greatest women's curler of all time in her final Scotties -- will play at 1 p.m., and the winner will play the team from Ontario for the championship at 7 p.m. All games are streamed free for U.S. viewers on TSN's YouTube page. We could do a First Pitch for that since the Sox game won't be viewable.
