"This feels just like 2024" is easy and certainly true analysis, but if Mike Tauchman pulling up on the third base line with right hamstring tightness, and getting tagged out at home to cap the White Sox' seventh-straight loss rather than score the tying run in the ninth feels like merely a phenomenon of the past 12 months, perhaps we can sell you on upgrading your Sox Machine subscription to increase your familiarity with the organization.
Lenyn Sosa's first inning, two-out RBI single and Miguel Vargas coming just a healthy hamstring away from a two-out game-tying single off All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase in the ninth bookended another frustrating night for the White Sox offense that repeatedly let scuffling Guardians starter Logan Allen off the ropes (3-for-12 w/RISP, one of which was an infield single). Chase, contact and hard-hit rates would indicate the Sox offense is gradually moving in the right direction. Simpler mathematics would tell that they have scored 15 runs over their seven-game skid, and could be en route to putting three positional regulars on the injured list in a 24-hour span.
Regular No. 3 hitter Andrew Benintendi was placed on the injured list with a left adductor strain earlier on Wednesday, prompting Greg Jones to be recalled as he was the only healthy outfielder available on the 40-man roster. After missing the first week of the season with a right hamstring strain and being activated just this Sunday, Tauchman wasn't quite able to find an extra gear to score from first on a two-out Austin Slater double to the wall in right in the fifth, and his leg much more clearly failed on him rounding third as Vargas chopped a 100 mph cutter through the six-hole for what should have felt like an offensive breakthrough, rather than a deeper slide into the crevasse of misfortune.
The Sox say his right hamstring is still being evaluated, but Tauchman slamming his helmet in the dirt and walking gingerly off the field likely portends another roster move.
Three innings earlier, Korey Lee's left ankle had already provided the front office with some late night busy work, as he crumpled over in pain when he stepped on Carlos Santana's foot while trying to get back to first on a Austin Hedges backpick. Nick Maton had struck out on three pitches at the same moment, so Lee being tagged out while he rolled around in agony made for an unusual double play to end the sixth.
Facing a left-handed starter for the first time since the season-opener, Will Venable trotted out his first pronounced effort to shake things up, batting Luis Robert Jr. leadoff and Austin Slater third to head up a deep slate of righties. But Robert made his first three outs on four pitches en route to an 0-for-5 night, capped off by striking out on chases out of the zone with two runners on in the ninth. Slater's one big blow wasn't enough to bring Tauchman home. After singling on ankle-high changeup in the first, Sosa struck out twice including stranding a pair of runners in the third, and Lee didn't make it through all nine. Paul Sewald relieving Allen with two outs in the fifth and making quick work of Vargas to strand two runners was another big missed opportunity, but all these fledgling Sox rallies coming up just short just reiterates that they're homerless over their last five contests.
As effectively the long reliever on this team for now, seeing three innings Mike Vasil means things are either going amazingly well, or quite poorly. The White Sox season is less than two weeks old, but the expectations have been calibrated to know which one it probably is.
In this case, Vasil covered three innings because Burke did the same, though his outing was shortened more for its laborious nature than disaster. He needed 79 pitches to allow three runs over three frames, walking and striking out four apiece, and kept things a decided mixture of showing why he was the White Sox Opening Day starter, and why he's still too raw to contend for such an honor on most teams.
Burke started the evening with nine straight bad ones, and as they tend to do, both walks came around to score. His strikeout of Kyle Manzardo to end a first inning jam kicked off a stretch of six consecutive batters retired, four by punchout, and not many young starters can pivot to a third pitch that plays like a plus offering the way Burke did with his curve. That stretch of batters ended with Carlos Santana golfing a curve for a two-out, third inning solo shot to make it 3-1 Cleveland, and Burke would need another 21 pitches before a Gabriel Arias lineout ended the inning and his evening.
That makes two outings of three on the young year where Burke's talent has been submerged by command issues, but he and the pile of medium contact Vasil was able to generate kept things in range for a viable offensive attack.
At this point, the challenge of trotting out a healthy lineup will have to come first.
*Bullet points:
*The White Sox said Lee is still undergoing testing on his ankle, but carrying two catchers on the roster doesn't really allow for one to be day-day. A source indicates old friend Omar Narváez is getting called up to take Korey Lee's roster spot. He was already pulled from the Barons lineup mid-game, and there's an open 40-man roster spot to add Narváez after Travis Jankowski was designated for assignment. Although at this rate, the Sox will need to clear a new spot for Jankowski again, since he just re-joined the organization on a minor league deal.
*Vargas had two hits and stole his first base of the season, one-upped only by Tauchman collecting three singles while stashed in the No. 9 spot against a lefty, but only one of these lines is encouraging for the immediate future.
*Ramírez scored the second Guardians run of the bottom of the first by racing home from third on a wild pitch that barely reached the lip of the grass behind the plate. It's certainly a play that could have happened in 2024, but also definitely 2021 too.
*Sox hitting drew six walks on the night, while Sox pitching issued seven.
