*OFFICIAL* 4-20 Smoking! SOX 8 CLE 5 Postgamer

[Frater Perdurabo]

Hitting four homers helped

[shingo10]

Does Grandal know how to catch? Seriously how many catcher interference calls have there been against us over these past 2 seasons? Good grief.

Jose back to MVP form for a night. Hopefully Yermin is okay...really can't afford to lose his bat. The bullpen really leaves me with a sour taste. In no world should Hendricks have had to come in during the 9th.

I guess tomorrow will be our patented fail to get to above .500 game....I'm not trying to be negative, it's just frustrating that they haven't been able to get on that side of the coin yet this season. What a strange team.

[Dumpjerry]

Must have been a hot humid night in Cleveland. The ball was flying out.

[voodoochile]

Nice win. Good to see the big bats start to wake up. Robert is on fire right now. Looking more and more like the mini-Trout he was projected to be. Start hitting some homers he'll be the full on version and I believe those will come.

Any word on who is starting tomorrow?

[Lipman 1]

Does Grandal know how to catch? Seriously how many catcher interference calls have there been against us over these past 2 seasons? Good grief.

Jose back to MVP form for a night. Hopefully Yermin is okay...really can't afford to lose his bat. The bullpen really leaves me with a sour taste. In no world should Hendricks have had to come in during the 9th.

I guess tomorrow will be our patented fail to get to above .500 game....I'm not trying to be negative, it's just frustrating that they haven't been able to get on that side of the coin yet this season. What a strange team.

Jeff Torborg and I talked about this a few days ago and he was explaining how he had to "get under" hitters in order to receive breaking balls without lunging forward. He said if you don't stay back, the glove is going to get hit by the bat on the follow through. Grandal is an experienced catcher he should know better, this is not a good situation and is going to be costly.

Agree on the bullpen, just bizarre. Bummer and Heuer do not look the same from last year and in Bummer's case the last few years.

Rodon has been the best pitcher in the rotation, every start of his has been very good.

Considering they walked nine guys, made three errors and it was a little above freezing, you take the win and smile.

[Lipman 1]

By the way story in the Sun-Times today quotes Menechino as saying the reason Jose and Yoan are struggling is because they are trying to do to much to replace Eloy.

[whitesox5187]

The defensive lapses and struggles from the bullpen are troubling. Other than that though, it was good to see Abreu hitting and Rodon was able to battle. Let’s get the win tomorrow and get over .500.

[thomas35forever]

Certainly could have been an easier ending, but I'm glad Hendriks got a save opportunity as he hasn't had as many as I thought he would at this point.

The offense was on point. Hope that keeps up.

[Krs1]

Excellent title, Frater.

Game was far from perfect, but I enjoyed.

[berwyn]

Does Grandal know how to catch? Seriously how many catcher interference calls have there been against us over these past 2 seasons? Good grief.

Jose back to MVP form for a night. Hopefully Yermin is okay...really can't afford to lose his bat. The bullpen really leaves me with a sour taste. In no world should Hendricks have had to come in during the 9th.

I guess tomorrow will be our patented fail to get to above .500 game....I'm not trying to be negative, it's just frustrating that they haven't been able to get on that side of the coin yet this season. What a strange team.

The ball looked like it hit fairly high on the instep. I hope that's good. Other than pitch framing, can Yaz catch?

[ChiSoxNationPres]

By the way story in the Sun-Times today quotes Menechino as saying the reason Jose and Yoan are struggling is because they are trying to do to much to replace Eloy.

Hard to do too much when you aren't swinging the bat in Moncada's case. I'm not worried about him, but he needs to get back to his '19 approach and not let FBs go by early in the count that he can handle. It's definitely a bit harder to hit when your other key masher in the lineup is struggling too and it's cold. I think if Jose has broken out of it, that will make things easier on Moncada and we'll see some big games out of him soon.

[Frater Perdurabo]

The fact that the relief pitchers are struggling - compared to last year - is not a surprise.

Relief pitchers are exactly that because they lack the repertoire to start games and throw lots of innings. After the short 60 game 2020 schedule, opposing hitters are adjusting to the relief pitchers’ offerings, and relief pitchers have fewer options with which to counter. That’s why individual relievers are notoriously inconsistent from season to season, and why bullpens generally are inconsistent from season to season.

The very best thing the Sox can do is tighten up their defense - including and especially Grandal’s catcher interference calls - through consistent fielding practice, to ensure that fewer opposing hitters reach base. This will help the starters go deeper into games which in turn will reduce the number of innings that relievers have to cover.

Once the minor league affiliates begin play, we’ll see how our prospects fare. Some of them may get called up to augment our bullpen, and others will be trade capital to acquire midseason bullpen reinforcements from rebuilding teams.

[Kobo]

By the way story in the Sun-Times today quotes Menechino as saying the reason Jose and Yoan are struggling is because they are trying to do to much to replace Eloy.

It's not the first time Abreu has mentioned trying to do too much in the lineup. I believe he said last year was the first year he felt comfortable because of who was hitting behind him.

[blurry]

Rodon is 3-0 with a 0.47 ERA, 2.96 FIP, 11.4 K/9. Hitters have a .101 BABIP against him so his ERA this year will probably be around his FIP.

I didn't like his re-signing not because I doubted his ability as a pitcher, but I didn't think he could stay healthy. He's proving me wrong so far and I love it. If he keeps this up I wonder if the front office is going to talk extension with him or if he'll test the market like Wheeler did.

[blurry]

It's not the first time Abreu has mentioned trying to do too much in the lineup. I believe he said last year was the first year he felt comfortable because of who was hitting behind him.

Speaking of Abreu he absolutely smoked that ball last night https://bdata-producedclips.mlb.com/...24518b2e8e.mp4