*Official* 7/2 Young Bats Be Free Tonight Postgamer

[thomas35forever]

Six games up at the midway point of the season. I'll gladly take that.

[LITTLE NELL]

The kids can play.

[FielderJones]

This game was boring for a long time with all those uncompetitive Sox pitches and looooong at bats. Then when the young guys lit up the Tigers bullpen the game got fun again.

[Chez]

Pretty amazing what's going on right now. I hope Grandal is ok. But if not, there's no doubt in my mind that Seby Zavala will go 3 for 5 tomorrow afternoon.

[voodoochile]

Nice to see Ruiz nail down a hold in the 8th. At the time it looked like we were heading for a save situation, but the bats busted it open. Burger two hits (though the first was a fluke). Sheets another HR. Vaughn is busting loose. Solid all around night for everyone other than Grandal. Hope he's okay soon.

Keep plugging in kids and watching them perform. Great stuff. Great team. Great season.

[Lipman 1]

This and That:

Sox finish the first half with 49 wins, second half will be a LOT tougher which is why they need to get as big a lead as possible before the break.

Congrats to Burger.

Lynn is a horse.

For some reason I'm not that worried about Yaz, don't think he tore anything just a sore muscle.

Surprising news that Engel is expected back next week, we'll see who the Sox decide to send down or cut when he returns.

[Lipman 1]

TLR says he doesn't think it is serious with Yaz. Sevala will be in Detroit Saturday just in case:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2021/7/2/22561616/white-sox-catcher-yasmani-grandal-exits-game-with-calf-tightness

[Lipman 1]

Hahn also quoted as saying this on Moncada:

“The first 24 hours after the injury, the indications are he doesn’t need that much time to come back and contribute to us,” Hahn said. “We want to win every one of these nine ballgames [on the road trip] and if Moncada is able to contribute to five or six of those ballgames, then that makes us better.”

[SoxSpeed22]

As long as his defense holds up, I am pretty sold on Vaughn as the left fielder. Good to see the young guns come through.
Congrats on Jake's first hit/RBI. And if you know, you know.

[HomeFish]

If we're going to lose Grandal and Moncada for a bit, it might as well be when we have a 6.0 game cushion in the AL Central, and the Indians are enjoying the Astros and Rays.

[berwyn]

As long as his defense holds up, I am pretty sold on Vaughn as the left fielder. Good to see the young guns come through.
Congrats on Jake's first hit/RBI. And if you know, you know.

I survived Ralph Garr in LF, so I'm easy, but Vaughn has looked so good at the plate these last few days, no one should question him being out there. Did'ya notice that Heuer had an effective inning staying mainly on the corners? Told'ya, he can't throw everything down the middle. Remember the shaky defense in April? That's looking much better now too.

Along with the rest of you, I'm breathing easier.

[TDog]

Six games up at the midway point of the season. I'll gladly take that.

Oddly enough, the White Sox are pretty much where I expected they would be after the Jimenez injury. There was a lot I didn't expect, the Robert and Madrigal injuries, the thin bullpen, the Twins being 9.5 behind the Indians and 15.5 behind the White Sox. and for that matter Rodon and Lynn being the staff aces and Cease putting up a better ERA than Giolito. The season has been a scramble. There is no everyday lineup (the absence of which used to be an irritant in seasons past, however impossible it would be in 2021. But 49 wins in 81 games is something we could be excused for not expecting after dropping the first three of four in Anaheim.

Tonight I thought the Sox caught a break with Hinch pulling Mize after three to limit his innings, but the Sox didn't score against the bullpen until the seventh, with what appeared at the time to be a big insurance run. Grandal and Goodwin had big two-out RBIs in the first against Mize. I was afraid Lynn might not have been able to go deep enough in the game today, but Heuer and Ruiz kept the Tigers down. Even Foster got the first two outs in the ninth, saving the front-line relievers a night's work. As I understand it, the Tigers are quite excited about their young outfielders,but judging from the highlights, it looks like until the ninth tonight, the difference in the game could have been the outfield defense.

It's nice to see Burger get his first hit in his first game to set up the third run and come back with a clean hit in the ninth. It's nice to see for the second time this week Vaughn and Sheets homering in the same game.Sheet's first home run was on a low pitch and his second was on a pitch high in the strike zone, although I don't know how the velocity broke down. Vaughn actually had a pretty good night. It looks like he had a run-saving catch when the score was 2-1, before he helped extend the lead with a double and extended it further with a home run. I wonder if Sheets being in the lineup has stepped up his game at all, as if the rookies are putting their mark on the team. Maybe it's easier for Sheets and Burger than Vaughn, coming up after being in a good hitting groove in Charlotte instead of breaking camp on the team's opening day roster. Or maybe everything is coming together this week (7 runs, 7 runs, 13 runs, 8 runs, 8 runs) because the Sox match up well with the pitching. Just five strikeouts today and just 12 strikeouts in the last three games.

I haven't been able to see what happened to Grandal. I'm hoping it's just something he's been working through from behind the plate.Catching can be a physically demanding position.I'll have to wait to see if they Sox bring up another catcher, and, if they do, if they make room for him by putting Grandal on the IL. He's probably one of the Sox who most needs the break in the All-Star break.

[HomeFish]

As I understand it, the Tigers are quite excited about their young outfielders,but judging from the highlights, it looks like until the ninth tonight, the difference in the game could have been the outfield defense.

Must be for their offense!

[HomeFish]

This team reminds me a bit of the 2016 and 2017 Washington Nationals, which won a weak division by significant margins despite suffering multiple injuries to star players during the regular season. Brian Goodwin was on those teams. They lost in the first round of the playoffs both of those years of course, but they got great regular season performances out of bench players, AAAA players, unheralded rookies, etc.

Interestingly, those teams were also led by a geriatric manager whose hiring outraged the fanbase (Dusty Baker). Maybe old guys know something about coaxing good performances out of marginal MLB talent.

[Harwar]

If you would have told me that the Sox would be scoring substantial runs every game, with out Abreu, Moncada, or Anderson contributing, i would have thought you delusional . this is a pretty good time to be a White Sox fan.