*OFFICIAL* 5/6/22 Pantera Bests the Monster SOX 4 BOS 2 Postgamer

[Frater Perdurabo]

Velasquez again making his case to stay in the rotation. Bullpen did its job, too.

Offense again squanders too many scoring chances but got just enough. Defense was a bit leaky, too.

Let’s get to .500 tomorrow with Cease on the mound.

[Harwar]

"Winning is fun and fun is winning" . 4 in a row

[KenBerryGrab]

Lucky that bad send in the top of the ninth didn't come back to haunt.

[Chez]

When Lynn and then Moncada went down at the end of Spring Training, most on this board said they would be happy to be at .500 when they returned. Almost there. No Moncada, no Eloy, no Vaughn, no Kelly, no:Lynn. All in all, things could be a lot worse.

[FielderJones]

White Sox baserunning aggressiveness got them two of their four runs today. I want Super Joe to keep putting the pressure on opposing fielders. If you never have anyone thrown out, you're not being aggressive enough. With a lead you can take chances.

[KenBerryGrab]

White Sox baserunning aggressiveness got them two of their four runs today. I want Super Joe to keep putting the pressure on opposing fielders. If you never have anyone thrown out, you're not being aggressive enough. With a lead you can take chances.

Mainly agree. But not when a short fly is the first out.

[ChiTownTrojan]

4 straight wins, haven’t scored more than 4 runs in any of them. Doesn’t matter when the pitching has been this good. Vinny Velo again makes his case that he deserves to stick in the rotation once reinforcements arrive. Not too bad for a $3M scrap-heap signing.

A couple hitters seem to be breaking out of their early-season slumps: Engel with a 4-game hit streak, and Leury is starting to drive a few the past few days. Unfortunately Pollock and Sheets still look lost out there, but hopefully they can get it going soon.

It’s ironic that the defensive specialist Engel created a run pretty much on his own with his speed (assists to Burger and McGuire moving him around the bases), only to give it right back in the next half inning with a defensive brain fart. Also on the negative side, what’s up with Abreu not being able to scoop balls in the dirt at first? He’s always been great at that until this season.

[voodoochile]

Mainly agree. But not when a short fly is the first out.

Pollock should have beat that and it was a bang bang play anyway.

In the end it didn't matter. Hendriks seems a lock for reliever/pitcher of the week. He's been on fire.

That Robert kid seems like he might have a future. TA stays hot. Had chances to pop this game open, but sadly we're just not getting production from some key pieces including Burger and Sheets who have not lived up to their hype from last year.

In the end it doesn't matter.

[LITTLE NELL]

Love beating the Carmines, V.V. with another good outing, I guess Katz is a fixer. Good chance we take the series with Cease pitching today.

[StanBahnsen72]

Looks like Foster might be a legit high leverage guy- combined with Hendriks/Bummer/Graveman/Kelly and an improved Ruiz- that's quite a bullpen.

Have to give Hahn and Katz credit for Velasquez- seems like a legit rotation piece right now- along with Cueto (and possibly Lopez)- have to be believe Keuchel is gone when Lynn returns.

White Sox are winning tight, interesting games- with Moncada and Kelly set to return soon- what a huge turnaround in the last week.

[Frater Perdurabo]

The pitching has been great.

That said - and not to rain on the parade like a dark cloud - if we are going to posit that the Sox hitters will improve as the weather improves, then we must also acknowledge that opposing hitters will improve as the weather improves as well.

Consequently, I don’t think we can bank on winning lots of games scoring 3 or 4 runs once the temperatures rise. It’s likely that some of Foster’s induced fly balls wind up in the seats, just as more of Abreu’s batted balls clear the fences.

I still trust Foster more than I trust Bummer, though. In fact, Bummer is probably the reliever I trust least right now. Moreover, the only pitcher on the staff I trust less than Bummer is Keuchel.

[longtimefan]

The pitching has been great.

That said - and not to rain on the parade like a dark cloud - if we are going to posit that the Sox hitters will improve as the weather improves, then we must also acknowledge that opposing hitters will improve as the weather improves as well.

Consequently, I don’t think we can bank on winning lots of games scoring 3 or 4 runs once the temperatures rise. It’s likely that some of Foster’s induced fly balls wind up in the seats, just as more of Abreu’s batted balls clear the fences.

I still trust Foster more than I trust Bummer, though. In fact, Bummer is probably the reliever I trust least right now. Moreover, the only pitcher on the staff I trust less than Bummer is Keuchel.

I have heard at least twice baseball analyst say the Sox are hitting the ball hard but unlucky of where the ball is hit. I looked up some stats and our Sox are 2nd in all baseball for barrels per plate appearance. Only the Yankees are better. They are 5th in exit velocity. The killer is we are 6th in ground outs. And also, probably hitting rockets to the OF which are caught by someone.

[ChiTownTrojan]

.

I still trust Foster more than I trust Bummer, though. In fact, Bummer is probably the reliever I trust least right now. Moreover, the only pitcher on the staff I trust less than Bummer is Keuchel.

Bummer had a good, drama-free outing yesterday, which was very nice to see. I didn’t see every pitch but from what I saw it looked like he was doing a better job of keeping the ball down in the zone. That’s the key to him getting back in form. I know Bummer has been off so far this year, but when he’s right he’s a weapon out of the bullpen that the Sox really need, as the other LHPs aren’t exactly high-leverage guys at this point. I still believe he’ll eventually come around and be that guy.

Foster was a bit off yesterday, starting with a 4-pitch walk. They showed La Russa’s reaction, and he had the pissed off stare that he does before you could see him saying “son of a bitch.” Fortunately the liner the next batter hit went right to Leury and they were able to double off the runner. Some of that early season bad luck starting to even out.

[Frater Perdurabo]

I have heard at least twice baseball analyst say the Sox are hitting the ball hard but unlucky of where the ball is hit. I looked up some stats and our Sox are 2nd in all baseball for barrels per plate appearance. Only the Yankees are better. They are 5th in exit velocity. The killer is we are 6th in ground outs. And also, probably hitting rockets to the OF which are caught by someone.

I have to wonder how much of it is luck, and how much of it is good scouting/analytics by opposing teams.

For instance, Sox hitters routinely swing at the first pitch and they hit fastballs hard. Knowing this, are opposing teams pitching in such a way that Sox hitters frequently barrel balls right to where the opposing teams know to position their fielders?

This is just a rhetorical question unless/until we have some sort of statistic that measures “defensive positioning efficiency” by each pitcher and each pitcher’s pitch, for each team, and for each fielder on a given team, that can then be sorted by opposing team and opposing hitter.

[Frater Perdurabo]

Bummer had a good, drama-free outing yesterday, which was very nice to see. I didn’t see every pitch but from what I saw it looked like he was doing a better job of keeping the ball down in the zone. That’s the key to him getting back in form. I know Bummer has been off so far this year, but when he’s right he’s a weapon out of the bullpen that the Sox really need, as the other LHPs aren’t exactly high-leverage guys at this point. I still believe he’ll eventually come around and be that guy.

Bummer is going to have to show me more clean, drama-free innings, filled with easy grounders and strikeouts, before I start trusting him again. Until then, Bummer on the mound means indigestion for me. 🥴