*OFFICIAL* Luis backs us off the ledge 5/16/22

[KenBerryGrab]

Would have been criminal to lose after Cueto's crafty start. He's got some juice left.

Luis' ball was just a moonshot; Graveman owes him dinner.

Tim keeps raking. Jose looked better. Yaz got off the HR schneid. And Liam had the curve working. Let's keep it rolling, boys.

[Harwar]

Luis Robert is everything that he was hyped up to be . and how about that Johnny Cueto . Liam strikes out the side . a win is a win is a win.

[Chez]

Loved watching Cueto sprint off the mound to cover first base and then sprint to the screen to try to catch a foul pop.

[Frater Perdurabo]

That is why you have your best hitters hitting at the top of the lineup - they get more ABs and thus more opportunities to make a decisive hit.

[LITTLE NELL]

Glad for the victory but a shame that Graveman couldn't hold the lead for a win for Cueto. Good job by Hendriks for the save.

[BigKlu59]

Another medicine cabinet Sox game where the mood took as many swings as Nell on the driving range. Fantastic outing by that Senior Citizen Cueto, who has more hustle than a 70’s dance floor. Mr. Magic had me chirping “Sit Down” with every glorious K the rancid Royals futility offered at. We survived that Keystone Kop inning to be rewarded with a Klu soothing,sphere crushing,moonshot by Super Lou Bob.

Nice clean up job by Liam to extinguish any hope those BBQ eaters had of sticking it to the Sox again. Any time you beat those Royal Pain in the Asses is a tap dancing fist pumping reason to have a snort of the good stuff off the top shelf.

BK59

[ChiTownTrojan]

Johnny Cueto is really fun to watch pitch. Looks like he was born to be a White Sox. Obviously the Royals offense is... not good. But dominating bad offenses is part of the job description in the AL Central. He's got a much tougher test next week against the Yankees, but not much more you can ask for in his debut. That might have been the fewest pitches it's taken a Sox pitcher to get through 6 innings all season (I didn't look this up but it seems right).

Nice to see some signs of life from Abreu and Yaz. More of that please. Excellent rebound performance from Hendriks. And oh yeah, Luis Robert is pretty good.

Fegan had a really good article a couple days ago about how the White Sox bullpen woes are basically due to the struggling offense. The Sox have the fewest number of "blowout" victories (5 or more runs) in baseball, fewer even than the Reds. When you play in so many tight games, your high-leverage guys are going to get taxed, and you get stuck in situations where you ask Hendriks to record 5 outs, or Burr to pitch the 9th inning of a tie game (worked out this time). What the Sox need more than anything are a couple of laughers this series, where the starter can go 5-6 and leave with a 6-run lead, and someone like Banks can finish it off without any drama.

Word is that Giolito is not ready yet from the Covid list, and Davis Martin will be called up to start the 2nd game today. He currently has a 1.5 ERA over his 2 starts for Charlotte, after being promoted from AA (he had a 3.0 ERA there). Hopefully he can have one of those sneaky games from a guy the Royals have never seen before and catch them off guard. Even so, it's essential for Cease to do his job in game 1 and dominate over 7 innings or something.

[voodoochile]

That was a very cathartic win. Frustrating to see Graverman fall victim to the recent bullpen issues, but I admit I'm surprised Pollock wasn't in LF to start the 8th. Either way, it's moot in the end. Good to see signs of life from the middle order bats and yes Mr. Robert is as advertised.

[Chez]

That was a very cathartic win. Frustrating to see Graverman fall victim to the recent bullpen issues, but I admit I'm surprised Pollock wasn't in LF to start the 8th. Either way, it's moot in the end. Good to see signs of life from the middle order bats and yes Mr. Robert is as advertised.

I also was surprised that Pollock wasn't in LF to start the bottom of the 8th. The only explanation (and it's not a good one) I can think of is that Vaughn's spot was due up in the top of the 9th.

[ChiTownTrojan]

I also was surprised that Pollock wasn't in LF to start the bottom of the 8th. The only explanation (and it's not a good one) I can think of is that Vaughn's spot was due up in the top of the 9th.

Yeah, it was basically a gamble that there wasn't going to be a tough play to LF in that inning, and that having Vaughn's bat would be useful in the 9th. Obviously backfired. Maybe Pollock also had a "scheduled" day off, and from what we've seen TLR is pretty inflexible when it comes to the schedule.

It bears repeating just how bad of an OF Vaughn has been. Per Statcast, he is -6 outs above average, which is the worst in baseball among ALL defensive players by 2 outs (Jo Adell and Ben Gamel are second worst). But the crazy thing is that OAA is a cumulative stat, and he hasn't even played that much in the field. He's played a total of 14 games in the outfield this season, out of the 34 games the Sox have played. If Vaughn was the everyday LF at the same rate of badness that he has shown so far, he'd be at -14 or -15 OAA. Again, no other position player in baseball is worse than -4.

I dug a little further into the Statcast data, which breaks defense up into reaction, burst, and route. Right now across all MLB defenders:

• Vaughn has the 3rd worst in reaction time
• 2nd worst in burst
• Actually above average in route

This matches the eye test pretty well. His routes are fine, he just gets really bad jumps and is too slow to recover.

When Eloy gets back, TLR will have to come to grips with the fact that he has 3 guys who should really only be 1B/DH only.

[HomeFish]

Cueto doesn't have velocity but damn do his pitches move. Love how fast he runs to catch pop-ups: reminds me of Juan Uribe which I never thought I would say about a pitcher. Not sure how his stuff will play against better offensive teams but he's a keeper for now.

[ChiTownTrojan]

Cueto doesn't have velocity but damn do his pitches move. Love how fast he runs to catch pop-ups: reminds me of Juan Uribe which I never thought I would say about a pitcher. Not sure how his stuff will play against better offensive teams but he's a keeper for now.

I think it's a given that the rotation will be Cease/Giolito/Kopech/Keuchel/Cueto (in some order) until Lynn gets back. VV might make one more start during the current stretch without a break, depends when Giolito returns.

[longtimefan]

Giolito, Cease, Kopech, a returning Lynn, Keuchel looking better, V V surprising, Cueto like wow, and our BP....... Now if the offense can kick into high-gear, we'll be solid.