This Week in White Sox Baseball: August 3-9

Jordan LazowskiAugust 10, 202005420 views

Week 2 Record: 3-4 | Overall Record: 8-8, 4th Place in AL Central

Every week here at Sox on 35th, I’ll be wrapping up the past week of baseball in case you missed any of the games. Here you’ll find the score recaps, links to box scores, and, as we build this out, more recaps based on some of your thoughts as fans. Stay tuned for some fun here!

After starting the week 2-0 and stretching their winning streak to six games, the White Sox dropped 4 of their next five games. In a complete reversal from last week, the Sox’ offense sputtered while the pitching staff came to life. The week was capped off by a tough extra innings loss to Cleveland on Sunday Night Baseball.

Let’s look at some of the key performances from this week!

Tale of the Tape

Weekly Wrap Up Thoughts

This week was… frustrating, to say the least. The White Sox lost a couple of winnable ballgames that could’ve easily made this a 5-2 week instead of a 3-4 week. Those types of games are going to happen though – the White Sox won’t be able to win every nail-biter, and you have to tip your cap to the Indians and Brewers in those situations. Those games aren’t hard to swallow.

However, the Sox’ 7-1 loss to the Indians is what made this week frustrating. A team that, no doubt, is currently pitching-starved decided to let Drew Anderson pitch in a scoreless game on a bullpen day. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the “Opener” strategy, and I think the White Sox should employ it more often. However, Drew Anderson is not the correct way with which to handle the situation. Ideally, the White Sox should’ve sent Ross Detwiler out for 3-4 innings and treated the bullpen normally after that. By not doing so, the White Sox frustratingly threw away a game in this shortened season. If the White Sox want to make the playoffs, they’re going to need to treat every game like it counts. That did not appear to be the case on Saturday. I don’t know where to place the blame, but I do know that those losses are always harder to swallow than the close ones.

I’m not as worried about the offense, simply because they are so young and are going to go through stretches like this. The approach at the plate needs to continue to show improvement over seasons’ past, and I believe this is still the case. However, the 30% K-rate this week needs to be vastly improved upon if the Sox want to compete against the best teams.

This next week could be a good turnaround week for the team. 8-8 with 7 of the next 10 games against Detroit is a good situation to be in. Heck, 8-8 with the injuries the Sox have endured is about the best you can ask for here. The team has remained competitive, albeit frustrating, despite the injuries. This bodes well for the season.

Stats On 35th: This Week By the Numbers

This Week’s Numbers:

20, 337, 92, 10.72, -.093

20

Yoan Moncada has been quietly consistent throughout this season of volatility on the offensive side. Dating back to 2019, Moncada has now reached base in 20 consecutive games and is currently slashing .302/.371/.508 on the season. His 0.9 fWAR makes him the second most valuable 3B on the season thus far (Solano, 1.0 fWAR).

337

With the run he gave up in the eighth inning of Sunday night’s game, Evan Marshall’s streak of consecutive days without giving up a run ended at 337 days. Before last night, the last time he gave up an earned run was September 7, 2019. Marshall has been quite the find for the White Sox and has helped stabilize the back end of the rotation.

92

After being arguably the best offense in baseball after the first week of baseball with a .281/.342/.456 slash line (129 wRC+), the White Sox have struggled throughout this past week to get the offense going. With a slash line of just .232/.294/.369 this week (92 wRC+) and an alarming 30.6% K-rate, it will be up to the White Sox to tighten up their approaches at the plate as we head into week three of the season.

10.72

Lucas Giolito once again finds himself climbing leaderboards with his pitching performances. He now ranks 16th in all of baseball with a solid 10.72 K/9. Giolito will need to continue to be a reliable arm at the top of the rotation in order for the White Sox to find any sort of success this season.

-.093

Though Eloy Jimenez has been struggling, the underlying data suggests that he’s had a streak of bad luck to start the season. The difference between his wOBA (.278) and xwOBA (.371) is -.093, which is the 20th highest value in all of baseball. These numbers suggest that, based on Jimenez’s quality of contact, his wOBA should be closer to .370 than .270. This means that, so long as Jimenez continues to hit the ball hard, good things are going to happen soon enough.

Highlights of the Week

The two big highlights of the week are Jose Abreu and Lucas Giolito. Early in the week, Jose Abreu had a couple huge hits in Milwaukee that catapulted the White Sox to two late-inning wins. His homer in the 7th inning of a 4-2 game, followed by his RBI single in the 7th of a 2-2 game, led the Sox to two early week victories.

On the pitching side, Lucas Giolito led the staff with two huge performances against Milwaukee and Cleveland. He went toe-to-toe with both team’s aces, and arguably outdueled both. His line for the week: 13 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 8 BB, 18 K. Hitters hit just .186 against him on the week.

The Week Ahead: Must Win Matchups with DET/STL

Monday: Dallas Keuchel (2-1, 2.55 ERA) vs. Michael Fulmer (0-0, 13.50 ERA), 6:10 CT

Tuesday: Gio Gonzalez (0-1, 7.71 ERA) vs. Tyler Alexander (1-0, 1.17 ERA), 6:10 CT

Wednesday: Dylan Cease (2-1, 4.05 ERA) vs. Matthew Boyd (0-1, 9.20 ERA), 12:10 CT

Thursday: OFF DAY

Friday-Sunday: Series vs. Cardinals… Series still TBD due to Cardinals’ COVID outbreak

Enjoy the week, White Sox Fans! Talk with you next week!

Featured Photo: Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) / Twitter