The White Sox were able to salvage the second game of the current series in Toronto on Tuesday evening to bring the series to an even one-a-piece. The best way to sum up this game is by saying that it was a very sound, well-executed ball game; a flat out good win. Here are my main takeaways, particularly as far as the pitching staff goes …
Taking hitters to “Q School”
For those of you that are not familiar, “Q School” is “qualifying school” for the PGA Tour (professional golf). Basically, if a young golfer succeeds at Q School, they can earn their PGA Card (spot on the golf tour). You can make it in other ways, but this is one of the most competitive, academic, and highly structured ways to make it. We at GrabSomeBench.com are going to start referring to Jose Quintana as “Q School,” as he is often out-smarting hitters and taking the academic route, if you will, to finding success as a big league pitcher.
And on Tuesday night, it was much of the same for Q School. After letting up a couple early runs, Jose settled down to take the team into the 7th with the lead. His final line was 6.2 IP, 8H, 2 ER; pretty typical & solid for “Q.”
If Quintana can continue to be a guy that the team can rely on more times than not for a quality start, it takes the rotation from good to a-whole-lot better. After he went through brief struggles a couple of weeks ago, Q School had a start skipped and has looked very good since, going 13.2 IP and only letting up 4 ER. As far as he’s concerned (and the rest of the recent starters go), it’s all pretty encouraging as of right now.
Bullpen continues to roll
As Hawk Harrelson loves to say so much, “In today’s game, you’re only as good as your bullpen.” Overall this year, the Sox bullpen has been pretty good, but of late it has been great. Between the likes of Jesse Crain, Matt Thornton, Brett Myers, and Addison Reed, the south sider’s bullpen is awfully hard to beat. Yesterday we discussed the battle for the lefty specialist spot, and while that is a question mark, it’s good that no questions linger in the back-end of the ‘pen.
Like on Monday night, those guys were rather good once again on Tuesday. After Quintana left with two outs in the seventh, Myers came on and got the team out of the inning before Thornton pitched 0.2 innings and “Advil Addison” Reed came on and got the 4-out save. If we continue to get performances like that from the bullpen, we’ll be in good shape in tight ball games, which is paramount for contenders.
Dayan Viciedo went 2-3, leading the offense Tuesday & looks to be heating up. Credit: Pantagraph.com
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I know the offense’s struggles are starting to drag on a bit, but it’s still not something I’m worried about. Let’s get Paul Konerko back in the lineup in a few days so everyone is in their normal slots, and I’m sure they’ll click sooner than later.
The third game in the series will see Ricky Romero take on Gavin Floyd. Both of these guys have been quite inconsistent this year, holding 8-9 records. Floyd has the upper-hand with ERA at 4.43 compared to Romero’s 5.32. Both of these veterans can be really good or really bad, so my best advice for this game is just to buckle up and enjoy the ride.
In Gavin’s most recent start against Toronto, he picked up the win, tossing a dominant 7.2 innings in which he scattered just 4 hits, as the Sox won 2-0. Romero has too been solid against the Sox this year, going 1-1 with a 3.46 ERA. But with these guys, those numbers may not mean anything … they’re just too tough to predict sometimes.