The Tigers bounced Chris Sale and the White Sox Saturday afternoon to move 1/2 game ahead of the south siders in the AL Central standings.
It’s the first time in a while that the Sox have not been in 1st place, and the first time in even longer that the Tigers have been. As I tweeted earlier, it seems like Murphy’s Rule, “what can go wrong, will go wrong” is in full effect right now.
Despite sporting one of the worst WHIP’s in the AL, Porcello made it look easy against the Sox Saturday. Credit: Gregory Shamus via Getty Images
When the White Sox score, they let the other team score. When they get good pitching performances, they let the other pitcher come out with a slightly better result. And like I’ve said so many times before, this type of thing happens throughout the course of a baseball season. We all knew the Tigers have the ability to put together good stretches, and they are finally doing so.
Chris Sale didn’t pitch “bad” today, but he did pitch untimely. And if there’s one thing he’s been all year, it’s “timely.” I’m not worried about it at all, he just made two bad pitches against Jackson and Boesch, respectively.
The White Sox have a complete lineup; they’ll snap out of the current funk they’re in. It’s a big time slump at an awful time – I know. But there’s just too many experienced, talented hitters 1-9 for this to keep up much longer. And once the bats do come alive, even a little bit, the Sox will start winning more games like they’d been doing for so long.
It seems like the team has put together some terrible streak for the ages, but they’ve only lost two straight series. This series will not determine the rest of the year. There’s a lot of baseball left to be played.
They still can take back first place tomorrow, so hopefully they can take down rookie Jacob Turner, who has struggled mightily, to take back the top spot in the AL Central and leave the series with some momentum. That would make this tough week seem not-so-bad.
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Posted by Founder and Managing Editor of GSB!, Zach Gropper. Go, Go White Sox!