Games » Chicago White Sox
Jul13What could go wrong?
Lee Judge
The Kansas City Star
The second half of the season started on a Friday the 13th — what could go wrong? Turns out, quite a bit: Bruce Chen could give up six earned runs in 4 2/3 thirds innings, Jonathan Broxton could blow a save in the top of the ninth, Jarrod Dyson could get picked off second base in the bottom of the ninth and the Royals could walk 10 batters and three of them could score.
It was that kind of night.
First inning: Chen is not getting the borderline calls and when he is forced into the strike zone, bad things can happen. Chen walks one and gives up two home runs before getting out of the first inning. His pitch count is 31. Chen has thrown two innings worth of pitches in the first inning. This will matter later in the game.
Second inning: Mike Moustakas homers. With two outs and two strikes, Salvador Perez shows a mature approach to an at-bat: he takes the pitch the other way and doubles. Lorenzo Cain then drives in Perez. Cain advances on a wild pitch and this will allow him to score on an Alex Gordon single. Good base running has put two runs on the board.
Third inning: His pitch count already high, Chen throws 10 pitches to Alex Rios. Rios doubles, and even though he does not score, the damage is done: Bruce Chen uses 75 pitches to get through three innings. Chen will be lucky to throw five.
Fifth inning: Chen does not make it out of the fifth. He gives up a three-run homer on his 110th pitch. The home run is hit by Dayan Viciedo, a right-hander. Ned Yost has right-hander Kelvin Herrera warming in the pen, but does not have him face Viciedo. After the game, Yost admits he managed with his heart and not his head, hoping to get Chen through five innings with a lead and a shot at the win.
Seventh inning: Billy Butler singles on a hard line drive to right field. It gets to Alex Rios on one hop and Rios seems to briefly consider attempting to throw Butler out at first. Paul Konerko, however, isn’t covering first base. So Rios throws the ball to second. (Don’t be surprised if the two White Sox players talk about this situation and make an attempt to throw Billy out at first base later in the series.)
Ninth inning; The offense covers Ned’s decision and the Royals have a one-run lead going into the top of the ninth. Jonathan Broxton comes in for the save. Kevin Youkilis singles and then Broxton throws eight straight balls — at least according to the umpire. The two walks push Youkilis to third. Neither walk scores, but they still do damage. Youkilis crosses home plate on A.J. Pierzynskis single, and only another Jeff Francoeur outfield assist prevents a second run from scoring. Frenchy’s throw is wide of the plate on the first-base side, and Salvador Perez makes an outstanding catch and tag to cut down the runner at the plate.
In the bottom of the inning Billy Butler has an infield single — see? I told you it was weird night — and the pitcher throws the ball away, sending Butler to second. Jarrod Dyson is sent out to pinch run. After the game Ned Yost was questioned about not bunting in this situation (damned if you do, etc.), but Yost said the plan was to take three shots with Yuniesky Betancourt, Mike Moustakas and jeff Francoeur coming to the plate.
Unfortunately the Royals only get two shots because Dyson is picked off. After Betancourt lines out, it appears Dyson is thinking about stealing third and is caught by an “inside move.” The pitcher lifts his foot and whirls — perfectly legal — and Jarrod is caught leaning the wrong way.
Twelfth inning: Tim Collins walks Viciedo, and Viciedo eventually scores. The Royals answer when Jeff Francoeur doubles, is moved to third base by a Lorenzo Cain single and scores on an Alex Gordon ground ball. The Royals offense, which has come in for some criticism lately, battles back throughout the game.
Fourteenth inning: Everett Teaford issues the final walk of the evening to Gordon Beckham. Alejandro De Aza singles, Beckham goes first to third and scores on a Kevin Youkilis sacrifice fly. Youkilis saw 14 pitches and won the battle. White Sox win 9-8.
The Thursday workout
The Royals held a brief workout on Thursday afternoon and I got a chance to ask Kevin Seitzer the offensive game plan for the next three months. His answer? “Score more runs.”
Specifically, Kevin thinks the team needs to get more out of Jeff Francoeur and Eric Hosmer. The adjustment the two hitters have been asked to make is remarkably similar: lay off the inside “paint.” That’s baseball slang for pitches right on the inside corner of the plate.
Nobody can hit the entire width of home plate effectively. Try to hit everything — inside, outside, up, down, fast and slow — and you’ll hit very little. Hitters have to give away part of the plate to hit the remainder effectively. The Royals want Hos and Frenchy to spit on the inside pitch in order to the pitches out over the plate more consistently. It doesn’t mean they’ll never pull a baseball. They’ll both get off-speed pitches up in the zone or fastballs that run in on their hands. But that will happen naturally; it shouldn’t be part of their game plan.
You might think the team wouldn’t want the opposition to know this, but it really doesn’t matter. Tony Gywnn wrote two books saying he was looking for pitches on the outer half and still got them in games. When Seitzer was playing he said everyone knew he was going to lay off the stuff inside, but still got pitches to hit out over the plate.
Pitchers are not perfect. Pitchers make mistakes and good hitters wait for them.
But Kevin thinks Jeff and Eric aren’t waiting for one of those mistakes. They’re swinging at “pitcher’s pitches” on the inside corner, then having to battle while down in the count. None of this is new. Francoeur was using the same approach last season and had one of his best years in the major leagues. Both Francoeur and Hosmer know what they need to do — heck, I know I need to lay off the press box cookies — but the hard part is doing it.
Stay tuned to see if Hosmer and Francoeur lay off the inside fastball — and I lay off the oatmeal raisins.
In two blinks of an eye
Blink your eyes twice as quick as you can. That’s how long it takes a 90 mph fastball to leave a pitcher’s hand and hit the catcher’s mitt. So if you’re wondering why Jeff Francoeur and Eric Hosmer have trouble laying off certain pitches, remember, it all happens pretty fast.
You have to train yourself through repetition; I swing at this, I don’t swing at that. Hitters have to recognize arm angles, release points, the way the ball leaves the hand, spin and movement. Meanwhile, pitchers are doing everything they can to disguise those things. And it all happens in two blinks of an eye.
First-half stats
Every once in a while, Kevin Seitzer gives me a look at the inside stats he keeps for himself and the team. I get to write about a few of the highlights and point out some interesting things that may surprise or at least entertain you, for instance:
The team leaders in hard-hit outs (basically, at’em balls) are Eric Hosmer (22), Billy Butler (19), Jeff Francoeur (15) and Chris Getz (12). No other players are in double figures.
The team leaders in 8+ pitch plate appearances are Gordon (13) and Butler (12).
The team leaders in quality plate appearances (hit, walk, hard-hit out, 8+ pitch plate appearance, etc. — basically a “good” at-bat) — are Getz (.478), Butler (.468), Gordon (.423), Bourgeois (.417), Hosmer (.408), Escobar (.404) Perez (.404) and Pena (.401). Anything above .400 is considered excellent. The team as a whole is at .397 so they’d like to get that number up at least a bit.
All-Star Game triples
When’s the last time you saw three triples in one game in Kauffman Stadium? Last Tuesday night, if you were paying attention. As I suspected and Doug Sisson confirmed, All-Star teams do not have time to go over a pitching game plan. Everyone is pretty much on their own.
So when right-handed hitters Rafael Furcal and Ryan Braun got fastballs away and Pablo Sandoval (hitting from the left side) got a curve ball on the inner half, right fielder Jose Bautista was not playing where those pitches would be hit; down the right field line.
Makes you appreciate good defense when you see it. Or at least it should.
Escobar
Francoeur
Gordon
John Wilson
10 months, 1 week agoSo many chances to close out the game for our Royals. I’m sure Chisox fans were thinking that before the 14th also. I told my wife in the bottom of the 8th that if scary Broxton was coming in that we needed a 2 run cushion.
The problem with watching the game in the bedroom is falling asleep somewhere around the 12th inning LOL
Thayne Griffin
10 months, 1 week agoBroxton killed us last night. Sometimes blowing a save is more unacceptable than other times, last night was a night where it was completely unacceptable - the first game of the second half. And if Hosmer does anything at all….ever….just once, we probably win the game. A fickle game, baseball. Glad we battled back, but it seems that happens most of the times we lose. Thought putting Dyson in was a good idea, but then he gets picked off.
Good seeing Cain come back, and Perez has an OPS of 1.000. It’s in what 13 (maybe?) games, but that’s pretty impressive, he has at least 1 hit in every game so far.
John Wilson
10 months, 1 week agoWas it me or did Cain seem to be running like he was favoring a leg when he last scored?
Thayne Griffin
10 months, 1 week agoI didn’t watch much of the game, but when I saw him in AAA the Sunday before the all-star game my dad and I both thought that. Time will tell.
John Wilson
10 months, 1 week agoI was somewhat more concerned after they put Pena in afterward.
Lee Judge
10 months, 1 week agoCouple more things from last night’s game that I was too tired to put in last night’s game notes (I left the stadium at 2AM):
I thought the zone was tight and so did a number of other people. At least three of the four pitches Chen threw to Youkilis in the first could have been called strikes. And Youkilis scored in front of a home run.
The same thing happened to Broxton in the ninth. Pitches at the bottom of the zone that looked like strikes weren’t being called strikes. Having said that, once you know you can’t get that pitch, you need to adjust.
Lorenzo Cain misplayed a soft liner in the 4th. He broke in, then back and barely made the catch. Lorenzo’s routes didn’t look great last night, but he caught everything he should’ve—at least in my opinion.
Cain also had a moment in the 4th where he appeared to slow down on the bases waiting to see if an Alex Gordon hit would fall. If so, that was a problem because there were two outs. I didn’t get to talk to him afterwards so I don’t know for sure, people just wanted to pack up and go and that included me.
The Red Sox were not mistake free either: De Aza made a bad decision on Cain’s double in the 8th. Cain was the tying run, there were two outs and De Aza tried to make a shoestring catch and missed. Keep the ball in front and Cain at first and he’s still two hits away from scoring.
If De Aza was going to try to make that catch he needed to “body up” (let the ball hit him).
Also, Youkilis made a mistake getting thrown out at third with two outs in the 6th. If you’re at second with two down you’re already in scoring position. If you go to third with two down (Esky did on his triple) you have to make it or it’s a bad move.
In a game that long with so many up and downs, either team that lost would be able to look back and think they blew it.
Lee Judge
10 months, 1 week agoClearly, I meant White Sox in the comment above. Kevin Youkilis is throwing me off and I’m still wiped out after last night.
The clubhouse opens at 2:40 and the whole thing starts again.
Matthew LaMar
10 months, 1 week agoLee,
I’m curious about a couple of Ned Yost’s lineup decisions. First, do you know why Hosmer is batting third? Apart from a couple of weeks spread out through the year, he’s not been good—it seems counterintuitive to place more pressure on him. Second, Yost likes his L-R-L-R lineups-so why does he put Yuni in front of Moose? Any answers appreciated.
Lee Judge
10 months, 1 week agoMatthew: I’m under the impression that Ned is batting Hosmer third and Escobar second as part of a long-range plan.
That’s where he believes they’ll eventually hit and he wants them to get used to the pressure of performing at the top of the lineup.
I think it’s much the same thing he did with Esky and Moose last season: stick with them and weather the storm.
I’m guessing Betancourt hitting fifth is because he’s been extremely hot driving in runs for the last month and Yost wants to take advantage of that. I’ve wondered whether Getz will play much until Yuni cools down.
The L-R-L thing is to break up the lefties. Don’t make it easy for the opposition manger to bring in a left-handed reliever and get two outs. Force the other team to have a left-hander face a right-hander or force the other team to use three pitchers to get through an inning. Once Yost separates Hosmer from Moustakas he may be thinking it doesn’t make any difference if he’s separates them with one right hander or two.
On the other hand, I’m guessing—but that’s the impression I’m under.
Lee Judge
10 months, 1 week agoSpeaking of guessing and impressions: I went back to watch the Cain base-running play in the fourth inning.
I wanted to confirm my impression that Cain slowed down before going first to third to see if the ball would drop. If he did, that would be a mental mistake.
The replay didn’t have that angle, so it’s still just an impression and should be taken with a grain of salt.
Just like everything else I write.
John Wilson
10 months, 1 week agoLee - watch the replay of Cain scoring after his last at bat of the night. As he is coming from third to home, he looks like he has a limp. I kind of thought his leg was bothering him in the fourth also which is why I noticed the subsequent one. or maybe I’m just paranoid :-)
Chad Jackley
10 months, 1 week agoI realize that hindsight is 20/20, but there simply is no excuse for not bunting Dyson over to third in the ninth, none. I haven’t had any real issues with Ned until now. He can say what he wants to but I guarantee he is questioning that move. This isn’t the National League, but it’s freaking baseball.
Jeff Frost
10 months, 1 week agoA couple of comments. First, disappointing loss. Love the Seitzer look-in at the season so far. You say that Getz might not play until Yuni cools down. Isn’t .231 and not a good last 3-4 games cooled down? Also, why not Falu at 2nd?? I know you really like Getz, but I prefer Falu. I think Perez should move up. Ultimately, our starting pitching is where it is all going to start and end, and right now it is crashing! Time to look at Mendoza, Teaford, Crow, and maybe Odorizzi. Chen can be traded for something and Sanchez just plain has to go. He has never wanted to be here and it shows. I’m pretty sure he is injured- throwing 7-9 mph slower. I still have faith in Hoch. Tough loss to come back from and yes- LONG NIGHT!
Lee Judge
10 months, 1 week agoJohn: Don’t know about Cain limping, but I’m guessing if he is it’s being watched pretty closely by people with medical training and more smarts than me.
Chad: You can make an argument for bunting or not bunting in that spot. First, Yuni has been the team’s hottest RBI guy for the last month. He’s not a great bunter (so maybe you bring out Getz to do it) then you have a runner on third, one down and Moustakas who had already struck out three times in the game facing a left-handed reliever (although Moose did hit a bomb in the second). After that it’s Francoeur.
I can see why Ned let Yuni hit away and when he did, Yuni hit a seed. Once there was one down, then I think you have Dyson steal (if the delivery time works out and that guy was pretty quick to the plate). That’s when Dyson got picked. I thought he was stealing (I’ll ask today) and fell for an inside move.
I’d be more critical of Ned for letting Chen face Viciedo in the 5th, but, as we both know, it’s much easier to make these calls after the fact.
Chad Jackley
10 months, 1 week agoI actually was begging for Ned to bring in Getz to bunt. He’s a very good bunter and as we’ve discussed, a hitters average goes up 100 points when the infield is drawn in. It’s a game of percentages and Ned didn’t play the percentages. The pitcher had just thrown a ball down the first base line, make him field a bunt. Ask Ned if that was a hit and run too, just wondering.
Laura Marie
10 months, 1 week agoWhat a heartbreaker. I’m glad they were able to battle back several times, but it still hurts to see them get the loss.
Question: Why are there no negative points assigned for a blown save? I would think Broxton deserves to lose at least another 2 or 3 points for that.
Matthew Tiemeyer
10 months, 1 week agoI think there’s a lot to be learned by the difference between Betancourt’s plate appearance in the 11th and that of Youkilis in the 14th. Both needed to get a run in from third with less than two out.
Betancourt had a rookie pitcher on the mound who was having control problems. He sees a fastball on the outer half and gets it in the air…to the shortstop. Why he would swing at the first pitch, which is a pitcher’s pitch in this case because Betancourt can’t hit anything to the right side of second base, against this particular pitcher, with the game on the line, is thoroughly beyond me. Or it would be, if it wasn’t so easy to predict. Actually, I figured it would be a ground ball to the same defender, so I guess I’m exaggerating.
Youkilis, on the other hand, against a more experienced pitcher, saw about a thousand pitches, fouling off what he didn’t like, until he got one he could lift to the outfield.
I know that Seitzer was a lot more likely to have a Youkilis at-bat than a Yuni at-bat. I hope that we can focus on acquiring players who value every pitch.
Darral VanGoethem
10 months, 1 week agoThayne, you are part wrong. Broxton did kill us. But in the way that a doctor pulls the plug on someone that is on life support. The real murders were Chen and Yost. I have been highly critical of Yost on this blog all season. I will get to him in a moment.
Chen failing to even get through the 5th is just the latest example of why this team is going to tank in the 2nd half. The team that went 3-8 on its last road stand is the team we will see more often then not in the 2nd half. I will go into why I feel that way in a moment. Now back to Yost.
Yost should have gone with a long relief guy down by 1 when he pulled Chen. If your starter is laboring and you don’t think he can get you through the 6th then the long reliever should be called EVERY SINGLE time. That is what they are there for. To relieve for a longer period of time, like more than 1 inning. Herrera came in for a 1/3 of an inning. I get this move but only if starting the 6th a long reliever like Teaford or Mendoza comes to the mound to get us to the 9th. Instead, Yost went on to use Mijares for the 1st 2 outs in the 6th, Crow for 1.1 innings, Holland for an inning before putting Broxton in to pull the plug on the life support system. The Royals breathed on their own until the 14th but were done not only for this game but for the rest of the weekend due to Yost’s TERRIBLE management of the pitchers in innings 5-8. I know Jim will say that those guys will be fine to pitch again today or Sunday and I am sure they will be “fine”, but that isn’t the point. As I have stated previously, the Royals are about to have 3-4 relievers pitch 85-90 innings this season. To put that in perspective in all of the Majors last season only 1 relief pitcher (meaning did not make a single start) got over 90 IPed and only 4 got over 85. IN ALL OF BASEBALL. Let me repeat that. The Royals are on pace to have 3-4 BY THEMSELVES!! It isn’t the innings that scare me though, its the fact that those pitchers are on pace to appear in an astounding 80-85 games, about 50% of the games played. That is WAY to much work for relievers arms and that, more than the innings pitched, is what is going to burn these guys’ arms out. Yost needs to managed for not only the game but for the series and the rest of the season. Even more than that, he should be managing for next season too when the ‘pen will be a continued strength. Hopefully. He managed last nights game like it was a playoff game.
Now to my mention that the Royals last road trip is indicitive of the team we will see the 2nd half. Let me preface this by saying I hope I am wrong. But baseball is a cruel sport. One that can kill you slowly and painfully. The Royals don’t have the consistency on offense to score. Yes they are hitting. They are actually hitting pretty well. Just not doing it will with RISP. More accurately, they are not getting many runners to scoring position b/c they are actually about league avg hitting with RISP. This comes due to a number of factors. One is age. This is easily the youngest everyday lineup in baseball. Two, veterans that performed well last year for this team are either on another team and performing (Melky) or not hitting what they did last year (Frenchy and Butler). Yes Butler. Our favorite All-Star. He was deserving of that selection. But his doubles are way down. A double is great b/c with one swing you are in scoring position. Now he is usually not scoring from 2nd but that isn’t the point. You can say the same abt Frenchy. Not hitting dbls. 2nd thing about Butler, he is not hitting well at all this yr with RISP. His avg the last 3 yrs RISP & RISP w/2 outs is .310 & .270. This season he is at .295 & .233. A significant drop off.
So combine that roller coaster offensive production, terrible SPing & a ‘pen that is about to be used a HISTORIC amount of time and what do you get? a 2nd half that is going to come close to equaling the end of the 1st half. Winning 3 out of every 8 games! YIKES!!
Darral VanGoethem
10 months, 1 week agoThe positive from the 2nd half though is that these young players are getting a TON of experience that will make them all even better next season. Look at Moose this season compared to last season. Last season he was literally just trying to survive at the plate. This season he has an idea of what he is doing and not swinging at as many “pitchers pitches”. Escobar is seeing the same growth and I think that over time his pop will come and he will be a 10-15 homer/yr guy for about 3-4 yrs. He has the body, frame and swing to do it. Salvy is special and will be an All-Star for years as long as he can stay healthy. Cain will get valuable experience now that he his healthy. (I liked what I saw last night. He just looked like a CFer out there and he looks stronger at the plate.) Hosmer needs to fix his approach. It is too aggressive and he isn’t even getting the walks that he was at least getting earlier in the season. As Jim has been saying all season, he needs to go down to AAA and get his approach back. His approach needs to be contained aggression. It is not that right now and pitchers are just toying with him. Why would they challenge him if they don’t have to since he swings at THEIR pitches already.
Jim Wilson
10 months, 1 week agoAs long as we’re looking to a guy we signed as a free agent utility infielder to give us middle of the order power, we’re not going to win more games than we lose.
Jim Fetterolf
10 months, 1 week agoSince my name has been taken in vain, a couple of brief comments: Bruce Chen looks tired. He is on pace for the most starts in his career, including the 32 in ‘05, as I recall, and he just looks gassed from the 1st inning, doesn’t look sharp, pitching up too much, and his stuff doesn’t have much snap. If he gets a tight ‘zone he’ll get toasted, as the opposing pitcher and Broxton also did last night, and 100 pitches is about his limit. I think I’ld DL him for sore arm or put him in the ‘pen for a couple of weeks to get rested up.
Second, yeah the ‘pen is racking up innings but that’s with about twenty guys with the I-29 shuttle.
Third, Luis Mendoza is no longer a long guy, he has quietly become the staff’s best starter, reflecting his PCL pitcher of the year award last year.
Fourth, Butler is having some trouble hitting righties this year.
In conclusion, I’ve thought that the six game stretch around the ASB would be the defining couple of series for the season, 5-1 puts the Royals in contention, 1-5 ends the season for all practical purposes and I would be looking to trade veterans for prospects, get some AAA guys some experience, and start planning for next year. Too many injuries and too many underachievers to try to save this season by trading prospects and maybe even too much uncertainty about the offense to seriously consider spending $40 mil on FA SPs this winter.
Curtis Ruder
10 months, 1 week agoIt makes it a lot tougher to win an extra inning game when your two best hitters are out of the game. Yost is far too fond of pulling Billy in the late innings for a pinch runner.
Having said that, if ever you are going to do it, last night was the time to do so. And Perez had already caught ten innings, too. Dyson made it on base twice after Billy left.
But he did it again tonight. And hopefully we put the whole game out of reach tonight - inning is ongoing as I type. But if they had left Billy in for back to back singles, the worst case scenario is bases juiced with nobody out. I’d rather still have my best hitter still in the game.
I haven’t sensed Billy struggling particularly against right-handed pitching. Certainly, he has a platoon advantage and always has. His season OPS against RHP is .759 compared with a career total of .777, so there is a bit of fall-off, but not very much. He has a little bit lower OBP, but has a higher slugging percentage than most years.
Thayne Griffin
10 months, 1 week agoBEAST BROXTON. Such a rollercoaster.
Jim Fetterolf
10 months, 1 week agoBilly’s line against RHP this year is .264/.323/.436, against LHP .368/.466/.621, per B-R.
Darral VanGoethem
10 months agoJim,
You missed my point on the innings that the ‘pen has racked up. True, they have gotten alot of innings from guys that are being shuffled between Omaha & KC. But you didn’t even address the concern I had, which is that we will likely have 3-4 relief pitchers that will have thrown 85+ innings. I assume you didn’t address it b/c you agree with me!! :)