White Sox 3, Royals 1 (nightcap): A Split Series

Happy Kopech Evening!

White Sox offense kicked off with a two-out, ground-rule double by Yoán Moncada in the first. Yermín Mercedes was rung up on a third strike that wasn’t quite a strike. Having yet to see Tony show signs of life (by like, yelling at an umpire or something about a shitty call), friend of the blog @SavesTuesday created a new stat for us to use for just such an occasion when I am trying to determine how many ejections our skipper has:

The bottom of the second is where the offense really started for the White Sox, when Adam Eaton kicked things off with a double and Andrew Vaughn homered for the second time in three days (he just had to get that first one out of the way), putting the White Sox up, 2-0.

That was the end of Jakob Junis’s day, and Mike Matheny went to his bullpen, assuming that because he didn’t use them in the opener that they would be very good in the nightcap. Tyler Zuber and his 5.40 ERA came to face the music. He managed to load the bases before Matheny swapped him out for Jake Brentz, who promptly walked in a run. Lucky for the Royals, Mercedes struck out and the White Sox scoring stopped for the night at 3-0.

Carlos Santana saved the Royals from a shutout with a two-out home run at the top of the third, bringing the score to 3-1. The Royals kept thinking about trying to score, but never really sealing the deal, by stranding runners at various points in the night.

One of the keys to the White Sox’s success tonight was forcing Matheny to go to the bullpen early on in the game. The Royals bullpen has been shaky on a good day, and control has not been there across the board. Certified Baseball Genius™ Mike Matheny ended up burning through five relievers tonight with two more games left in the series, which is a really great idea when your bullpen already sucks.

With solid outings from Aaron Bummer and Liam Hendriks, the White Sox revenge nightcap was complete. It was a short one, but a win is a win in my book.

Random In-Game Thoughts

• It’s stupid that MLB won’t recognize a seven inning doubleheader no-hitter as an official no-hitter.
• Andrew Vaughn: Utility Player?
• Someone yelled “Got a babysitter until 8!” at Brentz. It was 8:30.
• I don’t know why everyone hates walks. Isn’t the goal to get on base and then score? Does it really matter HOW they got there?
• A delightful heckler was getting picked up by the NBC Sports microphones, and honestly I love a good heckle. My favorite was yelling that someone bunted wrong.

Random White Sox Twitter Roundup