Guardians 9, White Sox 6: Zack Supremacy

Back to the loving embrace of under .500 it is for the springtime White Sox, who fell to 2-3 in the preseason after this afternoon’s 9-6 loss to the Guardians.

The game was not filmed, however, the radio was more than enough to give us some insight into how things were going.

Yoán Moncada did, at the very least, manage an actual base hit, his first of the spring. Andrew Vaughn was the only presumptive opening-day starter missing from the lineup, though they only took two turns through the order before turning it over to the players who don’t already have jobs secured.

Among the starters, though, there wasn’t much to write home about. Tim Anderson, Luis Robert Jr., Andrew Benintendi, and Eloy Jiménez went a combined 0-for-8 on the afternoon, though Benintendi did manage to draw a walk before being pulled for Victor Reyes.

Most of the Sox offensive damage came from the minor league side, which I suppose is something we want to see in Spring Training? Oscar Colás picked up another hit in his two plate appearances, raising his spring batting average to .455 (5-for-11) in the early going. Bryan Ramos picked up his second hit in as many games. A consensus top prospect Colson Montgomery got into his first game action with the big club, walking twice and scoring once in his three trips to the plate.

The big bop came in the form of a three-run yahtzee from 2016 10th-round pick Zach Remillard, who at age 29 has long outgrown prospect status but is coming off a solid season in Triple-A Charlotte, where he set career highs with a .773 OPS, 52 RBI, and 19 stolen bases. He wasn’t the only Zach/k to swing a big stick today either, as old friend Zack Collins was responsible for Cleveland’s eighth run, a solo shot to right field in the seventh inning.

On the pitching side of things, Davis Martin wasn’t terribly sharp, allowing two runs on two hits and two walks in his two innings of work. I suppose they might as well just release him now and get it out of the way.

The other notable pitching appearance of the day came from 2019 second-rounder Matthew Thompson, who threw a scoreless inning with a walk and a strikeout. This is the part where having no TV feed, radar guns, or anything of the like is rather annoying — the last two seasons have removed just about all of Thompson’s prospect luster, but the ceiling is still there, and it would be pretty great to get a sense of what his stuff is looking like.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

But I digress! The rest of the pitching duties were handled by minor league signing Keynan Middleton, Nate Fisher (1 ER), Nicholas Padilla, Edgar Navarro (4 ER), and Declan Cronin (1 ER), of whom Cronin, by most reports, is the most likely to see a substantial amount of time in the Show this year.

Supplementing Collins, the only other run-producing player in Cleveland to see big league time last year was Tyler Freeman. Outfielders Johnathan Rodriguez and Will Brennan both clocked home runs, the former driving in three, the latter two. Micah Pries was responsible for an additional run via GIDP. I’m paid to know about White Sox minor leaguers, not Cleveland minor leaguers, so I’m going to simply direct you to google if you want to learn more about who any of those players are.

The squad is back in action against Colorado tomorrow, where Lance Lynn is set to make his second appearance of the spring, and potentially his final one before departing to lead Team USA’s rotation in the World Baseball Classic.

Anyway, on to the accolades!