CLEVELAND — White Sox executive vice president Ken Williams spoke to the team last weekend.
Manager Tony La Russa agreed with what he had to say.
How could he not? The White Sox are the most disappointing team in baseball.
The Sox stumbled for second time in as many games on an important road trip and looked flat doing it Tuesday, losing 4-1 to the Guardians and Shane Bieber in Game 1 of a split doubleheader. They lost another step in the AL Central standings as the All-Star break approaches, falling six games behind the Twins in AL Central and two behind the Guardians. Dylan Cease starts Game 2 Tuesday night.
The latest loss ramped up disappointed fans’ ire against La Russa. NBC Sports Chicago postgame show commentators called out the team and La Russa for looking flat after managing just three hits against Shane Bieber in a game that lasted two hours, 10 minutes.
“How about the second baseman [Josh Harrison], making those plays was he flat?” La Russa said. “How about the first baseman [Jose Abreu] making the play in the eighth inning, was he flat? When you don’t hit, get on base ... we also had a rally late in the game. So that’s my opinion. That’s the beauty of the game, people who have been watching, however the fans saw it, they’re welcome to their opinion but if you look at the whole, their guy pitched very well. You don’t make some of the plays unless you’re competing.”
Harrison did make two excellent plays behind second base, but third baseman Yoan Moncada — whose defense has been very good — played a ground ball off his glove side that went for a single and Amed Rosario dropped a liner in front of left fielder Eloy Jimenez that probably would have been caught by a better, swifter defender. It was curiously scored a double and drove in a run. Sox killer Jose Ramirez then singled home two runs with first base open.
La Russa said pitcher Davis Martin, called up from Triple-A Charlotte to start the game as the 27th player, was supposed to pitch around Ramirez.
“Can’t let him beat you and I pitched too into the zone against him,” Martin said.
Since Williams spoke to the team at the occasion of a team gathering to acknowledge shortstop Tim Anderson being named an All-Star starter, the Sox (41-45) are 2-3.
“He spoke up about his observations of the first half,” La Russa said. “And there wasn’t anything he said I disagreed with.”
The gist of Williams’ message?
“We have had our ups and downs and the talent is here to make it more ups than downs in the second half of the season,” La Russa said.
Perhaps. Those watching the Sox’ first 85 games wonder how leading the majors in errors and most defensive metrics, ranking 26th in the majors in homers and 25th in slugging and OPS and running into too many outs on the bases equates to talent.
Teams play good baseball or they don’t. The Sox (41-45) aren’t, so stringing games together with good pitching, hitting and defense have been few and far between.
“Win a couple, lose a couple, here we are again,” La Russa said. “We haven’t had that sustained hot streak. So it seems like you’re always grinding, always swimming against the tide. But there is a truism if you follow seasons. At some point your skin has to get tough. You have to have scabs as a team. It’s been rough enough, you don’t walk through the season, show up in October and not have any scars. We keep our toughness going, this is putting stuff in the bank that will pay off later.”
Throughout spring training and April and May, the Sox almost assumed playing in a third straight October was a given.
Not any more.
It’s to the point where things like “team chemistry” are talking points in mid-July.
“I don’t think anything’s missing,” Harrison said. “We’ve got the right pieces, just haven’t put it together completely.”
Bieber became the first Cleveland pitcher to throw a nine-inning complete game with fewer than 100 pitches since Corey Kluber on Aug. 4, 2018.
