The White Sox don’t need a miracle Saturday. They need better at-bats.
Chicago heads back to Progressive Field with its season hanging on Game 5 after watching a 2-0 series lead vanish at home. The collapse has plenty of moving parts, including a bullpen that couldn’t hold up in Thursday’s six-run sixth inning. But the biggest problem has been much simpler than that: the lineup has handed Cleveland far too many easy outs.
That showed up again in Games 3 and 4. The White Sox struck out 31 times in those two losses, with 19 punchouts on Wednesday and 12 more Thursday.
Across the four ALDS games, Chicago has struck out 54 times, an average of 13.5 per game. In October, that’s a brutal way to live, especially against a Guardians pitching staff that has settled into a clear plan.
Cleveland hasn’t needed anything fancy. It’s gotten ahead in counts, pushed the strike zone outward and waited for White Sox hitters to chase pitches they had little chance of doing damage with. Chicago hasn’t adjusted well to that pattern, and the result has been a steady stream of empty trips to the plate.
Not every strikeout is equal, either. A whiff with nobody on base is one thing.
Repeatedly going down when there’s a chance to move runners or pressure the defense is another. The White Sox have been guilty of both.
Thursday was especially frustrating because the offense actually did a better job of getting on base. Chicago drew eight walks and posted a .386 on-base percentage, a big jump from Wednesday’s .316 mark. Even so, the result was the same: a loss, and 12 runners left on base.
That’s the crux of the issue before Game 5. The White Sox have power, and nobody is asking them to scrap that part of their game.
But trying to hit every pitch 450 feet isn’t the answer. Sometimes the best result is a walk.
Sometimes it’s a single that keeps an inning moving. Sometimes it’s simply putting the ball in play and making the other team work for an out.
The good news for Chicago is that it already proved it can win at Progressive Field. The White Sox took the first two games there, so Saturday doesn’t have to feel like a mountain climb. Still, the lineup that started this series has to reappear if they want a chance to keep playing.
Venable can’t swing the bats for them, but he can keep hammering the same message: get into good counts, stop chasing pitches outside the zone and force Cleveland to defend. If Chicago runs into another night with 15 strikeouts, the mound matchup may not matter much at all.
The White Sox don’t need a huge offensive explosion to survive. They need enough productive at-bats to give their pitching staff room to breathe.
Get runners on. Make contact.
Make Cleveland make plays.
That part sounds straightforward. With a season on the line, it’s anything but.
In Other News...
White Sox Suddenly Have A Big-Inning Problem At The Worst Time
The White Sox spent much of the night with a lead and still walked away empty-handed, a frustrating turn in a game that started with enough promise to make U.S. Cellular Field feel like the series could tilt their way. After jumping ahead 2-0 and later 4-3, Chicago could not keep Cleveland from hanging around, and the pitching staff had too many shaky pockets to survive once the Guardians started putting pressure on the game.
Hagen Smith and Jordan Hicks both had early trouble holding the line, and the bigger swing came in the middle innings when Anthony Kay and Grant Taylor were asked to bridge the gap. Chicago even made a late push, but the comeback never quite took shape, leaving the White Sox with a loss that stings for more than one reason as they now shift back to Cleveland still trying to settle the series on their terms. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Now Face One Brutal Road Game To Save Their Season
The White Sox had put themselves in position to close out the series, building an early lead and even drawing multiple bases-loaded hit-by-pitches from Sam Antonacci in Game 4. But Cleveland clawed back at Progressive Field and turned the afternoon into a 9-5 Guardians win, sending this American League Division Series to a winner-take-all Game 5 and leaving Chicago with one road game to keep its season alive.
The pitching collapse in the middle innings changed everything, with Grant Taylor unable to stem the tide in relief as the Guardians put the game out of reach. Now the White Sox have to regroup quickly and find a way to win again in the same park, with the reward being a trip to the American League Championship Series to face the Tampa Bay Rays. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Suddenly Have A Pressure Problem They Didn't Expect
The White Sox headed into Game 4 with a chance to put the American League Division Series away, but Cleveland kept finding answers at the plate and pushed the matchup right back to Ohio. Chicago grabbed an early lead and still had an opening to control the afternoon, yet the Guardians kept chipping away until the game flipped in their favor and the pressure shifted onto the Sox heading back on the road.
A big part of that turnaround came from Patrick Bailey, who has spent much of his career getting noticed for what he does behind the plate more than what he does with the bat. In this postseason, though, he has become a far more dangerous offensive piece for Cleveland, and his latest contributions were a reminder that the Guardians are no longer relying on the usual names to carry them when the moment gets tight. [Read more 🡒]