The Chicago White Sox lost the first two games in the second crosstown series against the Chicago Cubs in part because certain flaws in the team's overall game raised their ugly heads.
Here are the three flaws I've been noticing since the home series against the Houston Astros, and really, all season -- allowing walks, especially lead-off walks, late in tight games; poor defense; and an inability to drive in runners in scoring position without relying on home runs.
We saw walks, errors, and a lack of situational hitting cost the Sox wins in the first two games in the series -- games in which the Sox held leads late. We've seen these flaws too often in the last three or four weeks, even in games the Sox won -- and the Sox sometimes won simply because they outslugged their problems. The only exceptions were a solid series at Tampa and arguably with the road sweep at Detroit, though even those games against the Tigers weren't quite tight enough.
Then the Sox salvaged the series at Wrigley, leaving the season series tied. And they did it without hitting a homer. How?
How the Sox salvaged the series
Well, Jose Urquidy pitched six innings of long relief in a bullpen game and didn't walk anyone -- Sox pitching walked just three all day. Urquidy was very good aside from that, striking out eight and allowing just two hits, but the lack of free passes really stand out.
Situational hitting was also key. Andrew Benintendi drove home Miguel Vargas after Vargas doubled to lead off the sixth. In the eighth, the Sox got a one-out walk from Vargas, Randal Grichuk pinch-hit for Benintendi and doubled, and rookie Braden Montgomery doubled them both home. Key hits with men on scoring position. Unlike the 2-for-11 with RISP the night before.
Then there's the defense. Braden Montgomery nailed a runner trying to tag a fly ball with a great throw. Sure, the runner shouldn't have tagged, but outs on the basepath always help a pitcher's cause.
The Sox did get some help from the Cubs -- the North Side team is normally strong defensively but failed to complete some double plays and had some other minor miscues. But the hits that matter were solidly struck.
Now the young South Siders know they can win in a hostile environment -- one in which they were walked-off twice in a row. They had lost eight straight at Wrigley.
The White Sox have had some tough losses in recent weeks, especially in back-and-forth games on the road, like the one in Boston two weeks ago. They will need to win games like that in October, and home runs aren't always an option against the level of pitching they will see in the postseason, assuming they make it.
During the Detroit series, the Sox broadcasters mentioned that hitting coach Derek Shomon had encouraged the team to put together better at-bats instead of chasing pitches while trying to smash the ball 460 feet. It worked against the Tigers -- and the Sox also hit some homers, too. But in the first two games at Wrigley, there were some brutal at-bats. Cubs pitching gets credit, of course -- good pitching can make hitters look lost -- but the Sox sometimes swung for the fences when they needed to just drop a single the other way.
Hopefully, lessons learned at Wrigley will carry forward.
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