Lip Man 1

The Sox have done an incredible job overcoming issues so far this season. We'll see if they can keep doing that. Over a 162 game season those things have a way of catching up to you. It's hard to win especially with the pitching situation they are in. This will be another big two-weeks with seven games versus Cleveland.

Hopefully he can provide some much needed juice right now with having to play Cleveland seven times in the next 10 days or so.

Kyle Teel returns to White Sox, whose catchers could use...After a pair of sprains teamed up to put him on the shelf for the first 76 games of the season, Kyle Teel is back, and just when the White Sox could use him the most. The White Sox activated Teel from

https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/jj-wetherholt-colson-montgomery-excelling-on-defense

There are very few teams right now who can say honestly they are out of it. Detroit may not move him but you never know. But because so many teams may still be in it around the deadline it could be very, very, VERY difficult for the Sox to get pitching help even if they want to. Right now the only teams I'd say are out of it are the Red Sox, Royals, Angels (Moreno says they aren't selling), Giants and Rockies. That's not a lot.

Another issue has been the play of Gonzales at first base trying to learn the position at the MLB level instead of in the minor leagues. Today in the 10th inning instead of stepping on first, recording an out and throwing home, he just throws home even though the runner wasn't breaking for the plate. Sox probably lose the game anyway but this didn't help. And remember twice in games he went after balls instead of covering the base so when they were fielded no one was home to take the throw. Little things add up and he's being put in a bad position by the organization. Every game is important when you have a division where the winner may have only 83 victories (a la the 73 Mets).

Injury updates from the Sun-Times (no word at all on Teel who sat Sunday): Left-hander Noah Schultz (knee) threw 2 ⅔ scoreless innings for Triple-A Charlotte on his rehab stint, allowing two hits and one walk and striking out four. He threw 57 pitches, 38 for strikes. Schultz might need one more outing before returning to the Sox. • Outfielder Everson Pereira still has some symptoms from the concussion he suffered crashing into the wall Wednesday in New York, including sensitivity to light — he was wearing shades inside the clubhouse — and is not doing baseball activities • Venable said that Munetaka Murakami, who’s recovering from a strained right hamstring, has increased the intensity of his running — he said Murakami is up to 80% — and hitting. There’s still no timeline for his return.

Jeff Agrest covered the game for the Sun-Times, he just got back with me and said he asked Venable about playing Acuna at short instead of Montgomery (he moved him there in the 10th inning). According to Jeff, Venable told him he feels Acuna and Montgomery are about the same defensively. Make of that what you will.

Hell the Twins are now only 2 1/2 back of the Sox, looks like they won't be 'selling off' either. What a division! Every team in it has a minus run differential, amazing.

Over a long season you've got to do goofy, crazy stuff to keep the energy going and keep the pressure reduced so I don't have an issue with what's he's doing. If another team doesn't like it, to friggin bad. Although the best way to shut them up is to win the damn game.

Well it's not just him specifically as the Sox bullpen has been horrific the last several years. Just far to much dead weight, trash and guys hanging on for dear life in the bullpen. It's a combination of bad managing and awful talent acquisition.

Acuna's hitting all of .213...that's some hitting eh?

They definitely need to get some mojo back, maybe if Teel is activated that will help. Coming off the Braves and Dodgers series I expected some letdown but they looked pretty awful this road trip.

Hicks and especially Domingeuz are showing themselves to not be much good. McDougal may not pitch at all the rest of the year, we'll see how he responds with his injury and ditto for Smith who even before he got hurt was walking hitters left and right. As Sox Machine pointed out in depth last week in a detailed article the Sox have basically ZERO pitching depth in the minor leagues because they can't keep anybody healthy.

4th blown save opportunity today.

Brutal way to lose a game, brutal series, brutal weekend. I get the angst over the Acuna play but remember there were two out. Just get the last out and it doesn't matter. Bottom line Dominguez wet the bed again. Back to just two games over .500 with seven versus Cleveland in the next 10 days.

From what I read yes, he was being given the day off.

Four factoids today: June 21, 1942 - Sox pitcher and future Hall of Famer Ted Lyons won his 250th career game beating the Red Sox 6-5. That season Lyons only pitched on Sunday’s and posted this incredible statistic. In his 20 starts that year he completed all 20 games! He went 14-6 with an ERA of 2.10 which led the American League. At the end of the season Lyons joined the Marines and served four years during World War II. June 21, 1956 - It was either a case of great pitching, or terrible hitting, as the Sox beat the Orioles 1-0 in a game that took just 2:12. Both Baltimore starter Connie Johnson, who used to pitch for the Sox, and the Sox Jack Harshman each allowed the opposition only one hit. The Sox scored their run in the first inning when “Jungle” Jim Rivera walked, stole second and scored on a double by Nellie Fox. The Orioles only hit came in the seventh inning, a double off the bat of Gus Triandos. June 21, 1964 - The Sox dropped their ninth straight game on the season to the Yankees 2-1 in 17 innings. It allowed New York to sweep the twin bill with the Sox scoring only one run on the day in 26 innings played. This one really hurt because New York got the winning run home thanks to an error by infielder Al Weis. The Sox would lose another one to the Yanks the next day running the streak to 10 in a row, before finally winning against them in August with a four-game series sweep. Those losses were very costly since in 1964 the Sox ended the year...one game, behind the Yankees. June 21, 1973 - Sox pitcher Stan Bahnsen, a 21-game winner in 1972, threw one of the strangest shutouts in baseball history. Bahnsen beat the A’s 2-0 at Comiskey Park. He allowed 12 hits and a walk in the process. The A’s left 10 men on base. It was two off the record for most hits allowed in a shutout.

That was a fun summer!

It would be nice to avoid getting swept with Cleveland coming in and having to play them seven times in the next 10 days or so. You just get the feeling they are playing hard but shortcomings and of course injuries are starting to make a bigger and bigger impact.

From the Sun-Times game recap story: Rotation vacancyThe Sox hope to have more options on their next turn through the rotation to fill the spot that required a bullpen day. Lefty Noah Schultz is scheduled for a rehab start Sunday at Triple-A Charlotte, but he might need one more before being recalled. David Sandlin, who pitched in three games in his first major-league stint this season, is ramping up at Charlotte and was set to pitch Saturday night. Mason Adams, who rocketed up to Charlotte this season, is another option. “It’s continuing to build right now,” Venable said of those options. “Those guys are still building back, and we decided to have those guys be options down the road. There was a time this year where it felt like there were maybe four guys down there that could be options for you. So it’s always moving at different spots through different times of the year.”

Never, NEVER underestimate the stupidity of the owners.

The division they are in helps the 'contending' possibility but there's no question they have a lot of holes.

I had some real concerns about this series. Human nature being what it is when you went through what the team did the past two weeks there's going to be a let down even if it is subconscious. Hopefully they can salvage a game tomorrow with Cleveland coming in.

SIX factoids today: June 20, 1926 - In a game with the Yankees that the Sox won 4-3; they set the record for the largest crowd to see a game at Comiskey Park before the upper deck was added. 43-thousand were on hand for the contest; so many fans were in the park they were allowed to ring the outfield wall standing on the playing field. That may have contributed to the Sox final run in the eighth inning as Willie Kamm’s drive went into the fans on the field, it was scored as a double and drove home Earl Sheely with what proved to be the winning run. June 20, 1945 - In the eighth inning of a game in St. Louis a brawl broke out between the White Sox and Browns players. As Browns pitcher George Caster was leaving the mound he fired the ball toward the Chicago dugout, but missed, hitting the adjacent wall. White Sox players charged onto the field and several of the Browns charged the Chicago dugout where they attacked White Sox batting practice pitcher and ex-Marine Karl Scheel whom they beat for several minutes, claiming he had been riding them in a personal way all game. When that confrontation was broken up, the game resumed with no one being ejected; many fans came on the field and the game was delayed for several minutes. Scheel was carried to the clubhouse for first aid. Several Browns were fined by the league. The Sox would win the game 4-1. June 20, 1973 - Sox relief pitcher Cy Acosta became the first pitcher to actually hit for the team, in the designated hitter era, when he struck out in the eighth inning of an 8-3 win over Nolan Ryan and the Angels at Comiskey Park. Rich Hand was the Angels pitcher who struck him out. Acosta came to bat because manager Chuck Tanner pulled Dick Allen after a six run, seventh inning and moved Tony Muser from DH to first base. That meant the Sox gave-up the DH and Acosta took the spot in the batting order. June 20, 1980 - Tigers outfielder Al Cowens attacked Sox relief pitcher Ed Farmer. In the 11th inning of a game at Comiskey Park, Cowens ran towards Farmer after hitting a ground ball instead of running towards first base. The two had a melee on the mound. One-year earlier Farmer broke his jaw when he was pitching for Texas on an errant pitch. Chicago police went looking for Cowens after the game to press assault charges. Farmer, who had polycystic kidney disease, ended up on the bottom of the pile, where his cysts burst and his kidneys weakened. He would be an All-Star the next month, amid his greatest season, but Farmer said from the moment after the brawl he felt weaker, and was never the same pitcher. June 20, 1986 - In what he admitted was one of the biggest mistakes he’d ever made, Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf approved the firing of manager Tony LaRussa. LaRussa and his staff simply didn’t get along with new G.M. Ken “Hawk” Harrelson and his unusual ideas, and with the team struggling on the field, the decision to let him go was made. LaRussa, who won over 500 games for the White Sox and the 1983 Western Division championship, was hired by the A’s three weeks later. He eventually took both Oakland and St. Louis to the World Series winning three titles and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2014 before coming back to manage the White Sox starting in the 2021 campaign. Harrelson resigned his position after one season in charge of the White Sox. That year the club went 72-90 ending up in fifth place in the Western Division. Reinsdorf later explained the situation surrounding Harrelson’s hiring as G.M. to the Chicago Tribune. “Eddie (Einhorn) and I would talk to “Hawk” and (Don) Drysdale at length, and “Hawk” more so, to identify problems in the organization, we were still neophytes in this business and we were impressed with the way “Hawk” pointed out our problems. [GM] wasn't something he really wanted him to do, but we urged him to help us out. The mistake was that when you go to a doctor who diagnoses open-heart surgery, you don't have him do the surgery because he diagnosed the problem, you get a heart surgeon. Just because “Hawk” was able to diagnose our problems did not mean he could solve them. It was a terrible position to put him in, and a year later, he said he wanted out." June 20, 2006 - In a home game the White Sox would set the team mark for the most runs ever scored in the third inning of a game when 11 men crossed the plate against the Cardinals. Chicago area native Mark Mulder was the victim of the onslaught which saw the Sox win 20-6. The Sox sent 16 men to the plate and had 11 hits in the inning.