Rays 5, White Sox 2: Tampa Bay wins opener, loses Glasnow

The teams with the two best records in baseball met for the first time this season, and the team at the top will maintain its spot for at least two more days.

The Rays hit three homers while keeping the White Sox in the park, halting Chicago’s four-game winning streak while extending their baseball-best road record to 24-10.

The Lance Lynn-Tyler Glasnow pitching duel didn’t materialize as many imagined. Lynn gave up a two-run shot to Austin Meadows in the first inning, and a solo shot to Brandon Lowe in the third. Both came on cutters, and both landed in a similar spots on the fair side of the right-field foul pole.

Lynn made it through six, although it wasn’t easy. He couldn’t record a 1-2-3 inning, but found ways to neutralize the traffic with eight strikeouts, finishing with a quality start for a sort-of moral victory.

He outlasted Glasnow, who came out overpowering, but left with what appeared to be a forearm issue after four innings. The White Sox were able to put two runs on his tab in the third thanks to some aggressive baserunning. Leury García reached on an inside-outed double, took third on Danny Mendick’s opposite-field flyout, then scored with a great read on the pitch in the dirt to manufacture some #WILDPITCHOFFENSE.

The inning could have ended there, but Tim Anderson restarted the party with a line drive to the right center gap that he hustled into a double, crashing into second ahead of Kevin Kiermaier’s on-target-but-off-balance throw. Brian Goodwin then muscled a blooper into shallow left to score Anderson, narrowing the gap at one.

After Glasnow left the game, the Rays’ supply of hard-throwing righties neutralized a White Sox offense without Yoán Moncada, while the Rays pressed the Sox and extended the margin. In the eighth, Garrett Crochet had to get past Randy Arozarena to start his second inning of work before he could feast on lefties, but Arozarena tagged a fastball out to right for a solo shot and a two-run lead.

Two defensive miscues led to another Rays run in the ninth. Goodwin misread Taylor Walls’ drive to the left-center gap, turning an out into a double. José Ruiz almost worked around it, but he dropped José Abreu’s flip on what would’ve been an inning-ending 3-1 putout by the slimmest of margins, and Walls scored from second as the ball rolled into the outfield grass.

The Sox’s only real threat came in the eighth when Anderson led off with an infield single off Diego Castillo, but he was picked off for no good reason. Rays relievers retired 12 of the last 13 they faced, but still faced the minimum over that stretch.

Bullet points:

*The 3-7 spots in the White Sox lineup went 0-for-18 with one walk and eight strikeouts.

*The Sox played strong defense before the ninth. Goodwin robbed Arozarena of at least one base with a diving catch in center, and Mendick turned an impressive 4-3 double play on Walls in the fifth.

*Although García didn’t keep his glove down on a grounder to the left side. It was scored an infield single.

Record: 41-25 | Box score | Statcast

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Shingos Cheeseburgers

When the recent AAA call up that was signed a month ago gets pitched around in order to face the DH it might be time to reconsider the lineup.

Mercedes wRC+ vs RHP since May 1 is 26. That’s not gonna work. (Vaughn at a 34 isn’t great either).

Greg Nix

To be fair, it’s hard to draw a lineup when you only have two good hitters to work with.

digger0910

Grandal, Anderson, Moncada, Abreu. Which two of them are bad? I’m v frustrated too but cmon.

soxygen

Moncada was not available yesterday due to illness. And I think no matter how much any fan likes Grandal, it’s easy to see how someone could view him as not a particularly good hitter. He draws a lot of walks, hits home runs, and he is looking better as of late…but he is still batting .154.

As Cirensica

And I think no matter how much any fan likes Grandal, it’s easy to see how someone could view him as not a particularly good hitter.

Grandal is a particularly good hitter

Willardmarshall

2021: when every day is getaway day….

Soxfan2

With Eloy, Robert and Madrigal out, we cannot afford to hide anymore players. We need to strongly consider platooning every position that can give us a slight advantage.

At the very least, Collins or Lamb need to be DHing against Righties. I’d even consider having Lamb in LF and Collins at DH against Righties.

calcetinesblancos

What? Play both Lamb and Collins AT THE SAME TIME? Seriously though, if Uncle Tony did that I might pass out from shock.

Maybe its a psychological thing there? I remember Ozzie Guillen once mentioning that TLR constructed lineups with an eye to protecting Ozzie’s BA as a rookie to keep his confidence up. Perhaps with Yermin it’s the exact opposite since he’s such a big confident personality he would actually react negatively to being benched or batted lower in the order, TLR is showing him by placing him in the heart of the order, he still has the confidence of the manager. We keep hearing about Yermin’s desire to put the team on his back, be “The guy” and TLR is putting him in positions to do just that.

Or it’s just that TLR doesn’t really have any real available options with Moncada out.

Brett R. Bobysud

I hope Glasnow isn’t out for an extended period.

Brett R. Bobysud

Josh posted some stats since May 1 and in addition to Mercedes, Eaton has really struggled.

I wonder if his struggles makes acquiring a guy like Frazier more attractive to them since he can play two positions that can be improved (2B and RF). Maybe Eaton’s struggles makes them more willing to pay a higher price of a guy like Frazier.

As far as DH goes, I think they’re hoping that they can get enough production around that spot by the time Eloy is hopefully ready to return later on in the season. I know they don’t want to send Yermin down, but if he doesn’t adjust, I don’t think it would be harsh to send him down and bring up a guy like Sheets and see what he’s got.

knoxfire30

Eaton has remained hidden a bit with the injuries and roster flux… but he is a problem… and its a pure own goal by the sox this off season who could have spent similar dollars on Schwarber or Pederson, or spent a little more for say a Brantley and gotten better results.

Eaton may be a weak link that the sox can upgrade regardless of Eloy or Robert’s status.
Should be some outfield options available on the market.

soxygen

I agree that there should be some available, but…are
There players available who are an upgrade that the team can afford in terms of prospects/farm depth or that the front office will be willing to pay? Our easiest path to fielding a cromulent outfield was either of the past two free agency periods – not sure we have what it takes to get something done that won’t just feel like a minor upgrade on the margins.

Last edited 2 years ago by soxygen
knoxfire30

Yea the sox are handicapped they didn’t want to be players for the top tier free agents and now they dont have the prospects for the top tier trade targets, hard to envision them making a viable offer for a winker, castellanos, marte type without hurting their 26 man roster so the next wave of targets is probably much more likely

burning-phoneix

and its a pure own goal by the sox this off season who could have spent similar dollars on Schwarber or Pederson

Eaton and Pederson both have the same fWAR (0.5) and nearly the same rWAR (0.2 Joc 0.0 Eaton) Schwarber is a bit better at 0.8 or 0.9 but he’s limited to playing LF only. They’re all equally not good choices.

You’d get similar ,or possibly better, production by simply playing Jake Lamb in the outfield every day.

texag10

Also, we already know that we tried to spend more on Joc and he said no. Saying the Sox chose Eaton over Joc is just plain dumb.

knoxfire30

He said no early in the off season then took the same deal, not knowing the market is dumb, sox had to pencil in adam eaton and it was a mistake

knoxfire30

OPS Pederson 762
OPS Schwarber 784
OPS Brantley 879
OPS EAton 641

And eaton looks dead trying to run so who do you think is gonna be the better bet for the rest of the season as well?

burning-phoneix

All but Brantley aren’t that good. Eaton plays better defense than all of them except Brantley as well. Stupid to compare Brantley there when he has twice the AAV of the rest as well.

Trading for a 2 WAR player to replace a 1.5 WAR player is dumb. Just play Jake Lamb in the outfield. He hits better than Pederson or Schwarber and defends just as badly.

knoxfire30

If you think the sox are better built with a 640 ops defensive right fielder as oppose to a 750-800 ops right fielder who you simply can plug engel or hamilton in for late in a tight game we just philosophically disagree on how to build a team.

burning-phoneix

If you think the sox are better built with a 640 ops defensive right fielder as oppose to a 750-800 ops right fielder 

OPS isn’t the be-all-end-all of discussing a player. Schwarber is a Left Fielder. Pederson has been converted to a permanent Left Fielder as well with the Cubs. Eaton is better defensively than both and that’s where most of his value comes from.

They’re all subpar choices to fill the RF slot. There’s no need to trade for Joc or Schwarber or to sign them for whatever money they wanted. Jake Lamb is on 1 million per contract and he provides similar value to both of them.

knoxfire30

specific to the whitesox though, do you think it is more valuable to have a power hitting above league average offensive player in rf given they have good defensive outfielders who can fill in late in games

or

do you want the better defender who hits as well as some pitchers because the all around game they offer produces a similar war value

I dont think jake lamb magically figured it out but if he did that definitely solves some of the problem and he probably starts taking a lot of at bats from eaton in the near future

texag10

So you want to reduce the quality of our outfield defense on a team where 80% of our starting rotation are flyball pitchers? I can’t see how that could possibly go wrong.

knoxfire30

sox staff as a whole has recorded 662 k’s 472 ground outs and 539 fly outs

I wouldnt deem them a fly ball staff. The sox are blessed with numerous really good CF options defensively and bench players who can defend the corner OF spots well too. Lets get a bat in the lineup for the first 6 or 7 innings of a game.

jhomeslice

Peralta is one possibility, and there was an article on nbcsports linking the Sox and Dbacks in trade talks. He’s not an exciting candidate, and will be 34 soon, but has a .750 OPS against righties. Because of his age and the fact that he is having a mediocre season, I’m sure they could get him without dealing much. Maybe 1 top 10 prospect and a couple lower tier ones. The Sox don’t have any can’t-miss prospects at this point, so it is unlikely they are going to wind up regretting a trade.

Lamb has decent numbers but a small sample size. Aside from this year he hasn’t had an OPS over .700 since 2017. He is 0 for his last 12, and I just don’t think realistic to expect much from him if he was given a lot of at bats. I think he is a hack, basically. And this is his first year playing outfield. Peralta has much better upside and a much higher floor, better history, better defender. Almost certainly would be much better than Lamb.

knoxfire30

Ive mentioned Peralta multiple times I think thats a very viable option, he could get a jolt being moved to a contender, and has a solid track record plus with his 7 mil next year he wont require much back in terms of prospects which helps the sox a lot as well.

jhomeslice

I’m not excited about Peralta but beggars can’t be choosers. Literally anybody would be better than Eaton. I doubt they have the prospects to get Castellanos or someone really good, but you never know. A team like the Reds might wind up settling for a lot less than you might think just to make sure they get something for him. I think it is a good bet the Sox will do something. With the strong possibility next offseason of losing Lynn, Rodon, or both, I think they cannot afford to be passive this year.

Right Size Wrong Shape

If the Sox are willing to take on some money (I know, I know), they could probably have Charlie Blackmon without giving up much in the way of prospects.

As Cirensica

Hell no…Another 34 aging fading star? That’s precisely why we have this discussion about Eaton. I rather we play Hamilton.

Right Size Wrong Shape

Depending on how much of the freight the Rockies are willing to pay I’d be interested. He’s way better than Hamilton.

joewho112

I think Blackmon has a $20M player option for next year and another $10M player option the year after which means the Rockies need to pay another team to haul him away

jhomeslice

Blackmon plays in Colorado. All of those guys have massively inflated numbers. Even Arenando who had an OPS over .900 for 5 straight seasons, is well below .900 with the Cardinals. Blackmon isn’t even doing that well in Colorado this year… huge pass.

dwjm3

Adam Frazier hasn’t appeared in right field for the Pirates a single time in the last two years. He has played left field for them four times this year. He is not a solution for right field. He isn’t a player you simply just plug and play anywhere.

The organization should be seeking a legit right fielder.

texag10

Ok, but who? I doubt the Cubs are trading Joc. Gallo doesn’t really solve our issues against righties. I don’t think we can outbid people for K Marte. Haniger is most likely going nowhere. Starling Marte is interesting but is he available and can we afford him? Schwarber shouldn’t be playing RF.

Yes, we need to improve in RF but there aren’t that many realistic options that are “true right fielders”.

dwjm3

Has Seattle signaled they aren’t moving Haniger? I mean he is a free agent after next year and I’m not sure they will be ready to contend by then.

texag10

Haniger has been talked about the same way we talked about Abreu (leadership, professionalism, etc). Which is weird since Kyle Seager is also on that team. It sounds like they aren’t planning on letting him leave as a FA.

jhomeslice

Peralta is one possibility per my other post. Was knox suggestion so I am not stealing credit! Not an exciting candidate but would be an improvement, and unlikely to cost much since he will be 34. Has played enough RF in his career that I’m sure they could get by with him out there. The upgrade in hitting compared to Eaton would more than offeset any defensive deficit.

texag10

Peralta hasn’t played RF since 2018. This year he has been pretty dang bad playing LF and he’s not exactly good offensively. We maybe gain 3 runs offensively but we lose 6 runs defensively (at best) swapping Peralta for Eaton. Peralta also makes more than Eaton (300K). There is no reason to actually trade for Peralta unless Eaton plows through bedrock offensively.

jhomeslice

If this team falls short, it will be because they don’t score enough runs, against RHP specifically. I think you greatly minimize and underestimate how bad Eaton really is. I would not be surprised if he is out of baseball in 2 years. Trades aside, there is no reason he should be playing over Engel, even against righties. Watching Mazara all last year when Engel was better all along was brutal, they don’t need to do the exact same thing with Eaton. At least give Engel a chance to play every day for a couple weeks or more and see if he is an improvement over Eaton. Very likely that he would be, with the bar so low. He has more than earned a chance.

knoxfire30

Peralta’s hard hit rates are up from last year, and his babip is down 60 points… I think he could bounce back in the 2nd half, I dont think eaton will.

Its really hard to find a high end player that the sox can acquire without using kopech, vaughn, crochet …

I dont think the burger, rutherford, sheets, stiever types are gonna yield back much of anything on the trade market

Thompson, Dalquiest, and Kelley are off to slow starts…

And I also dont envision Jerry opening his wallet to more or less buy a player….

texag10

Peralta’s Hard Hit % is 38.8 this year. Eaton’s is 37%. Peralta is also some how outperforming his expected numbers in a year when everyone else is underperforming. Eaton is not a good RF but trading for Peralta is, at best, a lateral move and won’t move the needle as much as you seem to think it will while also costing us defensively (Peralta rates as a worse LF than Vaughn this year).

knoxfire30

Eaton got to hit a lot behind TA and in front of moncada and abreu… no idea how protected peralta has been but he also carries good splits vs RH pitching its an idea obviously not a perfect solution….

Say peralta isnt the answer, who is…. you have an owner who wont spend, no real top tier prospects to trade…. so dear mystery team here are some 4A bums, give us a good player and please kick in some salary too.

jhomeslice

Yeah, I mean I don’t care what stats anybody is using to defend Eaton, he’s terrible overall. He’s not their lone weak link, but he is the most hopeless and should be easiest to replace. Hopefully they finally give Engel a chance to see what he can do against RHP. He has only started against lefties since he came back, which is just idiotic, given that his “lefty/righty” platoon is Eaton who cannot hit anybody. Engel homered off a righty reliever already, that’s enough by itself to justify giving him a shot. He might be better that what they can get in a trade, and they had better find out soon rather than drive fans nuts watching Eaton needlessly.

texag10

You’re right, we have an owner that won’t spend unless you give him a really good reason to. Peralta costs more than Eaton the rest of the season and is a little better offensively and worse defensively. If the plan is to punt defense in RF, Josh Harrison is much more versatile, better offensively, and cheaper.

jhomeslice

Of course Jerry is cheap, but there is a lot of uncertainty removed from last winter. Fans back in stadiums at full capacity, nobody knew if or when that would happen. Stock market at all time highs, realistically JR probably has more money than he has ever had in his life. Cheap as he is, I’m sure a prorated salary of someone like Peralta would hardly be an issue. I hope they can land somebody better, but he would still be an improvement. Eaton has a .560 OPS since the start of May, and has been even worse in June. They almost have to get somebody. If they just sit him for Engel against righties for now, it would be a step in the right direction. Maybe what they need can come from Engel and Goodwin, then Eloy, and eventually Robert.

mrridgman

Unfortunately he’s cleared the permafrost and is heading downward. Maybe just a slump, but my eyes don’t see anything that says this is an aberration; his last two hits were a slow infield bouncer and a mishandled bunt, and he’s slow in the field.

As Cirensica

The best news yesterday was Eloy being cleared to resume baseball activities which can put his timeline to return to the Majors within a MONTH! I wouldn’t be surprised if the FO decides to be careful with Eloy by inserting him in the line up as a DH (Yermin has about a month to rekindle the spark of hitting).

texag10

That’s not my understanding. From everything I’ve read, he’ll be hopefully ready to start a rehab assignment in a month and Hahn is already on record as saying it will be an extended rehab assignment so its more like 6 weeks away at the most optimistic.

jhomeslice

Was still great news, but I think early to mid August is a realistic timeframe for actual return to the Sox. Will be a month before he even plays a game on a rehab assignment.

jhomeslice

Mercedes-Eaton-Vaughn 0 for 10 with 5 K’s. That isn’t just one game, but typifies their season. There is no reason at all that Eaton should be in their starting lineup. Enough is enough. Vaughn and Mercedes are both first year players that at least have a chance of coming out of it. Eaton has no potential in that way. Play some combination of Engel and Goodwin. Both Vaughn and Mercedes need to do better, and neither looks like they should be playing in the postseason vs righties without a lot of improvement.

Maybe Eloy and Robert will come back and make their vulnerability against right handed pitchers irrelevant. Otherwise this is a team set up to fail in October, with a record inflated by being 20-3 against the dregs of the AL, and that has a losing record against 3 potential playoff opponents. They can hide their weaknesses against bad teams, but not good ones. They probably need to deal for a legit outfielder that can hit righties, and should be able to get one without trading off their MLB roster. Peralta one possibility who might be pretty cheap. Get one, put Eaton on waivers, and I think they will improve their record against better teams.

As Cirensica

Vaugnh baffles me a bit. I think he deserves extra patience.

texag10

I was looking at this the other day and I’m kind of baffled how he has such a high Hard Hit % and Barrel % but his expected BA and SLG are so relatively low.

mrridgman

This is where the non-use of Collins in 2019-20 bites the Sox in the ass. He may be a productive dh vs. righties when not catching, but nobody has any idea given the lack of ABs on any regular basis. I wouldn’t mind him dhing over Mercedes vs. some righties, but it’s harder to experiment during a pennant race.

calcetinesblancos

I guarantee he would still give a quality AB, something we are not seeing from Mercedes currently.

calcetinesblancos

At this point I’m seriously convinced that LaRussa uses a dart board to make the lineups.

Malkatraz

I really don’t like TLR…

but he’s in a tight spot with this roster.

calcetinesblancos

There are lots of ways you could have gone with the batting order, but Eaton playing really just made zero sense.