For a while there, the White Sox had not one but two Cy Young Award candidates in Chris Sale and Jose Quintana. “That’s a big deal for him to come back and get a start again and come back healthy from that surgery”.
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Chicago’s lone series loss this month came at home against the Royals from September 9-11, and the team has dropped 13 of 18 against the defending champs this season.TV: 2:15 p.m. ET, CSN Chicago, FSN Kansas CityPITCHING MATCHUP: White Sox LH Carlos Rodon (7-9, 4.04 ERA) vs. Royals RH Yordano Ventura (10-11, 4.42) Rodon had a string of seven straight quality starts come to an end when he was ripped for six runs on nine hits and three walks in five innings by Cleveland on Wednesday.
1-6 in his previous 11 starts, limited the Royals to four runs, three earned, while striking out 10 and walking one.
“Guys were just getting on the ball”, Frazier said of Quintana. “I knew if everything went as it should, there would be the possibility I would have the opportunity to pitch this year”. Overall, he’s walking about as many batters per nine innings as he did during his 6.2 fWAR, Cy Young-contending 2015 season, but his strikeouts have plummeted from last year’s career-best mark of 11.82 K/9 – a number that could be hard to rectify over his last three starts of 2016.
Of the 62 managers with at least 1,000 wins, Yost is one of 13 with a sub-.500 record.
“Sanchez has been up and down this year and there have been times when he hasn’t clicked”, White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. He just wasn’t locating the way he usually does. Jeff Montgomery played for another team and Monty was the same way; he drilled people left and right and most of us were smart enough to be scared of him – which is just what Monty wanted.
Todd Frazier hit his 37th home run of the year for Chicago.
“I threw my arms up in the air”, Sale said when Sanchez homered. “Always got to round the numbers up”.
TIGERS 9, INDIANS 5: Ian Kinsler got his helmet knocked off by a pitch from Trevor Bauer, yelled at the Cleveland right-hander and later was ejected as the Detroit Tigers beat the Indians 9-5 in a testy game. “I was fighting too much with my delivery, especially the first couple innings, and I was behind the counts”. Vargas lasted 3.0 innings, allowing 2 hits, 1 walk, and 1 earned run with 1 strikeout.
Morales got off to a slow start this season, hitting below.200 into June, but heated up as the summer went on. He struck out eight and gave up three runs. Orlando reached base four times – two doubles, a walk and hit by pitch – and scored three runs. He’s now up to.261 with 38 home runs and 85 RBI. “They scored the one run off him, but they didn’t square anything up – a ball off the end of the bat, then the little squibbler that Esky tried to cut the lead run down and bang-bang missed it and then like a three or four hopper up the middle, kept the ball down, changed speeds really well”.
Sale hit his stride during the second half of the year, where he’s now the second-most valuable pitcher behind 20-game victor Rick Porcello, touting 2.2 fWAR since the All-Star break and a sub-3.00 ERA and FIP of 2.47 and 2.96, respectively.
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ORIOLES 2, RAYS 1: Mark Trumbo hit his major league-leading 43rd home run to break an eighth-inning tie and carry the Baltimore Orioles past the Tampa Bay Rays.
