Rebuilding White Sox are showing a little progress
Trivia time: When is the last time the major league leader in ERA had fewer wins than the guy who finished last?
The answer is coming up in a few paragraphs, but the question is relevant because it could happen again this year. Lucas Giolito of the Chicago White Sox, currently bringing up the rear among pitchers who qualify for the ERA title, notched his 10th victory of the season Saturday night, which is two more than major league ERA leader Jacob deGrom has.
DeGrom’s plight has been well documented. Pitching for the woeful Mets, he’s 8-8 with a 1.71 ERA. Giolito is 10-9 with a 5.85 ERA. It’s a stark example of why a pitcher’s won-lost record can be deceiving, but Giolito’s progress is worth watching over the final few weeks of the season.
The White Sox are 18-17 since the All-Star break and showing signs that their rebuild is heading in the right direction.
Left-hander Carlos Rodon has a 2.71 ERA in 13 starts this year, and highly touted prospect Michael Kopech is in the majors now — he earned his first career victory Sunday. If Giolito, a first-round draft pick by the Nationals in 2012, starts performing better, then Chicago’s rotation could look even stronger going forward.
Giolito had 63 strikeouts and 60 walks before the AllStar break. Since then, that ratio has improved to 40-to-15.
Meanwhile, down in the minors, the White Sox have one of the game’s top prospects just waiting to be unleashed. Outfielder Eloy Jimenez is hitting .364 for Triple-A Charlotte.
As for the answer to that trivia question: In 1992, Bill Swift of the Giants led the majors with a 2.08 ERA and went 10-4. Scott Sanderson finished with a 4.93 ERA, the highest among qualifying pitchers, but he went 12-11 for the Yankees. In 2004, there was a tie in wins between ERA leader Jake Peavy (15-6, 2.27) of the Padres and last-place finisher Shawn Estes (15-8, 5.84) of the Rockies. LONG WAY BACK >> Since divisional play began in 1969, the furthest any team has finished out of first place is 52 games, a mark set by the 1998 Florida Marlins in the NL East. (That was a dreary year for baseball in the Sunshine State. Tampa Bay finished 51 games behind the Yankees in the AL East.)
This season’s Baltimore Orioles could end up a lot worse than that. They’re already 52 games behind first-place Boston in the AL East, and there’s still plenty of time to sink lower. The Orioles are on pace for 116 losses, and their schedule down the stretch isn’t likely to ease up. Their final 10 games at the end of September are against the Yankees, Red Sox and Astros. MARINERS’ GONZALES GOES ON DL >> The Seattle Mariners placed left-handed starter Marco Gonzales on the 10-day disabled list with a strained neck muscle. Gonzales is the second starter in Seattle’s rotation currently on the disabled list, although lefty James Paxton is expected to return sometime during a four-game series with Oakland this weekend. TULOWITZKI OPTIMISTIC >> Troy Tulowitzki said he wants to regain his job as everyday shortstop for the Toronto Blue Jays next season, even though the five-time All-Star has not played in more than a year.
Tulowitzki, who had surgery to remove bone spurs from both heels in early April, was ruled out for the season Saturday. He expects to be healthy in time for spring training.
“It’s been a tough year to say the least,” Tulowitzki said. “I went out to Florida, was out there on those back fields almost every day trying to go and it just didn’t respond the way I needed to come back and play every day.”
HELP ON THE WAY >> The surging New York Yankees appear to have help on the way.
All-Star slugger Aaron Judge participated in baserunning and fielding drills for about a half hour at Yankee Stadium under the watchful eye of team staff, and Gary Sanchez and Didi Gregorius also made progress in their recoveries from injuries for New York, which is a season-best 36 games over .500.
“Just gradually starting to introduce some baseball-type activities,” Manager Aaron Boone said of Judge. “It feels like, hopefully, he’s improving a little bit.”
The towering right fielder has not swung a bat since July 26, the night he fractured his right wrist after being drilled by Kansas City’s Jakob Junis. Judge is hitting .285 with 26 home runs and 61 RBIs.
“We just haven’t gone to the next level of really starting to swing the bat yet,” Boone said. WE MEET AGAIN >> NL Cy Young Award candidates Max Scherzer and Aaron Nola share the mound today for the second time in five days, this time at Nola’s home park in Philadelphia. Nola (15-3, 2.13) got the better of Scherzer (16-6, 2.13) and the Nationals on Thursday in Washington, pitching eight innings with nine strikeouts in a 2-0 victory. Scherzer held the Phillies to two runs over seven innings, taking his first loss since July 2.