Wait, you don’t know what I’m talking about?
Well, MLB returned to the theoretical on Monday, as the Rockies and White Sox played one of those tree-falls-in-the-forest games, with no video or audio record of it left behind. Statcast is a component of every Spring Training game this season, which is great … but we still live in a world where not all, not even close to every, White Sox game is available to watch. Hard to get hyped for the season when about a third of games are televised, and not even 100% of them ramping up to the regular season (say, every game after St. Patrick’s Day) are so covered.
The White Sox lost, today, 5-4, on a titanic blast from Zac Veen with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. White Sox reliever Shane Murphy was just two strikes from sending the game to extras (or, calling it a “tie”) but dropped a cutter a bit too hittable to Veen, who cleared the fence by 50 feet with a no-doubter:
Sorry friends, a Statcast visualization is the best we can do here for you today.
Murphy’s toss wasn’t crushingly bad; unfortunately his goal of staying away from Veen and making him chase out of zone failed, and his cutter crossed the heart of the plate and set the purple-haired left fielder to drooling. When your off-speed is truly out-of-gas (84.6 mph), barrels come easy: Veen’s clout was by far the hardest-hit ball of the day, at 113.3 mph.
Don’t let the close game fool you. The White Sox were pretty bad, choosing a good time to minimize the exposure of being outclassed by the worst team in baseball. There were errors, wild pitching, and some horrid baserunning that helped the Good Guys snatch defeat from victory. It’s only February 23, sure, but then again the numerous flubs weren’t only coming from players with three digits on their uniforms.
Presumptive Opening Day starter Shane Smith got things off to a rocky start, drilling Brenton Doyle with his third pitch of the game, and was knocked from of the box with two outs. The righty yielded two runs on his watch, the big blow a golfed RBI double by Willi Castro:
After Smith hit a second batter in the inning and departed for reliever Jacob Heatherly, it was Kyle Teel’s heel turn: Yet another error from the young catcher, as his attempt to nail Troy Johnston (Smith’s second HBP victim of the frame) stealing second led to Castro trotting home from second base.
There is so much to love about Teel. I’m just not sure his catching is one of them.
The White Sox, from this 3-0 hole, chipped away before finally tying the game, 4-4, in the eighth. But even in that triumph came tragedy: Mario Camilletti was thrown out at home trying to score from second on a Ryan Breaux double to left in the seventh, killing a rally with the White Sox still down, 4-3. And even the game-tying play one frame later came out of Bizarro world, as Tristan Peters sac-flied into a double play with Caden Connor trying to advance to second base as Matt Hogan crossed home.
From there, it was a 1-2-3 ninth for the White Sox, followed by a 1-2-BOOM sayonara homer from Veen.