Is Mike Clevinger cursed? He sure pitched like he was. On Wednesday, a women from the crowd claimed she put a curse on the White Sox starter.
After 19 games the White Sox are still in searc of their first series win in 2023. This is the longest the franchise has gone without winning a series to start the season since 1977. Clevinger did not do them any favors.
The White Sox starter lasted just three innings after allowing three runs on six hits, two of them which left the yard, with a walk and a strikeout.
Clevinger threw just 46 of his 75 pitches for strikes. Of those strikes, only 23 four of those were whiffs on 37 swings, while the other nine were called strikes. His called strike and whiff percentage was just 17 percent which came in well below the MLB average of 29 percent per game.
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After home runs in each of the first two innings, Clevinger had a labor-intensive 44-pitch third inning in which he gave the Phillies back the lead. White Sox manager Pedro Grifol decided he had seen enough and gave Clevinger the quick hook.
“They definitely had a good gameplan,” Clevinger said after the game. “Some things didn’t go my way. Some things fell in the hole and extended the inning. But they were putting up a few good ABs.”
There was a woman in the crowd from Ohio who took responsibility for Clevinger’s bad start. She claims she cursed Mike Clevinger before the game.
The woman was sporting a Cincinnati Reds jacket and sitting in section 108. Before the game, she walked down to the White Sox dugout and sprinkled a random bag of powder over the top of the dugout.
In a video posted by @AmyHarber, you can see her spreading the power over the top of the dugout and saying, “Hey Olivia, this is for you…May his pitches not be good, may his cutters not cut, may his sliders not slide.”
As fate would have it, Trea Turner’s first home run as a member of the Phillies came off an 81 mph slider over the heart of the plate in the first inning.
The Olivia the woman is referring to is Olivia Finestead, the mother of one of Clevinger’s children. There has been plenty of animosity building toward Clevinger after the MLB was investigating him for domestic abuse during the offseason.
He then ruffled some more feathers by walking out to the song “Gold Digger” in his first start, then snapping at a reporter after the game who asked him about his questionable song choice.
The city of Chicago is all too familiar with curses, thanks to our friends from the North Side.
There is no telling for sure if the curse actually worked. Getting shelled was a staple of Clevinger’s in 2022 when he returned from Tommy John surgery and produced a 4.33 ERA.
Even in the two starts that he has pitched well, he was constantly working around traffic. In his first start, he walked three Astros, and in his third start, he walked five Orioles. All those walks will eventually catch up to you.
“It’s been some really trying times, but this resilience is where you build some character,” Clevinger said. “It’s the sentiment throughout the clubhouse with everyone, the passion we have in here to win and compete; it’s through the roof.”
White Sox fans will just have to wait and see how Clevinger performs in his next start to see if there is any merit to this curse.
