The White Sox won their 4th straight game yesterday after beating the Minnesota Twins by a score of 3-2. Perhaps the most impressive fact about the win was the White Sox only had three hits, all of them coming from designated hitter Andrew Benintendi. The White Sox now have a 4.5-game lead over the Cleveland Guardians and a 8.5-game lead over the Twins.
Outside of this being an impressive game for Benintendi, the pitching staff stepped up in a big way as Erick Fedde delivered five solid innings. This was quite impressive from Fedde, as after the first two innings, it did not look like he would have a long outing.
After Fedde, Sean Newcomb came in strong for three scoreless innings. This extends his scoreless innings streak to 20.1, dating all the way back to late July. Aside from Grant Taylor, Newcomb has been the most impressive pitcher out of the White Sox bullpen. However, the White Sox need to keep him in the bullpen.
As many fans know, the White Sox have loved using an opener. In theory, this allows a reliever to get one or two scoreless innings before giving the bulk guy the reins to hopefully pitch most of the game. However, wasting an elite reliever like Newcomb in the first few innings, the lowest stakes innings of the game, can and has come back to bite them towards the end of the game.
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When you start the game with Newcomb and get a few scoreless innings out of him, then the bulk guy comes in and immediately gets bombed, it wastes Newcomb for another day when the game may be much closer. In a typical manner, if the bulk guy started the game and gave up 6 runs, Newcomb wouldn’t even sniff pitching in that game unless the Sox tied or took the lead. This wastes Newcomb for a high leverage situation in these must win games.
Yesterday was the perfect example of how to use Newcomb. Fedde was the bulk guy and had been used with an opener before. However, he started the game and gave the White Sox a chance to win the game. Then, Newcomb came in for three stellar innings, leaving it to the closer to finish off the game. This resulted in a huge win.
The White Sox are tired. They have had one off day in the last three weeks. Wasting high leverage relievers in the first inning is not a recipe for success as we head down the stretch. There is no reason Newcomb should be opening anymore this season and Jordan Hicks absolutely should not open this game today. Start your bulk guy and evaluate from there. If they want to give Trevor Richards, Tyler Davis, or Tyler Gilbert a start, that’s different because they likely won’t be pitching in a tie game in an important divisional game. Save your high leverage guys for the most important innings. It’s that simple.
We will see how today’s game goes and I hope that I’m proven wrong, but the White Sox need to start saving their most important arms for the most important innings, especially with how taxed the White Sox bullpen has been.
