Went to the game today

[Lake Shore Drive]

Nothing quite like going to a ballgame that ends in a tie. But it was still fun and if a game can end in a tie, yet still be dramatic, today's was it. Yermin Mercedes takes a two out, two strike pitch deeeeeeep to tie it in the bottom of the 9th. Camelback Ranch is a really nice ballpark and the field is in top notch condition. Looks like about 5k or so attended the game. Now for the the good and the bad - think I'll start with the bad:

Bad: Dylan Cease. Easily his worst start of the Spring. Had a lot of trouble getting the ball over the plate. What makes it disappointing is he just came off a solid performance in his previous outing.
Bad: Sox batters taking 1st pitch strikes. I swear out of the 27 outs tossed by the Cincy pitchers, all but a few were first pitch strikes, and only a handful of those were swinging strikes.
Bad: Timmay with a fielding error. Wasn't costly, but it was a gimme grounder that he muffed.
Bad: Passed ball by McCann, which helped stretch the two run inning for the Reds.

Good: Our pen was lights out, 6 pitchers totaled 6 innings, shutting down the Reds and limiting them to just two hits (one of them a cheap infield hit) and two BBs with 7 Ks over that span.
Good: Grandal went 2-3 with a run scoring double and a solo jack. And his lone out was a deep flyball.
Good: Mazara went 1-3, driving in Grandal - even his two outs were hard hit.
Good: Mercedes - how can we leave him out after that dramatic game-tying dinger.

All in all, a fun time was had. Tomorrow is supposed to be the debut of Michael Kopech, but it looks like a storm is coming, so his start may be delayed.

 

[Mingo]

Bad: Sox batters taking 1st pitch strikes. I swear out of the 27 outs tossed by the Cincy pitchers, all but a few were first pitch strikes, and only a handful of those were swinging strikes.

Changing hitting coaches apparently hasn't fixed this problem - which is one of my pet peeves about the Sox. Sox hitters ought to go to the plate looking for a 1st pitch strike - because that is the book on them.

 

[Mingo]

If you haven't been - Camelback Ranch is White Sox Disneyland. The ballpark is beautiful -and you can walk around all kinds of places to watch guys pitch - take grounders - batting practice etc. You can even stand by the fence and shout greetings to the players as they come out of the locker room. Every Sox fan should go once to Glendale - at least. I'm ready to go back.