Sox Notes: More of the same for Keuchel, other injury stuff
Despite feeling better about the direction he's heading, it was more of the same from Dallas Keuchel on Wednesday night in Oakland.
Well, Cleveland lost again, so that’s good. The White Sox are now looking at a magic number of just 14 after the Twins topped Cleveland 3-0, but the White Sox couldn’t stay in the win column in Oakland as they dropped their contest with the A’s 5-1.
More of the same for Keuchel
Dallas Keuchel benefitted from some nifty fielding in the first inning but was snake-bitten by his Achilles heel this season once again in the second inning when Matt Chapman absolutely destroyed a changeup that Keuchel threw right down the pipe to the Oakland slugger.
It was an 80 MPH changeup that had little to no life on it, and Chapman promptly deposited into the seats in left field with ease.
Keuchel surrendered five runs on eight hits in his 5.2 innings of work on Wednesday night, but the White Sox offense was dormant, and Keuchel was saddled with yet another loss.
We’ve done the whole Keuchel’s not-so-great stats thing ad nausea as of late, so we’ll skip that and take a look at what Dallas Keuchel said about his performance in Wednesday night’s loss.
"I felt normal. I felt like this was a good one," Keuchel said, "but we've got five runs back on the board. It's not going right in any situation. There wasn't a ton of hard-hit balls tonight. They just seemed to find holes, and they did. ... Consistency was there tonight. I felt like myself."
Contrary to Keuchel’s opinion, there were, in fact, a bunch of hard-hit balls on Wednesday night with 10 balls in play registering at 90 MPH or greater off the bat.
Dallas seems to think he’s heading in a better direction, but I think the damage is done, and there’s very little chance — save for injury — that Keuchel can do anything to earn a playoff start over the course of his final four starts this month.
Is Tim Anderson getting closer?
Tim Anderson hasn’t played since August 28 with what’s been referred to as “soreness” in his legs. We don’t know what Anderson is dealing with specifically, and neither does he quite frankly, but — it’s apparently getting better, and that’s all that really matters.
"I don't know what it is, to be honest," Anderson said Wednesday in Oakland. "It's really just soreness. I know you're tired of hearing that, but you know, that's just what it is, really. I feel like it's going away. Hopefully, I can get back in there pretty soon.
"It kind of flared back up when we played against the Cubs. ... I was just sore every morning. But I feel good now. Every day has been getting better. Being able to move around a little bit more the way that I want to."
Anderson took batting practice on Wednesday in Oakland, but there’s still no timeline for his return to the field.
Frustrating indeed, but it’s better than this happened now than in October.
"It's a long season. You know things like this are going to happen," Anderson said. "Just continue to keep pushing and doing the hard work and keep getting better."
Lance Lynn is on the mend(ish)
Lynn, like Anderson, hasn’t pitched since August 28, but his timeline seems a lot clearer than Anderson’s at this point.
The veteran right-hander threw a bullpen on Tuesday in Oakland, and he’s scheduled to throw another one on Friday afternoon when the club returns to Chicago.
Lynn said that if he feels good after Friday’s bullpen that he’ll be ready to go wherever Tony La Russa eventually slots him into the rotation, which will likely be at some point during the Los Angeles series next week.
Play of the Day
In front of his fellow Cal-Berkely people on Cal-Berkely night at the Coliseum, Andrew Vaughn flashed the leather early to take away a hit from Starling Marte in the top of the first inning.
Featured Photo: NBC Sports Chicago