CLEVELAND — The White Sox needed a regular baseball game Saturday night. They needed a starting pitcher to do what a starting pitcher is supposed to do: stay in the game longer than a few innings. They didn’t need an opener, a made-up role that precedes the starting pitcher, who then becomes what’s known as a “bulk” reliever.
The Sox have used both all season, bastardizing the record books and making it so anyone can pitch at any time in a game. It offends baseball purists and throws the natural order of the game out of whack.
But after a regular season full of pitching oddities and six postseason games of chaos, the Sox tasked right-hander Sean Burke, their best starting pitcher in the regular season, to be that again in Game 5 of the American League Division Series against the Guardians.
And he delivered from the start, throwing three perfect innings with two strikeouts. Maybe the Sox finally would have that elusive regular baseball game and the bullpen phone could get a well-deserved break.
In the fourth, though, Burke ran into trouble. After Steven Kwan’s leadoff single, Jose Ramirez continued his torrid stretch with a two-run homer just over the right-field wall. The ball traveled only 348 feet and, according to Statcast, wouldn’t have been a homer in 20 of 30 ballparks.
But this ballpark is the only one that mattered, and that homer accounted for the only scoring in the Guardians’ 2-0 victory, which sent them to the American League Championship Series against the Rays and the Sox to the ignominy of having blown a 2-0 series lead.
Worse yet, the pitch wasn’t even a mistake. Burke threw a knuckle curveball that Ramirez golfed out of the park. It was so low, it had no business being hit.
“If I could’ve walked up there and placed the pitch where I wanted it, I don’t think I would’ve changed where I threw it,” Burke said. “He’s a really good player. He’s probably headed to the Hall of Fame someday. It was a good swing by him. As frustrating as it is, you’ve got to tip your cap to him.”
“Burke knows that was a good pitch, and obviously a better swing by Ramirez,” manager Will Venable said. “That’s what he does. He does special things, especially in these big moments.
“Sean was great. We talked about how confident we were in him being the guy to take the ball and that he was every bit as advertised. He really stepped up and gave us a chance.”
Burke lasted five innings, not ideal for a starter, but certainly better than the Sox got consistently from their staff this season. Sox general manager Chris Getz knows that the way the team deployed its pitchers was suboptimal.
“We weren’t trying to create the wheel; we were trying to optimize the group that we had,” Getz said during the Sox’ celebration in Houston last week. “So much of our game is reliant on starting pitching. We would’ve liked to do that, but if we were trying to win games, we had to lean on the strengths of the club, and we’ve done that.”
Indeed they have, though it has put them in a more and more precarious position with each passing playoff game. The pitching staff has been huffing and puffing, but the only house getting blown in lately has been the Sox’ house. They used seven pitches in consecutive losses at Rate Field, sending the series back to Progressive Field.
For the Sox to take the next step, they must address their starting pitching. It sounds old-school, but teams still need at least three starters to navigate the postseason. The Sox had one, Burke, and he didn’t even start in the division series until Game 5. He threw 5 ⅓ innings of relief in Game 2, the longest a Sox pitcher has lasted this postseason.
“Obviously, we’ve been creative and have done different things to do whatever it takes to find the path to victory,” manager Will Venable said during the series. “I think whether it’s in the regular season or in the playoffs, teams do what they have to do to figure things out. Some teams use traditional starters and have guys going seven innings. Some teams are mixing and matching and doing different things.”
Like Getz, Venable knows the Sox’ success with “mixing and matching” won’t change how the team or major-league baseball views starting pitching. It’s still a necessity. Yes, postseason baseball is different, but starting pitching is the same no matter what time of year it is. In the end, the Sox didn’t have enough of it.