White Sox Minor League Update: August 2, 2021

The rookie leagues struggle to find offense, but Elijah Tatís has a two-hit night and the DSL pitchers shined

Not a lot of runs were scored in the two rookie league games, and this one didn’t have any for the ACL White Sox. The offense could only muster four hits, and all of them were singles. Strangely enough, the best offensive player was Elijah Tatís, who had two of the four hits. Benyamín Bailey and Wilber Veras had the other two.

On the pitching side, it was not that great, either. Of the six pitchers in the game for the Sox, four of them allowed at least one run. Starter Ronaldo Guzman was only able to muster eight outs because he kept walking people. He had seven walks in total, and it really was a miracle only two runs scored while he was on the mound.

Because this is a pretty negative game overall, let’s just highlight the good from the pitching beyond the starter. Fraser (good show) Ellard, a 2021 eighth round draft pick, had a scoreless stint with a strikeout. After a couple guys that allowed some runs, Frander Veras came in for the final two outs of the game without allowing a run.

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Woof, the pitching in this one, on both sides, was fantastic. No earned runs were scored and the DSL Sox pitching actually kept a shutout through seven innings. The Sox only needed two pitchers in the masterful performance,

Guillermo Cuevas was on the bump to start the game. He fired five flippin’ fantastic (alliteration, nice) innings to lower his ERA to 0.56. He struck out seven over that span, too. Carlos Hinestroza came in next for the six-out save. His stuff was not as dominant, with just one strikeout, but he kept the DSL Dbacks at bay for his fourth save of the season.

As you could tell, the Sox only scored one run in large part because of errors; they only had three hits on the day from two players. Victor Quezada had one of those, including the lone run scored in the game. Randel Mondesi had the other two, in a 2-for-2 day where one of those hits was a double. That was it for offense. It was not much, but the White Sox got what they needed to win.