Carlos Rodon pitches well against Dodgers, collects second-career base hit, but it’s not enough

The Chicago White Sox are in the midst of a massive rebuilding effort that has seen them sell off anything of perceived short-term value for anything amounting to long-term value. They’re rolling out a bunch of no-names on a nightly basis and have the worst record in the American League.

But still the players actually on the team have got to play, and Carlos Rodon, who has never been a potential trade chip, has been very good lately. On Wednesday he threw more than seven innings of two-run ball on the road against the Dodgers. He also collected his second-career hit. He handed his team a 4-2 lead heading into the last couple of innings, and the team found a way to blow it dramatically, losing 5-4 on a Yasiel Puig double in the bottom of the ninth.

The details are not really important, I suppose, though they bother me personally, since I’m a White Sox fan. Hard part about rebuilding is reconciling the obvious logic of its necessity with the desire to see your team win, especially when someone you are very biased toward is involved.

Rodon was solid and deserved to add a win to his season line, and for a brief while there was happiness.

But it’s not surprising things quickly turned bad when the team went to its patchwork bullpen. This is life in rebuilding—Rodon is a young player who is already good and who could be great and he is going to be a part of the White Sox’s next contender; for now, he has to live with being in between.