The White Sox had already had enough of agonizing late-inning losses that they expected a late-inning win with fortunes upside down.
Sure enough, her first launch is courtesy of Yasmani Grandal’s helmet. With runners in first and second place and one in ninth place, Cleveland’s first baseman Yu Chang bet on Nick Williams’ slowly evolving grounder. Instead of losing security first – because any subsequent runner doesn’t play a role in the ninth of a tie game with two outs – Chang went to the second base.
He made an accurate throw to second place by being online to get caught for the troop. The problem was, Grandal, who was walking after Yermín Mercedes’ one-off single, got in the way. The ball peeked from his helmet and rolled into the vacated shortstop position, and Nick Madrigal, who replaced Mercedes as the pinch runner, made the final 90 feet without a throw.
That Grandal was the player was particularly rewarding for two reasons. For one thing, he was almost at the end of such a turn in the top of the inning. He caught Roberto Perez’s foul tip for an inning end strikeout to strand the runner in second place, and when he got up to throw the ball up the hill, he dropped the ball on the purse. Referee Gabe Morales ruled that Grandal couldn’t catch the bad tip, which it couldn’t, but the verdict was unverifiable and Perez got another life. Fortunately, Codi Heuer blew another full-count fastball from him to question him.
The other part is that Grandal’s famous lack of foot speed actually benefited the Sox a lot. The game was moving slowly enough that most of the other runners would have started a slide into second place, which gave Chang’s throw plenty of room to find the shortstop. Grandal, the 448th fastest baseball player of the 2020 season, was still far from entering the slide that he was accidentally able to disrupt the line.
Either way, the White Sox are back to .500. At this point there isn’t much of a difference between 5-5 and 4-6, but it was a big game for a bullpen looking to live up to the hype.
Dallas Keuchel – starting for Carlos Rodón, who had a late scratch due to a stomach problem – drove through five innings on just 51 pitches. He had given Eddie Rosario a two-run homer on an unlucky sinker, but a three-run homer on Adam Eaton was responsible.
But just like his first two starts, his control began to loosen when he broke off his third set of 25 pitches. He encountered three Batters on the sixth and did not retire any of them. He walked two batters around a single one to load the bases for José Ramírez. Tony La Russa challenged Evan Marshall, and although Marshall couldn’t quite hold the lead, he was doing as well as anyone could reasonably expect. He knocked out Ramirez, gave Franmil Reyes a sack fly and got Rosario to align to the left, the game tied at 3.
Marshall also recorded the first of the seventh, which made it less of a crisis as Aaron Bummer was only able to withdraw the first of the three batters he faced. When Jordan Luplow killed the Left, La Russa switched to Heuer while Terry Francona stayed with Luplow, and Heuer got away with the K to end the threat.
La Russa then drove the rest of the way with Heuer because Heuer gave him no reason to change. He hit two in a 1-2-3 eighth, and while Josh Naylor Tomahawk hit a high fastball left for a double of two in the ninth, Heuer rallied to beat Perez twice. This year threw 23 of 32 parking spaces for strikes and got the well-deserved victory for relief.
The White Sox offensive had an opportunity to make it easier on the sixth against Cal Quantrill. Luis Robert walked away with a double, whereupon José Abreu left. The third Cuban in a row, Yoán Moncada, shot a single through the right side but Robert had to hold on to make sure Cesar Hernandez cleared in second place and so he only moved up to third place.
The Sox didn’t hit. Yermín Mercedes was locked in the perfect spot – high and tight in the strike zone – on a backup slider and Grandal jumped into a 3-6-1 double.
Fortunately, Eaton took advantage of the other Sox opportunity on the third. Williams and Danny Mendick walked ahead of Eaton to put two with one in the third. Eaton swung over a well-placed Triston McKenzie move for the first hit, but when McKenzie doubled up with a poorly localized move, Eaton didn’t miss it. He had enough loft on his liner to clear the wall for a triple shot, his third homer of the year.
Indents:
* The White Sox Defense showed up tonight and played flawless ball with Moncada, who made some tough games in third place.
* The offensive didn’t have a lot of great swings against McKenzie but they made him pitch a lot. Three walks, one HBP, and six strikes added up to 75 to four.
* Cleveland’s bullpen In the last 4 wurden innings only two strikeouts have been recorded, while the White Sox Auxiliary Corps has scored seven strikeouts over one less.
* Keuchel’s last line: 5 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K. It’s a bit disappointing on paper, but more impressive when you know it came at short notice.
Recording: 5-5 | Box Score | Statcast
