Followed-from-work recap. As always, fill in details you think I may have missed:
*Lucas Giolito and Carlos Martinez were tangled in a scoreless pitching duel through 5 ½ innings, which ended when the latter homered off the former. The league now knows that Martinez has the strength to crush a 92-mph fastball out to left center.
*Until that fateful swing, Giolito was in top form, especially with his slider. He had racked up seven strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings, all swinging, and without any help from the guys behind the plate.
*After Martinez’s homer, not so much. Giolito issued his first two walks of the game to the next two batters after Martinez before closing out the sixth, and gave up three well-hit balls to start the seventh. The second of those was a single, and the third was a two-run homer by Dexter Fowler that gave St. Louis a 3-0 lead.
*The White Sox offense finally broke through against Martinez afterward, but they weren’t ever able to fully close the gap. Tim Anderson singled to lead off the eighth, stole second, then scored when Yolmer Sanchez muscled a single to left off reliever Dominic Leone. Moncada advanced to third on the play, but he had to be replaced by Trayce Thompson after reaggravating his left hamstring. Thompson scored on a sac fly by Jose Abreu.
*Bud Norris came in to strike out Nicky Delmonico, then retired the side in order in the ninth for the four-out save.
*Sanchez committed his third error of the season, throwing wide of first base after barehanding a Yadier Molina chopper. It was ruled a single and an error because Molina took second, but Molina retired himself by attempting to steal third.
*Sanchez’s hit was the Sox’ only one in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position. The Cardinals were only 0-for-1 in that department, but homers helped.
*Martinez induced a pair of double plays from Daniel Palka, who went 0-for-4.
*The White Sox also turned two twice, including a 9-5-3 double play started by Thompson in left when Tommy Pham forgot how many outs there were on a routine fly to left field in the eighth.
Record: 8-20 | Box score
