Thankfully, I had to work during this game, so I was spared the full brunt of a true fan-murderer. Here's the bullet-point recap:
*The White Sox have now lost all 10 series they've played against teams that aren't the Royals. Nate Jones blew the save and a chance to split by squandering a 5-2 lead before he'd even recorded two outs.
The Pirates attacked Jones early, tallying four runs on four hits over the span of just eight pitches. He gave a pair of singles before Corey Dickerson tapped out to third, but the Pirates responded by thumping Jones even harder. Elias Diaz sliced a ground-double just inside the chalk in the right-field corner to make it a 5-4 game, and Colin Moran pounced on a spinning 1-0 slider and sent it out to right to give the Pirates the lead.
*Reynaldo Lopez was denied his first win despite his best outing of the season. He pitched beautifully efficient baseball early, and limited the damage to a pair of solo homers later on. His final line: 7⅓ IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K. His velocity returned to the high-90s, and his slider was a weapon as well.
*The White Sox built their 4-0 lead with a pair of two-run homers. Tim Anderson golfed a 1-0 Trevor Williams slider out to left in the second inning, and Daniel Palka stayed on a first-pitch changeup and sent it in the same direction in the fourth.
*Jones' blown save was even more gutting because the Sox responsibly added what appeared to be an insurance run in the eighth. Jose Rondon and Welington Castillo hit back-to-back doubles to give the Sox that 5-2 lead.
*Hell, even the White Sox defense showed up, with Adam Engel making a sliding catch in center and Rondon making a diving stab and throw from his knees at second.
*Rondon entered as a replacement after Nicky Delmonico bruised his quadricep crashing into Josh Bell at first base, with Leury Garcia moving from second to left.
*Garcia then left because Rick Renteria benched him for a lack of hustle. Garcia tried to drag bunt his way on base, but he bunted it too hard and shot it to Bell. Garcia broke it down once it was apparent he wasn't going to win the foot race, and the benching looked unnecessary to me.
*Trayce Thompson took over there. Maybe Thompson should've played right, but I don't think he would've caught the slicing double, either.
*Palka had a big day, going 3-for-3 with his third homer and a couple of firsts: a walk and a stolen base.
*Jose Abreu was thrown out at home trying to score from second on Nicky Delmonico's flare that beat the shift without getting past Jordy Mercer at short. It wasn't a bad gamble with two outs, but Mercer wasn't caught off-guard, but instead made a strong throw home to get Abreu by 10 feet.
Record: 9-25 | Box score
