Baseball is a funny sport.
Last season, Trevor Bauer had his way against the White Sox. In four starts Bauer only allowed six runs over 25 innings with 32 strikeouts to four walks. After an embarrassing weekend against Boston at home, Bauer was the last pitcher the White Sox wanted to see.
After Leury Garcia lead off the game with a single, Yoan Moncada blasted a two-run homer to start a hit party that lasted all night against Bauer as the White Sox crushed the Indians, 9-1.
Up 2-0 in the third inning, recently promoted Charlie Tilson made the most of his first at-bat in the majors this season with a single and would advance to third on Garcia’s second base hit of the night. Moncada barely missed hitting his second home run of the night when his fly ball to center fell short of the wall. Tilson scored on the sacrifice fly, and the Sox were up 3-0.
Then leading off the fourth inning, James McCann crushed Bauer’s hanging slider to deep left field for his fourth home run of the season to make it 4-0. If it weren’t for two bad baserunning decisions, the fifth inning could have been a lot worse for Bauer. Tilson doubled to center field as he almost took Bauer deep and would advance to third on Garcia’s third single of the night.
Setting the table for Moncada who hit a laser of a line drive to right field that fell short of another home run as it bounced off the wall. Tilson easily scored, but because Garcia held up for a possible opportunity to tag up if the ball was caught got a slow jump. Third base coach Nick Capra waved Garcia home, but he was dead to rights at the plate as Francisco Lindor quickly threw him out.
Jose Abreu fouled out in foul territory, but it appeared that Moncada thought there were two outs because he was seen rounding third. Jose Ramirez made the easy catch and completed the double play tossing it to second base. The White Sox scored a run, but there was an opportunity to make it an even bigger inning, and if there was anything to learn from this past weekend is that every run is precious.
Luckily, it didn’t matter as the crooked number came in the sixth inning with the bases loaded for Tim Anderson and no outs. On the very first pitch, Anderson hit a 69-mph grounder up the middle that Lindor couldn’t reach plating two runs. Down 8-1, the Indians replaced Bauer with Neil Ramirez. Bauer’s final line wrapped up when Anderson stole second base, his 12th steal of the season, and catcher Roberto Perez’s throw skipped into center field allowing Nicky Delmonico to score. In five innings pitched, Bauer allowed ten hits eight runs (seven earned) and two home runs.
While Bauer was struggling, Sox starter Ivan Nova had smooth sailing against the Indians offense. There was trouble in the fourth inning when Nova allowed a single to Jose Ramirez and walked Carlos Santana with one out. Carlos Gonzalez would strike out swinging, and Jake Bauers grounded out to Yolmer Sanchez to end that threat.
The Indians would score in the fifth inning as Nova allowed back-to-back singles to Jordan Luplow and Tyler Naquin. After a mound visit, Nova got Perez to fly out to right field and Lindor to pop out on the first pitch. However, Jason Kipnis singled to right field scoring Luplow to make it a 5-1 game. After a second mound visit, Nova was able to limit the damage as Jose Ramirez flew out to right field.
Cleveland would have two runners on again in the sixth inning, but Nova was able to escape that jam and pitched a clean seventh inning to give the White Sox a much-needed quality start. Nova’s final line was 7 IP 8 H 1 ER 1 BB 5 K on 104 pitches.
With the victory, the White Sox are now 2-1 at Cleveland in 2019 which already surpasses their win total last season at Progressive Field (1-8 in 2018).
Game Notes:
- The White Sox are 8-6 against the AL Central
- Yoan Moncada has eight doubles, seven home runs, and now 24 RBI for the season.
- Carrying much of the offense this past week, Jose Abreu was the only White Sox batter that didn’t record a hit (0-for-5, 3 K’s).
Record: 15-18 | Box Score | Highlights
