For a moment, it appeared the White Sox were on their way to a comfortable win against Nationals starting pitcher, Stephen Strasburg. Last time the White Sox faced Strasburg former President Barack Obama was in attendance, Gavin Floyd got a hit and pitched eight terrific innings, and Alex Rios drove in both runs in a 2-1 win back in 2010.
Nine years later, the White Sox got to Strasburg early.
After losing track of the count and headed into first base on ball 3, Yoan Moncada would lay off Strasburg’s curve that was borderline low in the zone and officially took his walk. Strasburg would then hit Jose Abreu flush in the tricep to put runners on first and second for James McCann. On the first pitch, McCann was able to muscle an inside two-seam fastball into right field for an RBI single, and the White Sox took an early 1-0 lead.
Later in the first, Eloy Jimenez’s progression at the plate continued as he let two curveballs go out of the zone instead of chasing them. In the fourth pitch, Strasburg tried to get a fastball by Jimenez, but instead, it was rocketed past the diving second baseman Brian Dozier for an RBI single.
Strasburg’s struggles continued as he would walk Charlie Tilson on four straight pitches to load the bases for Yolmer Sanchez. On a 1-2 count, Strasburg tried a curve on the outside corner, but Sanchez stayed back and flipped it into left field for a two-RBI single. The inning finally ended when Reynaldo Lopez hit a high chopper to Dozier, but plenty of damage was done with the Sox up 4-0.
Next inning, Strasburg picked up his first strikeout by blowing a fastball by Leury Garica on the inside corner. Going ahead 0-2 on Moncada, Strasburg tried again with the fastball for another whiff. Instead, Moncada turned on the pitch and crushed it for a 458-foot home run, his 11th of the season, and the White Sox had a 5-0 lead.
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While Strasburg was leaking runs, Reynaldo Lopez didn’t have the smoothest of starts. After a 27 pitch first inning to get out of a jam, Lopez ran into trouble facing the order for the second time in the third inning. Walking both Trea Turner and Adam Eaton with one out, Anthony Rendon split the outfield with a double to the right-center field gap. Both Turner and Eaton scored, and the Nationals cut the deficit to 5-2.
Howie Kendrick replaced Dozier, who left the game after being hit by a pitch and made an immediate impact with a solo home run to make it 5-3.
Then there was a golden opportunity for the White Sox to give themselves extra cushion in the fifth inning. Moncada worked from behind the count to draw his second walk of the game, and on another two-strike pitch from Strasburg, Jose Abreu hit a double off the wall to put runners in scoring position with no outs.
Unfortunately, that’s where Moncada and Abreu stayed as McCann grounded to third base, then Anderson grounded out to first, and Jimenez struck out ending the threat.
Later that inning is when Lopez finally collapsed. He allowed a double to Turner, walked Eaton, and hung a slider to Rendon who smashed it for a three-run homer to give the Nationals a 6-5 lead. Rick Renteria replaced Lopez with Josh Osich, and then the inning got really ugly. Matt Adams and Kendrick hit back-to-back doubles, and Victor Robles followed it up with a big home run to dead center to make it 9-5 Nationals.
With the worst bullpen ERA in all of baseball, the Nationals bullpen entered in the sixth inning as Strasburg’s day was finished. A far cry from his 2010 start, Strasburg finished 5 IP 5 H 5 ER 3 BB 6 K, but it was better than Lopez’s final line of 4 IP 5 H 6 ER 4 BB 4 K.
Yet, the White Sox offense couldn’t take advantage against the Nationals bullpen as they went scoreless in the sixth, seventh, or eighth innings. In the ninth inning, Yolmer Sanchez led it off with an infield single and would reach second on Garcia’s single to left field. This prompted manager Dave Martinez to call for his close Sean Dolittle to prevent any more damage.
Moncada struck out swinging right-handed, and Abreu battled for eight pitches but could only muster an infield pop up to end the game.
Game Notes:
- Cleveland beat Minnesota, 5-2, leaping ahead of the White Sox for second place
- Five runs is now the season’s biggest blown lead for the White Sox
- Jose Abreu and Yolmer Sanchez both had multi-hit games
- Anthony Rendon went 2-for-4 with five RBI
Record: 29-31 | Box Score | Highlights
