The White Sox probably can't wait to be done with the Red Sox, and they'll get their wish tomorrow with the season finale.
They'll also be waiting on another wish regarding Tim Anderson's health.
Anderson was carried off the field in the fifth inning without being able to put any weight on his right leg. His ankle buckled on him as he attempted to plant his right foot on a ranging play to his left, which was successful thanks to a scoop by Jose Abreu. But Anderson collapsed after releasing the ball and spent a minute on the ground before he was removed from the field. The White Sox called it a sprain and said the x-rays were negative, but it's still possible he could miss a fair amount of time.
It was already a rough game for Anderson, who followed up his game-ending miscalcuation on Monday with a throwing error to start tonight, then was later thrown out at second on a great Monster play by Jackie Bradley Jr., who came swooping across to grab the carom and make an on-target throw to second in time to get Anderson, who was tagged in the head and bodied further off the bag.
That play loomed large in this one, because the White Sox should've had runners on the corners and nobody out with the game tied at 3 in the top of the fifth. Instead, they had a runner on third and one out. Jose Abreu expanded the zone while desperately feeling for a ball he could put in play for an RBI, and James McCann went down swinging as well.
The Red Sox then greeted Jose Ruiz with a couple of lasers. The first was a single that nearly decapitated him, and the second was a blast by Xander Bogaerts that gave the Red Sox a lead they didn't lose.
Bogaerts had some atoning to do, because he helped the other Sox more over the first half of the game. He committed a throwing error to allow McCann to reach starting the second, with McCann taking second on the play. He moved to third on a wild pitch and scored when Jon Jay muscled a single to center for his first White Sox hit and RBI.
An inning later, Anderson roped a double to left with one out, and after David Price got Abreu to groundout, McCann won a seven-pitch battle with a double to left of his own, giving the White Sox a 2-1 lead. Price got another groundout to the left side from Eloy Jiménez that should've ended the inning, but Bogaerts made an underwhelming effort while ranging to his left, and the ball scooted under his glove. It was called a single because the ball flattened out on him, but Bogaerts also didn't come close to fielding the ball, either. At any rate, McCann scored and the White Sox led 3-1.
But with Juan Minaya coming in after two OK innings by Carson Fulmer, but Red Sox tied it up. Boston loaded the bases with one out with two singles sandwiching an HBP, and after Bradley popped out to shallow center, Christian Vasquez shot a single through the left side to score two. It might've only scored one on normal left fielders, but Bogaerts tested Jiménez's slow windup, and Yoan Moncada ended up cutting off the throw.
Jiménez also made himself noticeable in the first inning when he let Rafael Devers' lazy fly ball drop in front of him down the left-field line for an "RBI double." With a side wall hugging the foul line, it's not the easiest left field for a rookie left fielder to navigate, but it was another strange route and closing job in a half-season full of them.
— Jim Margalus (@SoxMachine) June 26, 2019
Bullet points:
*The start of the game was delayed by 29 minutes, and it rained heavily early in the game, contributing to the muddy infield on which Anderson was injured. Bad conditions have been a problem in previous games, and an injury like this one might force teams to reconsider how much they'll play through.
*If Fulmer was auditioning for an opener role -- fingers crossed -- it wasn't a bad one. He allowed an unearned run over two innings, with two hits and a walk while striking out three. The fastball seemed to have life.
*Lance Barrett's strike zone favored the Red Sox. You can pin some of it on the difference in framing between Vasquez and Zack Collins, but Barrett gave Vasquez some pitches he didn't even really try to bring back into the zone.
*Anderson's injury forced Leury Garcia to move from shortstop to center, as Yolmer Sánchez has been battling a high-grade fever. Ryan Cordell took Anderson's spot in the lineup and handled center, giving you some idea of what Rick Renteria considers the defensive pecking orders up the middle.
*Jay went 3-for-4 with a double, so at least he's showing the kind of game he was expected to produce when the White Sox signed him.
Record: 36-41 | Box score | Highlights
