After spending the last seven games taking a beating, the punching bag punched back.
The White Sox could've been written off at several points this evening given their body of work over their seven-game skid. Somehow, they absorbed and responded to every blow, even when Cleveland saved its best attempt at a knockout for late.
After Roberto Perez hit a tie-breaking three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh, James McCann re-tied it with a three-run shot of his own in the eighth. If that wasn't enough, Eloy Jiménez made it back-to-back with his second homer of the game to finally give the Sox their first lead, which Aaron Bummer and Alex Colomé preserved.
The game already had moral victories. Jiménez had a huge night at the plate in support of Dylan Cease, who had his best stuff of the season. He almost got tagged with the loss because Marshall surrendered the two-out Perez homer that saddled Cease with two more runs on his tab, but his career-high 11 strikeouts reflect the quality of his game better than the run column. Zack Collins tripled in his first game back. Yoan Moncada drew three walks, and was a bad Tripp Gibson call from a 0-for-0 night.
But the Sox made it a real victory thanks to an insatiable hunger for hanging sliders. The Indians had a habit of serving them up not long after taking the lead.
For instance, when Cease gave up a solo shot on his second pitch of the game, Jiménez tied it up in the top of the second by hammering a rolling Mike Clevenger slider off the wall in center to score one of those Moncada walks.
After Leury García played Franmil Reyes' line-drive single into a double to start the fifth and he came around to score on Perez's single, Jiménez once again answered at his earliest opportunity. He had the only two hits off Clevenger, and this was a solo shot on another roller that tied the game at 2 heading into the stretch.
Rick Renteria tried to stick with Cease through seven, but he issued a pair of two-out walks as his pitch count crossed the 100 line, and so Renteria summoned Marshall. Marshall fell behind 2-0, then hung a changeup that Perez swatted out to left for what should've been a backbreaker.
Instead, the Sox spoiled the Indians' feel-good story. Carlos Carrasco entered the game for his first appearance since a leukemia diagnosis, and while he received a warm ovation from the crowd at Progressive Field, the game turned south on him shortly. García and Tim Anderson greeted him with singles, and while he came back to strike out Jose Abreu on three pitches and Moncada on sixth (thanks to the gift 3-1 call), he couldn't find one more good slider to get out of the inning.
He found two bad ones, and the Sox made him pay. James McCann jumped on the first one he saw and belted a resounding stunner to left, tying the game at 5. Jiménez tried to follow him, overswinging and falling into a 1-2 count. When Carrasco tried the putaway slider, he again left it up. Jiménez's swing wasn't as convincing as his earlier ones, but because it's 2019, it doesn't matter. His fly to right carried Yasiel Puig all the way to the wall, and it landed just behind the yellow stripe for his third hit of the game, and the one that decided it all.
Cease didn't get the win for his effort -- Marshall did, because wins can be stupid. Cease was the one who did the heavy lifting. After Lindor hoisted the second fastball he saw out of the park, Cease tried leaning on his breaking balls, and he finally had the command to thrive pitching backward. Cease only recorded 13 swinging strikes on 105 pitches, but he got 21 called strikes, including 11 on his curveball. Seventeen of his 29 curves went for strikes, and only one was put in play. That's the kind of ratio that will allow him to not only survive against lefty-heavy lineups, but thrive against them.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox won the strike zone for a change. They drew four walks against 12 strikeouts, while their pitchers struck out 16 to just two walks.
*Danny Mendick made his debut in the ninth inning after Collins' one-out triple off the wall left of center, but he didn't score. Renteria avoided a squeeze attempt with García at the plate, but wasn't rewarded. García struck out, and Anderson lined out.
*Collins went 1-for-3 with that triple and a walk in his first game back, and he didn't strike out. Daniel Palka went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, so he's hitting .020 on the year.
*The Indians fell six games back of Minnesota with the loss. They're now 67-4 when leading after seven, while the White Sox are 47-2.
Record: 61-77 | Box score | Highlights
