The White Sox have already had their fill of agonizing late-inning losses, so they were due for a late-inning win with the fortunes flipped.
Sure enough, their first walk-off comes courtesy of Yasmani Grandal's helmet. With runners on first and second and one out in the ninth, Cleveland first baseman Yu Chang fielded Nick Williams' slow-developing grounder. Instead of taking the sure out at first -- because any trailing runner doesn't matter with two outs in the ninth of a tie game -- Chang went to second base.
He made an accurate throw to second, in that it was on line to be caught for the force. The problem was that Grandal, who reached with a walk after Yermín Mercedes' one-out single, was in the way. The ball glanced off his helmet and rolled to the vacated shortstop position, and Nick Madrigal, who replaced Mercedes as a pinch runner, made it the final 90 feet without a throw.
That Grandal was the player involved was especially rewarding for two reasons. For one, he was nearly on the losing end of such a twist in the top of the inning. He caught Roberto Perez's foul tip for an inning-ending strikeout to strand the runner on second, and as he got up to flip the ball to the mound, he dropped the ball on the exchange. Home plate umpire Gabe Morales ruled that Grandal failed to catch the foul tip, which wasn't the case, but the judgment call wasn't reviewable and so Perez got another life. Fortunately, Codi Heuer blew another full-count fastball by him to make it moot.
The other part is that Grandal's famous lack of foot speed actually benefited the Sox handsomely. The play developed slowly enough that most other runners would have been starting a slide into second, giving Chang's throw plenty of room to find the shortstop. Grandal, baseball's 448th-fastest player during the 2020 season, was still strides away from entering the slide, so he inadvertently ended up in a position to disrupt the line.
However it happened, the White Sox are back to .500. There isn't a whole lot of difference between 5-5 and 4-6 at this juncture, but it was a big game for a bullpen hoping to live up to the hype.
Dallas Keuchel -- starting for Carlos Rodón, who was a late scratch due to a stomach issue -- cruised through five innings on just 51 pitches. He had given up a two-run homer to Eddie Rosario on an unfortunate sinker, but a three-run homer by Adam Eaton covered for it.
But just like in his first two starts, his control started to unravel as he broke off his third set of 25 pitches. He faced three batters in the sixth and retired none of them, walking two batters around a single to load the bases for José Ramírez. Tony La Russa called for Evan Marshall, and while Marshall couldn't quite preserve the lead, he fared as well as anybody could reasonably expect. He struck out Ramírez, yielded a sac fly to Franmil Reyes, and then got Rosario to line out to left, keeping the game tied at 3.
Marshall also recorded the first out of the seventh, which made it less of a crisis when Aaron Bummer could only retire the first of the three batters he faced. With lefty-killing Jordan Luplow coming to the plate, La Russa switched to Heuer while Terry Francona stuck with Luplow, and Heuer came through with the K to end the threat.
La Russa then rode Heuer the rest of the way, because Heuer gave him no reason to switch. He struck out two in a 1-2-3 eighth, and while Josh Naylor tomahawked a high fastball to left for a two-out double in the ninth, Heuer rallied to strike out Perez twice. Heuer threw 23 of 32 pitches for strikes, and picked up the well-earned win in relief.
The White Sox offense had an opportunity to make it easier in the the sixth against Cal Quantrill. Luis Robert led off with a double, after which José Abreu walked. The third consecutive Cuban, Yoán Moncada, rocketed a single through the right side, but Robert had to hold to make sure it cleared Cesar Hernandez at second, and so he only advanced to third.
The Sox didn't score. Yermín Mercedes got locked up on a backup slider in the perfect location -- high and tight in the strike zone -- and Grandal bounced into a 3-6-1 double play.
Fortunately, Eaton capitalized on the other Sox opportunity in the third. Williams and Danny Mendick preceded Eaton with walks to put two on with one out in the third. Eaton swung over a well-placed Triston McKenzie changeup for strike one, but when McKenzie doubled up with a poorly located change, Eaton didn't miss it. He got enough loft on his liner to clear the wall in right for a three-run shot, his third homer of the year.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox defense showed up tonight, playing errorless ball with Moncada making a couple tough plays at third.
*The offense didn't have many great swings against McKenzie, but they made him throw plenty of pitches. Three walks, an HBP and six strikeouts added up to 75 through four.
*Cleveland's bullpen only recorded two strikeouts over the final 4⅓ innings, while the White Sox relief corps racked up seven strikeouts over one fewer out.
*Keuchel's final line: 5 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K. It's a little disappointing on paper, but more impressive when knowing it came on short notice.
