The most 2021 inning of the year was all the White Sox needed today. They scored their first five runs on the strength of a single hit, which was enough for the tandem of Lance Lynn and Michael Kopech to even up the series.
Tim Anderson was at the center of everything today, and his swing swung the game. By the time Anderson came to the plate for the second time, Triston McKenzie had struck out five and walked four. All four of the walks preceded Anderson in the second, including an indefensible five-pitch free pass to Leury García for the game's first run, which flipped over the order.
Anderson was the first to make contact, but even then, it wasn't a ball in play. It was a ball in the Cleveland bullpen, specifically a plate-splitting 1-2 fastball that Anderson shot out to right field for a grand slam and a 5-0 lead.
The Sox had a weird combo of numbers in the line score with seven runs on just four hits. But they walked eight times, and José Abreu took a pitch to the thigh, too. Yasmani Grandal came to the plate four times without an at-bat to show for it, working the first four-walk game by a White Sox since Gordon Beckham on Aug. 10, 2013.
The unusual outburst allowed Lynn to ease his way back into the rotation. Making his return from the injured list, Lynn threw a relatively straightforward five innings on just 68 pitches. He only generated eight whiffs and struck out two, with his four-seam fastball accounting for seven of those swinging strikes.
It made him a little more susceptible to in-play fortune, which largely worked for him. The fourth was an exception, as he gave up two runs in the fourth inning when he probably should've gotten out unscathed.
José Ramírez created confusion on the basepaths when he missed the bag rounding second on Josh Naylor's two-out double down the right-field line. Adam Eaton got the ball to Leury García, but García couldn't determine where to go with the ball afterward. A semi-quick throw third generates an inning-ending rundown, but García double-pumped, ran with the ball, then ultimately fired wide and late to third to keep the inning alive. Yu Chang cashed in two runs with a single, although Jake Bauers got cut down by Luis Robert at third to make sure Cleveland had at least one TOOTBLAN on its record.
Fortunately, the White Sox struck back in the bottom of the inning, even though Robert had his own TOOTBLAN in the form of a pickoff after reaching on an infield single to start the inning. Grandal drew one of his walks, Jake Lamb drew his second in as many chances, and after Tony La Russa subbed out Lamb for Billy Hamilton, both came around to score on Leury García's double. That restored the lead to five, and made it easier to absorb Austin Hedges' solo homer in the fifth.
Lynn picked up his second win, and Kopech could've picked up the four-inning save if La Russa wanted him to. Instead, he settled for three scoreless innings, with more strikeouts (three) and more whiffs (nine) than Lynn despite two dozen fewer pitches (44).
Anderson supported both pitchers with his defense, twice retiring Jordan Luplow with the kind of ranging efforts he hadn't been able to convert the last year-plus. He went to his right for a nice stab and cross-body throw in the fourth behind Lynn, then topped it by gloving a one-hopper well to his left, spinning and firing on target to José Abreu.
Aaron Bummer needed no such help, striking out two in a perfect ninth.
BULLET POINTS:
*How unusual was that line?
*Adam Eaton went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, and he's 0-for-11 with eight K's over his last three games.
*Yermín Mercedes' average dropped to .395 after an 0-for-4, two-strikeout game.
