If you believe in mojo, juju or anything else along those lines, then this game took a turn for the worse when Nick Madrigal hit the ground behind first base, then had to be helped off the field with what looked like a pretty severe leg injury, which was an ugly way to end the bottom of the seventh.
If you believe that the White Sox determined their own fate, then you'd pin it on Yasmani Grandal's dropped strike three, which allowed Riley Adams to reach. Aaron Bummer should've had two outs and nobody on, but instead he had to deal with a runner on first with one out. When Marcus Semien followed with a chopper off the plate for an infield single, one had a pretty good idea how it'd go from there.
The 2-1 lead disappeared two batters later, as Bummer allowed a bases-loading single and then a bases-loaded walk to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. In came Codi Heuer, who got the ground ball Bummer wanted, but the White Sox defense couldn't do anything with it. Danny Mendick flipped the ball to Tim Anderson, who came across the bag in a really loose fashion and got rid of the ball after two steps toward first. The throw was late, and it also sailed over José Abreu's head for an error that scored two more runs.
More bad defense followed in the ninth during a rare Matt Foster sighting. Pitching for the first time in a dozen days, Foster didn't locate well, but the defense once again compounded issues. Adam Eaton couldn't get rid of the ball when he had a play at the plate, and by the time he did, it was wild up the third-base line. José Abreu didn't get elevated on another high attempted double-play turn, and his failure to catch the ball resulted in a sixth Toronto run.
All of the insurance was overkill, because the White Sox couldn't capitalize on opportunities tonight. In a mirror image of Tuesday's game, the White Sox were the team that preceded their late-inning unraveling by not capitalizing with runners in scoring position. They went 2-for-13, including a couple of bad turns by the top of the order with a runner on third.
The White Sox took a 2-1 lead off Alek Manoah in the fifth when Leury García led off with a walk. Madrigal followed by taking a ball well inside for strike one, but rallied to split the left-center gap with García in motion. The double gave the Sox a lead, and Madrigal then took third on Anderson's flyout to right center. He couldn't advance further, as Jake Lamb struck out and Yoán Moncada popped out.
Their attempt to climb back in the game in the bottom of the eighth deteriorated in a similar fashion. Anderson led off with a four-pitch walk, then stole second and third during Jordan Romano's nine-pitch battle with Lamb. Alas, nobody could get him home. Lamb flied out to shallow left, Moncada struck out, and José Abreu's bid for a single through the middle deflected off Romano for a 1-4-3 putout.
The failures exacerbated some bad luck in the fourth inning, when it appeared that Yasmani Grandal slid in safely on Andrew Vaughn's two-out single. Lourdes Gurriel Jr.'s throw beat him home, but Grandal's foot appeared to touch the plate before Reese McGuire could apply the tag. The call in real time was out, and while the replay didn't seem to back it up, the call stood for some reason.
Still, it looked like two runs would be enough with Lance Lynn on the mound. Lynn shook off a solo shot by Randal Grichuk in the top of the second and played the big bully the rest of the night. He allowed just three other hits while walking nobody and striking out nine, which gave him plenty of opportunities to mix up his triumphant walks back to the dugout.
He probably could've started the eighth, as he threw just 95 pitches. Then again, his one flaw from the past two seasons is the home run ball, with 19 allowed over 149 innings. In a one-run game, there's some logic in going to Bummer. Unfortunately, little about the way the inning played out made much sense.
Bullet points:
*Madrigal wasn't the only player writhing on the ground. Abreu hit the deck after home plate umpire Erich Bacchus flung a bat into Abreu's knee.
Delmon Young got suspended 50 games for doing the same thing! pic.twitter.com/9o940rTZ2G
— Jim Margalus (@SoxMachine) June 10, 2021
*Abreu stayed in the game, and while he couldn't get elevated on the double-play turns in the late innings, he did bring the eighth to an end with an excellent diving stab.
*Lynn committed the first of the White Sox's four errors with an errant pickoff throw in the first inning, but erased it by striking out the side.
*Lynn entered 7-1 with a 1.23 ERA, and he leaves it 7-1 with a 1.23 ERA.
