James Karinchak doesn't appear to be a capital-P problem for the White Sox this season. Shane Bieber is still enough of one.
The White Sox had chances early and late to steal a victory in a game Cleveland's Cy Young winner started, but Dylan Cease's off night dug too deep a hole. The Sox's hopes of salvaging a split now rest on the shoulders of a Lance Lynn on short rest.
The Sox trailed 6-3 entering the bottom of the ninth when Karinchak entered the game in place of Emmanuel Clasé, who was unavailable. After beating Karinchak in the first game of Monday's doubleheader, the Sox got to him again.
Jake Lamb capped off a perfect day at the plate with a leadoff single, took second on a wild pitch, then scored on a Zack Collins single two batters later. Adam Eaton came off the bench with hopes of repeating his extra-innings heroics, but struck out.
But two pitches later, the Sox were within a run, with the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. Tim Anderson singled on the first pitch, and so did Nick Madrigal, who scored Collins. Both advanced on the throw home, after which Yoán Moncada filled first base on a six-pitch walk.
That brought José Abreu to the plate, and he laid off a curve low and a curve high to get the fastball count he wanted. Alas, the fastball was well-located, and Abreu chopped a knee-high, outside-corner fastball to shortstop to end a game that seemingly had calmed down after a wild start.
(How wild was it?)
It was so wild that the White Sox took a 3-2 lead in the second inning on a three-run Little League home run by Billy Hamilton.
Lamb started the Sox's first scoring inning with a one-out walk, and just like the ninth, Zack Collins followed two batters later with a single to keep the inning alive for Hamilton. Bieber challenged Hamilton with a 1-0 fastball, and Hamilton ripped it to the base of the wall in right center. Lamb scored, and Collins followed him home, beating a hesitant throw home from César Hernández.
Hamilton had checked up a little between second and third, not wanting to get trapped if Collins weren't sent. But he kept enough of his momentum to follow the play to third. When the ball trickled away from Hedges on his unsuccessful swipe tag, Hamilton used José Ramirez as a slingshot around third base and sacrificed his face to score himself.
The official scoring is a two-run double, but we know what we saw.
That alone justified tonight's game, and it appeared to be the only comfort after watching Cease's pitch count skyrocket out of control early.
Cease endured a 31-pitch first inning that should've ended after 22, except his backdoor slider in the dirt to Eddie Rosario handcuffed Collins on his attempt to block it, and Rosario reached. Instead of three outs, Cleveland still had runners on the corners, and an infield single, balk and infield single gave the Clevelanders a 2-0 lead. The inning only ended because Andrew Vaughn sprawled out to make an incredible diving catch, especially relative to his experience level.
Cease pitched around a soft two-out single for a 16-pitch second, but his problems resumed in the third. He had Harold Ramirez on the ropes with a 1-2 count with two outs, but he hung a slider that Ramirez deposited into left to score fellow Ramirez José, which tied the game at 3.
An inning later, Cease was out. He couldn't put away Bradley Zimmer after getting ahead 0-2, with Zimmer reaching seven pitches later on a single. He left a full-count slider to Austin Hedges up in the zone, and Hedges hit it out for a two-run homer. He retired Hernández on a flyout, but after walking Amed Rosario on eight pitches, Tony La Russa came out, and José Ruiz came in.
The idea was that José Ramírez would have less success facing Ruiz for the first time, rather than Cease for a third. He foiled that notion with a double that made it a 6-3 game.
Ruiz, Ryan Burr and Garrett Crochet kept Cleveland off the board the rest of the way, but the Sox couldn't figure out how to damage Bieber who wasn't at the top of his game. Double plays halted threats in the third and fourth innings, and Bieber ended his night retiring 11 of the last 12 he faced, even though he struck out a middling seven by his standards.
After Bieber departed, the Sox brought the tying run to the plate against Bryan Shaw with one out after Anderson singled and Moncada walked. José Abreu popped out on a hanging slider, and Yermín Mercedes struck out on a slider well off the plate. Abreu and Mercedes combined to go 0-for-9, with Abreu stranding eight and Mercedes three.
Bullet points:
*Behind Mercedes, Lamb singled twice , walked twice and scored twice.
*Moncada also reached base on two singles and two walks, and made a really nice play behind third base on a tricky shanked one-hopper as well.
*Besides Vaughn and Moncada, Burr created a highlight with a diving catch on Hedges' popped up bunt. He knocked the wind out of himself, but stayed in the game to complete the inning.
*Crochet pitched two innings on just 20 pitches, including 16 strikes.
*Cleveland, which entered this series with the second-worst OBP in baseball, posted 19 baserunners against 9⅓ innings of Cease and Carlos Rodón
