Carlos Rodón almost forced Tony La Russa into an uncomfortable situation. He carried a no-hitter one out into the seventh, and had home plate umpire Pat Hoberg not turned a perfect 2-2 slider on Eric Haase into ball three, Rodón would've been seven outs away from a second no-no with 88 pitches on his arm.
Would La Russa push Rodón well past 100 pitches to chase the rare feat of two no-hitters in one season? Or would he make the unpopular decision to pull him since there's no way to give him extra rest before his next start?
The discussion remains hypothetical, because Haase used that second life to hit a deep line drive to left just out of the range of Andrew Vaughn to make the decision a whole lot simpler. Haase ended up advancing on a wild pitch and scoring on a sac fly to also spoil the shutout, so Rodón merely settled for seven innings of one-run ball, while the White Sox were resigned to a one-hitter and a sweep. We can set aside concerns about how Rodón performs on regular rest for the time being.
FROM APRIL: Carlos Rodón's no-hitter is delayed gratification, a little ahead of schedule
Taking all three games can't be assumed for any series between any two teams, especially when La Russa wanted to use the weekend to spread days off for everybody. It just so happens that life is that charmed for the South Siders when Detroit's involved. The White Sox improved to 8-2 against the Tigers this year, and 17-3 since the start of the abbreviated 2020 season.
The White Sox offense took a while to find its stride against a Johnny Wholestaff game for the Tigers, but Rodón's early dominance made patience possible. While Kyle Funkhouser shut the Sox down into the third inning, the Chicago swings improved against lefty Tyler Alexander.
Yoán Moncada started the fourth with a double, then scored on José Abreu's opposite-field/good-piece-of-hitting single for the game's first run. An inning later, Danny Mendick singled and came around to score on Leury García's ensuing double into the left-field corner.
The White Sox then let Buck Farmer bury the Tigers on his own in the sixth. Singles by Abreu and Adam Eaton put two on with one out, and Farmer took care of the rest. He dinked Adam Engel with a changeup to load the bases, and while he froze Zack Collins with an offspeed pitch for the second out, another wayward change doinked Mendick to make it 3-0. Four straight out of the zone to García later, and the Sox had all the runs they scored.
Rodón made sure it was plenty. His fastball-slider command was on point from the beginning, throwing it for 90 of his 103 pitches, and getting 21 of his 22 swinging strikes on that combo. The fastball did the heavy lifting the first time through, after which the slider usage increased, and the strikeouts in tow. He finished with nine strikeouts over seven innings on the afternoon. For the season, he improved to 6-2 while lowering his ERA to 1.89. Because he now qualifies for the ERA title, the Sox have the lowest two such marks in the American League. Lance Lynn leads the entire pack at 1.23.
Evan Marshall struck out two during a perfect eighth, and Liam Hendriks rebounded from his blown save with a 1-2-3 ninth.
Bullet points:
*Brian Goodwin started in left, walking and striking out in his two plate appearances. Andrew Vaughn pinch-hit for him in the fifth when the left-handed Alexander was on the mound with a runner on second in the fifth. It's possible Goodwin catches Haase's drive.
*Leury García went 2-for-4 with a walk from the leadoff spot, José Abreu went 3-for-5 with a double to right center that would've been a homer in most parks besides Comerica Field, and Adam Eaton raised his average to .200 with a pair of infield singles.
*The White Sox were 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranded 12, but that works on a day where Detroit went 0-for-0 with the sac fly, and only had two baserunners to leave aboard.
*Cleveland lost a Shane Bieber start to Seattle, so the White Sox now lead the AL Central by 5½ games heading into a tough week against Tampa Bay and Houston.
