Adam Engel had a night to forget. Most of his teammates didn't have evenings to remember, either.
Engel got turned around on a line drive hit right at him for two runs in the first inning, swung over ball four with the bases loaded in a one-run game, then had a home-run robbery attempt glance off the top of his glove.
He wouldn't have stood out if his teammates provided more support, but while a José Abreu solo shot wasn't the only offense this game, an eighth-inning RBI double by Eloy Jiménez wasn't enough to close the gap.
In between was six innings of blah, with a couple of threats that evaporated. In the fourth, the Sox loaded the bases with two outs in painstaking fashion -- a leadoff single, a popout, a backwards K, a walk and an HBP -- but it appeared to have a payoff when Engel worked a 3-1 count. Alas, he couldn't lay off Daniel Lynch's low sinker, fouling it off for strike two. He then fought off a fastball before swinging over another sinker to end the inning.
Then there was the fifth, when Leury García led off with a single, only to watch Seby Zavala attempt to bunt him over. The guy who homered three times in a game last week struck out on three unsuccessful bunt attempts. García did advance to second on a Tim Anderson nubber, but Cesar Hernández flied out to strand him there.
And in the sixth, Andrew Vaughn came tot he plate after an Abreu single and a JIménez walk and got a rolling curve by Josh Staumont, only to bounce into a routine 5-4-3 double play. Yoán Moncada tried to salvage the inning with a smash to the right side, but Carlos Santana blocked it and took it to the bag himself.
By the time Jiménez came through with an RBI double off the sidewall in his first hit in Chicago and as a DH this season to score Hernández, the Sox needed a third run.
At least Dallas Keuchel was decent. He allowed the two runs in the first inning, all after two outs, but he settled in afterward. Despite the tendency to start leadoff hitters with 3-0 counts, he managed to walk the tightrope well. His pitch chart reflects his improved command:
Keuchel allowed just one other hit over the remaining five innings, finishing with a respectable line (6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K) despite the early stumble. One could argue that neither run should've been earned.
The run Reynaldo López allowed in the seventh was earned, although Engel might argue otherwise. Edward Olivares led off with an opposite-field fly that carried, and carried, and carried until it clipped Engel's glove and landed behind the wall for a solo shot that made it a 3-1 game.
Bullet points:
*Zavala also had two passed balls on his record, to go along with the foul-bunt strikeout.
*Vaughn's second start in right field went better than his first, as he had a diving catch to end the top of the sixth, and a running grab on the warning track for the last out of the eighth.
*Ryan Tepera struck out two during a perfect 11-pitch eighth that made it easy to see the appeal.
*Cleveland lost again. The White Sox can't stop their magic number from shrinking if they wanted to, which is what it's looked like over the last two nights.
