Back in early May, Luis Robert tore his hip flexor in the first inning of a game against Cleveland. The White Sox went on to lose 5-0, and nobody seemed particularly concerned with the day's outcome as they were about the long-term health of their budding star. It just took the air out of everybody for a day, and it was understandable.
The same thing happened here tonight for Oakland. After the White Sox opened the second inning with a pair of singles off No. 1 starter Chris Bassitt, Brian Goodwin's scorched 100-mph liner hit the side of Bassitt's head. Bassitt fell to the ground and remained in a duck-and-cover position for minutes as Oakland's trainers rushed out with towels that soon became bloody. He was eventually able to rise to his feet and get into a cart, which took him off the field.
The Athletics provided one update during the game.
And Oakland manager Bob Melvin provided one after.
The game was scoreless at the time, but it wouldn't be for long. Burch Smith warmed up, but he still probably wasn't prepared for the circumstances given the pall that had fallen over the proceedings. He gave up a two-run single to Andrew Vaughn and a three-run homer to Jake Lamb before settling in. The horror was fresh enough to mute the celebration, but the White Sox had more successes in store that were less connected to the emergency on the field.
For instance, five scoreless innings for Reynaldo López. He might've been facing a lineup that wanted to be somewhere else after the second inning, but he still did what he needed to do. He allowed just a hit and two walks while striking out four, and he threw only 66 pitches.
López attacked with his fastball early, then started throwing more secondary stuff later. He lost a couple of batters trying to get sliders over, and it's the kind of game-calling that might've been too cute under more pressing circumstances, because the A's didn't come close to forcing him to go away from his fastball. With a five-run lead that swelled to eight and the A's unable to sustain threats, perhaps the Sox saw a good opportunity to practice pitching backwards.
Likewise, Ryan Burr and Mike Wright each threw two innings in their returns from Triple-A, with Wright making his White Sox debut. A month ago, we might've pictured Wright pitching in a game López started and figured he'd be covering the fourth and fifth innings. Instead, he pitched the eighth and ninth while the White Sox led by nine. He and Burr both allowed early traffic, but they were able to summon double plays in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. The A's only had one at-bat with a runner in scoring position, and they were 0-for-1.
Meanwhile, the White Sox were 4-for-7, and that doesn't include an RBI triple from Tim Anderson that scored Zack Collins from first. José Abreu also reached 25 homers for the sixth time in his career, blasting a three-run shot off Smith in the fourth inning that really put the game out of reach.
Bullet points:
*Mitch Moreland pitched the eighth for Oakland and worked around a two-out single by Danny Mendick for a scoreless inning.
*Mendick's single meant that every White Sox player reached base at least once.
*Anderson had a hot shot by Stephen Piscotty scoot under his glove. It was ruled a single, and while it wasn't a forgiving scorer, he'd probably say he should've made the play.
*The White Sox went 0-3 against Bassitt in since 2019, scoring just one run over 20 innings when including his start in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series. I imagine this isn't the way they wanted to return to the win column.
Record: 70-50 | Box score | Statcast
(Photo by Kamil Krzaczynski/USA TODAY Sports)
