Because Sirius XM moved MLB games to some sort of premium tier, I was not able to listen to today's game while on the road from Chicago to Nashville, so I had to catch up with it afterward. Hence, a bullet-point recap of the mess:
*Reynaldo López gave up a walk and a laser homer to Luis Rengifo to open the second, but he surrounded it with scoreless innings and five strikeouts, so it seemed like he might've been able to keep the Sox in it.
*Alas, the fourth inning happened. López got a potential double-play ball from Rengifo with runners on first and second and nobody out, but multiple mistakes occurred. First, Tim Anderson was eaten up by the short hop, but with the runners freezing, he had a chance to get one. His first idea was to flip to second, but César Hernández wasn't covering for some reason. By the time Anderson recalibrated, his throw was late, and the Angels loaded the bases.
*Jack Mayfield then hooked an elevated 0-2 slider inside third base for two runs, and the Angels pushed for three. They were smart to do so, because Eloy Jiménez airmailed the cutoff man, and the ball kicked off a diving Rengifo and deflected to a different line than the one López backed up, allowing Mayfield to take third.
*With still nobody out, Jose Rojas opened up on a bad 1-2 slider for a two-run shot to cap off a five-run fourth. Apparently homers can kill rallies after all.
*Jiménez had a bad read on a Jared Walsh jam shot that scored Shohei Ohtani from third, and while he wouldn't have caught it with a great break, his hesitation both collecting the ball and throwing it in prevented him from getting a force at second.
*Hernández had a weird game at second. Besides not covering second on the flip, he couldn't turn a double play for a grounder that scored the Angels' ninth and final run, he gave Anderson a flip feed from a long distance on another grounder that did end up working, and then nearly collided with Anderson at second on a double play started by Ryan Burr.
*Anderson committed a bad throw in the seventh for a second error, giving him three over his first two games back. He also went
*Luis Robert picked him up with the softest of end-of-bat singles, followed by Abreu's sac fly.
*Of the three runs the White Sox scored off the front end of the Angels bullpen, José Abreu drove in two via a sixth-inning single and an eighth-inning sac fly.
*Alex Cobb held the Sox scoreless through five in his first start since July 23, allowing just two hits and two walks while striking out five. He induced two double plays.
*Gavin Sheets played first and couldn't handle a firm Shohei Ohtani grounder to extend the first inning, but López rebounded with a strikeout.
*Mike Wright was ejected for missing inside with three consecutive pitches on Ohtani with two outs in the ninth. Two were severe misses, the latter of which drilled Ohtani in his calf. Tony La Russa was then ejected for protesting the warningless ousting. There was no reason for Wright to throw at Ohtani unless he was avenging the three HBPs the White Sox absorbed on Tuesday. Tony La Russa denied it and said Wright made a mistake, but the problem was that Wright made three such mistakes in a row.
*Instead of warming up a sixth Sox reliever, the White Sox bench used Romy Gonzalez to record the final out, and Abreu came out of the DH spot to play third for the first time in his career. Abreu was not tested at third because Gonzalez struck out Max Stassi on four pitches, including two swinging strikes.
