Monday night is my curling league, so here's a bullet-point recap. (Of the Sox game. Not my game. Although we won, 8-5, if you care.)
*The White Sox did not lose this game because of Lucas Giolito, who threw a quality start with an even better finish. He limited the Angels to two runs over six innings, both of which scored in the second inning because ...
*... Gavin Sheets couldn't catch Brandon Marsh's drive to deep right field. It rattled in and out his glove, bounced off the top of the fence and back into play. It was originally ruled a home run, but the replay showed it never cleared the wall, so it was revised to an RBI triple. Which didn't matter, because Andrew Velazquez singled literally off Giolito to score Walsh to make it a 2-0 game. Both runs were earned. Both runs shouldn't have been.
*Giolito finished the game without allowing another run. He retired the last nine he faced, including easy back-to-back strikeouts of Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani in the fifth. He threw just 22 changeups, but got a whopping 10 whiffs on the pitch.
*Giolito was briefly in position for the win because the Sox needed a third time through to figure out Noah Syndergaard, and Ray Montgomery (filling in for the suspended Phil Nevin) didn't lift him. Andrew Vaughn and José Abreu struck for RBI doubles in the sixth inning that tied the game, with Abreu's overriding Marsh's fine sliding catch on a Luis Robert line drive a batter before.
*Josh Harrison then gave the Sox the lead in the seventh with a single that was almost a carbon copy of his walk-off on Sunday. It scored Gavin Sheets, but Seby Zavala rounded second too generously, and he was tagged out before he made it back to the bag, which was a a costly first out, because ...
*Reynaldo López entered in relief of Giolito after 90 pitches to start the seventh and walked the leadoff man, setting a two-run inning into motion. Marsh singled, and after Velazquez bunted both runners over, Taylor Ward struck the decisive blow because Luis Robert couldn't come up with the leaping catch at the warning track in right center. Two run scored, with Marsh sliding in under a high hop that Zavala couldn't handle.
*Tony La Russa made the right call by lifting Giolito and going with López, but between the Sheets non-error error, the Zavala TOOTBLAN and the leadoff walk, those are mistakes that a late-arriving three runs of offense will struggle to cover.
*La Russa also tried to get Sheets out of there as quickly as was sensible, pulling him entering the bottom of the seventh after Sheets doubled in scored for Leury García. Alas, García was a defensive substitution who made the last out of the game, which is never good.
*Tim Anderson showed increased confidence in his legs by stealing second and third in the fourth inning, but Robert failed to get him home with his one-out fly, and Abreu lined out. He later scored from first on Vaughn's double, so hopefully he's 100 percent, or as close to it as he gets.
*Lenyn Sosa went 0-for-3 with a double play in the ninth spot. With Yoán Moncada's return imminent, we'll see if that's the last we see of him for the time being.
*The White Sox are now 6½ back of Minnesota.
