When it comes to baseball tweets, there's one you might be able to tie, but you won't be able to beat.
And as Tungsten Arm O'Doyle nights go, tonight was tungster than most. The White Sox fell behind 3-0 in the third inning due to three solo shots off a stiff Johnny Cueto, including back-to-back homers by Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani.
FOUR INNINGS LATER ...
That frame was captured right before Seby Zavala singled to make it 9-3. While that ruined the perfect poetry of the evening, it allowed Ohtani to add an RBI "double" to his tab to hammer the point further.
While the Sox were out-homered 3-2, they outscored the Angels 5-3 on home run balls. Josh Harrison broke the tension in the fifth, as Chase Silseth showed why two of his four starts this season died at exactly 13 outs (with one done after five). He struck out Yoán Moncada to open the fifth, but even the bottom of the order couldn't get him over the hump. Instead, Leury García punched a single through the left side, Seby Zavala laced a double into the left-field corner that scored García, and Josh Harrison enthusiastically smashed a 3-1 fastball over the left-center fence, tying the game at 3 and earning the title of The Guy who Chased Silseth.
Refreshingly, the Sox didn't stop hitting when TTOP reset. Tim Anderson started a new rally with a single off Oliver Ortega, and although Andrew Vaughn struck out, Luis Robert brought Ortega to his knees with a seismic homer to over the batter's eye in center.
Cueto dealt with a couple of two-out baserunners to deliver a pair of shutdown innings for a quality start, including a key sixth inning after Anderson grounded into a double play against rookie Elvis Peguero with the bases loaded to end the top of that inning.
Peguero came back out for the seventh, which was fortunate since the White Sox had a read on him, and it was helpfully explained by Mike Trout.
Trout said, and Angels analyst Mark Gubicza concurred, that Peguero held his hands up and away when throwing a slider, and held his hands lower for a fastball.
The results suggested the Sox knew what was coming. Vaughn walked in his only good plate appearance of the night, Robert singled him to second, and José Abreu drove them both home with a double to right-center that gave the Sox some sorely needed breathing room at 7-3 Gavin Sheets drew a five-pitch walk, and Peguero headed to the dugout without recording an out.
Jaime Barria came in, and the Sox kept going. Yoán Moncada doubled on a hanging slider to score Abreu, and after García struck out, Zavala and Harrison both delivered RBI singles to put the Sox into double digits against a team that isn't Detroit for the first time all year. The 10 runs came on two five-spots.
The Sox then went to 11 in the eighth when Abreu doubled, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a groundout.
The surge gave Cueto an easy victory, which he deserved after coming into this game saddled with a 1-4 record. He appeared to be stretching out his back early, and when Andrew Velazquez turned over the lineup in the third inning with a solo homer that carried, carried, carried over the left-center wall, it foreshadowed bad news, especially when Trout and Ohtani followed suit.
Cueto adjusted by dialing down his sinker usage and replacing harder pitches with sliders, and he avoided blistering contact and the resulting drama the rest of the way.
Joe Kelly was the only reliever who looked out of place with a lopsided lead, handling the seventh presumably because he'd been warming during the sixth. He gave up a run, but only because AJ Pollock overran Ohtani's drive to the left-field corner and failed to haul it in behind him. Between that and the Gavin Sheets play on Monday, Adam Engel can rest his hamstring easily.
Bullet points:
*One knock on the White Sox was their performance with the bases loaded. They went 0-for-3 with a double play and two strikeouts, and are now hitting .157/.215/.211 in 65 plate appearances.
*Tim Anderson committed an error when he got cute on a sidearmed throw in the ninth inning, giving Abreu a hop he couldn't handle.
