For the first time since May 25, the White Sox have more wins than they do losses, and they can thank their defense for making it possible.
The White Sox turned four double plays behind Michael Kopech and the bullpen to keep the Rockies off the board until the ninth inning. The Rockies turned three double plays themselves, but one they botched allowed the Sox to score the game's first run, and another clutch hit from Yoán Moncada in the seventh inning stood as the difference.
Kopech continued his recent trend of looking neither overpowering nor punishable. He scattered six hits and three walks over 5⅓ innings, but he managed to induce eight groundouts, including a few with impeccable timing:
Second inning: After loading the bases with one out on two walks and an infield single, he falls behind ninth-hitting Brian Serven 2-0 before an Ethan Katz mound visit. After Katz departs, Kopech throws three straight strikes, including one that ends up toward Tim Anderson for n inning 6-4-3 double play.
Fifth inning: The White Sox defense experiences its only lapses when Charlie Blackmon's hot shot gets through José Abreu, with Blackmon stretching it to a double on Andrew Vaughn. Garrett Hampson's grounder then gets past Anderson's backhand attempt to put runners on the corners with one out for Kris Bryant, but he pounds a fastball into the ground for another 6-4-3.
Sixth inning: Kopech departs after a one-out single, but Jimmy Lambert comes in and gets credit for two outs against one batter when Ryan McMahon hits a grounder up the middle to Anderson, who starts a simple 6-3.
Seventh inning: The White Sox save their best effort for last, as Abreu helps get Joe Kelly out of burgeoning trouble. This time he handles a grounder by Blackmon and starts a picturesque 3-6-3.
The White Sox offense had their own troubles with runners on base. Vaughn and Abreu had particularly brutal games by making 10 outs over an 0-for-7 night, with Vaughn grounding into two DPs to Abreu's one. It also didn't help that Yasmani Grandal was the lead runner, and couldn't come close to scoring from first on AJ Pollock's two-out double to the right-center gap in the second inning when just about everybody else gets the green light.
Pollock almost ended the White Sox's third scoring opportunity of the game in the fourth when he grounded to short with runners on the corners and one out, but Hampson got a bad hop and couldn't recover in time for any out, so Eloy Jiménez scored from third for a 1-0 lead.
The Sox's second run would have to wait, because even though the Sox had the bases loaded with still only one out later that inning, German Márquez rallied to overmatch Adam Engel for a strikeout, and got Anderson to ground to short.
It finally arrived in the seventh with three consecutive successful at-bats. Engel led off against Jake Bird with a single through the middle, and while he couldn't go anywhere on Anderson's lineout to center, Moncada found room in right with a scorched double that scored Engel for a 2-0 lead.
That run mattered, because Liam Hendriks was scored upon for the third time in as many second-half outings. McMahon redirected a 2-1 fastball over the wall in left to make it a 2-1 game, and Hendriks had to work to get three outs over the next four batters. He walked Elias Diaz to bring Blackmon to the plate, but he was able to win an eight-pitch battle by jamming him into a groundout to second.
Bullet points:
*Grandal went 3-for-4, all singles.
*Kopech's fastball averaged 94.6 mph, which is fine, especially when it had the up-in-the-zone life to get nine whiffs.
*Hats off to this fine fellow for representing Sox Machine during the game. Make yourself known if you see this.
