Dylan Cease and Kendall Graveman held the Diamondbacks to just three hits this afternoon.
Somehow, all three of those hits scored runs. Cease gave up a pair of solo homers over eight innings -- including a game-tying shot in the eighth -- while Graveman walked a pair of batters before an RBI double that decided the game in the ninth.
The White Sox were held to a two-run sixth, after doing nothing against Kyle Davies for five innings. José Abreu singled with one out, Andrew Vaughn doubled him to third, and the White Sox actually got both runners home. Gavin Sheets hit a deep sac fly that advanced both runners, and AJ Pollock's comebacker deflected off Davies into no-man's land on the right side for a go-ahead infield single.
The offense had nothing else going for it before or after, leaving Cease and whoever succeeded him to keep the Diamondbacks scoreless the rest of the way. Alas, Cease tried to bust Sergio Alcantara with an 0-2 fastball on the inside corner at 98 mph with one out in the eighth, and even though it looked like he hit his spot, it still cost him the victory. Alcantara whipped the bat around and lofted it into the Miller Lite Landing to tie the game at 2.
Cease only threw 81 pitches through seven innings, so it wasn't a bad call to stick with him. Also, Graveman would've been the guy for the eighth inning, and he opened the ninth by walking two of the first three batters before Jake McCarthy delivered the go-ahead double with two outs. Josh Rojas tried to make it 4-2 on a classic aggressive two-out send, but a competent relay cut him down without him even touching the plate.
Still, White Sox pitchers should be allowed to yield three hits and win a game. The White Sox shot themselves in the feet with a couple of double plays, and their best contact went off the base of the left field wall.
Tony La Russa's choices in the bottom of the ninth inning didn't help. After Elvis Andrus hit one of the wall balls for a one-out double, La Russa called for Eloy Jiménez to hit for Adam Engel. That was fine, except it created an obvious pitch-around situation for Ian Kennedy, what with Seby Zavala and Romy González coming up behind him.
Sure enough, Kennedy walked Jiménez on four outside pitches, and it created a situation where La Russa could manage against himself. With runners on first and second, it created an opportunity for a double play, which is why La Russa chose Leury García to hit for Zavala, even though García:
- might be still injured
- has worse splits against righties than Zavala
- was facing a righty who was worse against righties by a considerable amount.
La Russa, who had cited a hitter's performance in 1-2 counts as a reason to call for the intentional walk despite the pitcher holding the upper hand, ignored the mountain of evidence and rolled with García.
García struck out, and so did González. The White Sox are now two games under .500. That's still good enough to be just five games back of first-place Cleveland in this cursed AL Central, but that's all it's good for.
