I chose to spend tonight teaching curling instead of watching the White Sox take on more water, so here's a bullet-point recap after catching up:
*For those invested in a respectable end to Davis Martin's wonderful breakout season, there wasn't a letdown here. He gave up a two-run homer to Harold Castro in the first inning -- shortly after a broken bat prevented the White Sox from turning two quickly enough on Javier Báez -- but Martin shrugged it off for a quality start.
*Just like Friday's game, the White Sox were able to erase the initial deficit, as Eloy Jiménez pulled a Drew Hutchison sinker out to left, and Gavin Sheets punished a hanging curveball to right for back-to-back blasts. They both now have 15 homers, within two of Andrew Vaughn's lead.
*Just like Friday's game, the Sox didn't have a second burst. Martin was saddled with the loss because Castro got Martin again, muscling a decently located fastball inside the left-field line for a go-ahead single with two outs in the fifth.
*Jake Diekman continued to indicate that the $3.5 million owed to him in 2023 was a huge mistake by Rick Hahn. Despite opening his evening against the bottom of the order, he failed to retire any of the five batters he faced, even though three were lefties. He also gave up a three-run shot to Báez, who put his ear to the crowd in salute to the fans who have booed him all season for reasons that still don't make sense to me.
*Sheets notched an outfield assist for playing a Báez double off the right-field wall cleanly, even though he was standing in the middle of the warning track. Báez looked like he assumed that Sheets was too close to corral it, and he was cut down by plenty via a relay from Josh Harrison.
*The Sox were outhit 14-5, although they did manage to outwalk Detroit 3-2, if that counts for anything (it doesn't).
*Mark Payton drew two of those walks in his first start for the White Sox. He went 0-for-2 with a strikeout in his other trips.
*Cleveland's magic number is 1.
