When the White Sox were swept by Cleveland and all but officially eliminated from the postseason, I longed for a fast-forward button that could get me to the end of the season, because postmortems are easier to write when numbers no longer require updating.
But now that the temperatures have dropped to the 50s at night, and I can follow a meaningless game in the background while having whiskeys with friends around a fire pit , I wouldn't mind three more weeks like this one.
Maybe that's easier to say when Davis Martin beats Yu Darvish, because the White Sox made it a pleasant and relatively straightforward evening regardless of the conditions. Bullet-point recap:
*Martin set a career high with strikeouts, fanning eight over 5⅔ innings of one-run ball for his third career win. He threw his slider more than his fastball, accounting for 45 of his 103 pitches and 10 of his 12 whiffs. He set it up effectively with a fastball that topped out at 98.
*Some of those fastballs missed high and tight, including one that clipped Brandon Drury's helmet with a runner on second and one out in the fourth. He shook off the scare to strike out Josh Bella and Ha-Seong Kim to end the inning.
*Gavin Sheets and Josh Harrison teamed up to prevent a second run on Martin's tab in the fifth, with their relay cutting down Jurickson Profar at the plate on Juan Soto's double by 20 feet to end the fifth inning. Bell's opposite-field RBI single in the second inning ended up being the only damage on Martin's tab.
*Darvish wasn't at his best, and although the White Sox wasted opportunities in the first or second innings, they were able to hang the loss on him by breaking through in the fourth. Eloy Jiménez put the first pitch of the inning into the first row of seats in the Western Metal buliding, but that didn't kill the rally. Sheets doubled, and then Yoán Moncada singled him home to put the Sox ahead for good.
*After completing the Sox's first scoring rally, Moncada started the second one two innings later. He doubled with one out (although he thought it was a homer out of the box), then scored on Andrew Vaughn's single through the middle. Moncada went 3-for-4 in his first game back from a bruised foot, so the foul ball off his instep doesn't appear to have jeopardized whatever late-season strides he's made.
*Moncada's single boosted the Sox to a 2-for-11 performance with runners in scoring position for the game. They had been 1-for-10, with golden opportunities dropped in the first, second and fifth innings.
*Miguel Cairo had to use five relievers over the last 3⅓ innings, but in the only good way, as Joe Kelly and Aaron Bummer both struck out the only batter they faced to strand inherited runners. Bummer had to survive a Juan Soto foul ball that just missed being a three-run homer by a matter of feet, but still.
*Jimmy Lambert and Liam Hendriks made the last two innings easier by recording three outs by themselves. Lambert pitched around a one-out walk with a pair of strikeouts, and Liam Hendriks struck out two during a perfect ninth for his 35th save.
*White Sox pitchers combined for 15 strikeouts against just two walks over nine innings.
*Carlos Pérez went 0-for-4 in his second MLB start behind the plate, but it was a much smoother affair than his first. He nearly homered, he finished the relay at the plate with his tag, and while he allowed a stolen base with Kendall Graveman on the mound, no wild pitches, passed balls or other misplays occurred on his watch.
*The White Sox hadn't played a game in San Diego since June of 2005, when Aaron Rowand hit hit a three-run blast off Trevor Hoffman in the 10th inning to help the White Sox take the rubber match.
