I bounced back and forth between TV and radio during this one, so here's a bullet-point recap in case there are key details I missed between gaps.
*For the third straight game, a White Sox starter hit the wall in his final inning of work. This time it mattered, because Dylan Cease left two on for Gregory Santos in the seventh inning of a tie game after a single and a double with one out. Santos looked like he did his job when he got Brayan Rocchio to bounce to a drawn-in shortstop, but Tim Anderson fumbled the exchange and the Guardians took their first lead, which they held the rest of the way.
*Cam Gallagher then made it 3-1 when he singled through that drawn-in left side to snap an 0-for-34 streak.
*Anderson also dropped a throw to second on a potential double play ball, but since he recovered to get the force, he wasn't charged with the error.
*The White Sox probably blew this one earlier, when they failed to convert a bases-loaded-nobody-out situation in the second inning. Jake Burger, Yasmani Grandal and Andrew Benintendi reached with two singles and a walk off Logan Allen, but then they ran out of hitters. Hanser Alberto popped out, and Seby Zavala and Jake Marisnick (making his first start) struck out.
*Zavala did atone for his missed opportunity in the fourth, when he drove in Benintendi with a flare that clipped the glove of a leaping Andres Gimenez and into shallow right-center for the Sox's lone run. Alberto had bunted Benintendi over to third for no real reason (trying for a hit with one out, but Benintendi can score on a single).
*The Sox lost two runners on the basepaths, with Anderson getting caught stealing for the first time since June 2021, and Burger losing a heat check.
*Cease met the standards for a quality start with an out to spare, but his stuff wasn't his best. He struck out only three batters over 6⅓ innings, and generated only seven whiffs on 91 pitches. His fastball averaged 94.6 mph, down a tick even relative to his dampened velocity this season, but the only damage through six was a Gabriel Arias solo shot.
*The White Sox resumed their struggles against other teams' bullpens, as three Guardians relievers combined to retire 13 of the 14 batters they faced. Yoán Moncada's pinch-hit single off Emmanuel Clase with two outs in the ninth was the exception.
*Moncada and Gavin Sheets both appeared in the ninth after sitting against the lefty Allen. Grandal was deemed healthy enough to DH.
*Garrett Crochet was deemed healthy enough to make an appearance, and pitched a scoreless ninth on seven pitches (five strikes).
*The Sox took the series, but it ended on a disappointing note, akin to the series against the Twins that ended with a 12-inning loss earlier this month. When they've dug such a deep hole, the shortest path out of it involves converting every winnable game against direct rivals.
