On Wednesday, I wrote that the White Sox "picked a very White Sox way to lose to win."
Today, they just picked a very White Sox way to lose.
Despite having the go-ahead/winning run on third with fewer than two outs in the eighth and 10th innings, the White Sox couldn't end the game before Alexander Colomé was once again needed in high leverage.
But Tim Anderson was really the guy at the center of it. It was supposed to be an off day, and the Sox probably would've been better off if he was truly off-limits. . He entered as a pinch-hitter with Billy Hamilton on third and one out in the eighth inning, then bounced out to short on the first pitch. He struck out under similar circumstances in the 10th, and then he got eaten up by a chopper in the 12th inning that allowed the first of five Minnesota runs to score.
Alexander Colomé took the loss, although the game really took a dive during Sammy Peralta's MLB debut. He allowed a run-scoring double to NIck Gordon, then walked two batters for another run, and then Jorge Polanco shot a two-run single to put it outside of a slam.
Capping off Anderson's awful afternoon, he bounced into a double play after Eloy Jiménez's RBI single in the bottom of the 12th.
The Sox's late failures overshadowed a heroic effort by the pitching staff, which knew it was going to be backed by a short lineup. Lucas Giolito limited the Twins to a Carlos Correa solo shot, a single and three walks over seven one-run innings, while Kendall Graveman, Jimmy Lambert and Aaron Bummer all pitched scoreless innings. Lambert stranded the Manfred Man by starting the 10th with a popped-up bunt, and Bummer struck out the side in the 11th.
Alas, Reynaldo López was the weak link. Pitching for the first time since departing with a biceps issue on Sunday, he survived one hard-hit ball, but not a second. Max Kepler lined out to center at 105.8 mph, but Byron Buxton's 102.3 mph drive drifted into the first few rows of the left-field seats to tie the game at 2. His ERA is now 8.78.
Were it not for López's gopher ball, Jiménez's two-run shot off Pablo López in the third inning might've been enough. It looked like runs might be hard to come by with Anderson sitting and Jake Burger heading to the IL before the game. The bottom four spots in the order were occupied by Hanser Alberto, Elvis Andrus, Lenyn Sosa and Seby Zavala, all of whom are hitting below .200.
Alberto did come through with a two-out double in the sixth inning that seemed like it could've scored Luis Robert Jr. from first, but Robert got the stop sign from Eddie Rodriguez. It wasn't a matter of hustle, per se, because Robert did beat out a potential double-play ball the batter before and took off immediately, but maybe that hamstring is limiting his top-end speed.
(Alberto also almost drove in the winning run in the 10th, but with one out and the bases loaded, he swung at a 1-2 pitch that clipped him on the back arm, and while he tried to throw the bat to sell the swing as an unrelated event, he was ruled to have committed, and correctly so.
That brought Andrus to the plate, and Andrus grounded out for one of the White Sox's many, many RISPY failures. The White Sox went 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position, and the lone hit was Jiménez's single in the 12th with the Sox down five.
It's hard to call any game a "must-win" at this point in the season, but the standings would've looked a lot better with the Sox trailing by six games instead of eight. One could also argue that nothing can make the AL Central standings look better because the division is irredeemable, and I'd be inclined to agree.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox were intentionally walked four times -- two for Benintendi, two for Robert -- but two of those walks were in order to bring Hamilton to the plate with two outs in extra innings. He popped out on a bunt attempt and struck out flailing, for those who wondered why he hasn't been on the roster the entire time.
*Both White Sox shortstops committed errors, because Andrus bounced a throw earlier in the game. Giolito pitched around it.
*Giolito's slider was the star today. It generated 10 of his 18 whiffs, and he threw it 35 times compared to 11 changeups. His ERA is down to 3.78.
*Anderson pinch-hit for Adam Haseley, who was brought in to be a defensive replacement for Sheets before Buxton tied things up. Defensive replacements are really hard to go to for Grifol right now.
