Touki Toussaint helped turn what was supposed to be a White Sox bullpen day into a normal, respectable fifth-starter outing. He pitched five effective-enough innings, and three White Sox relievers followed to limit the Cardinals to three runs on eight hits and three walks over nine innings while striking out 14.
And it didn't matter, because Miles Mikolas and two Cardinals relievers held the White Sox to seven fruitless singles for a relatively stress-free shutout.
St. Louis pitchers just pounded the strike zone for 96 of their 131 pitches on the afternoon, and nobody in the White Sox lineup could find a way to do damage. Andrew Vaughn had a couple of well-struck balls for outs, and a couple of less-well-struck balls for singles, but nobody else drew a bead on what was being thrown their way. Three of their hits stayed in the infield.
The Cardinals scored the only run they needed in the second when Toussaint allowed three singles for a run. They added insurance in the fifth on a leadoff single that advanced to second on a groundout, third on a brain-fart balk, and home on a chopper that developed slowly enough to score a run. Jordan Walker added a solo shot off Tanner Banks in the ninth.
Outside of the balk, all this was normal mortal pitcher stuff. Toussaint and Banks, along with Aaron Bummer and Reynaldo López in between, were fine. They struck out 14 batters for the ninth time this season. They're 0-9 in such games. Isn't 13 supposed to be the cursed number?
Bullet points:
*Zach Remillard made a nice diving stop and throw at second base to retire Lars Nootbar in the first inning.
*Tim Anderson almost made an incredible play on a grounder by Nolan Arenado that deflected off Jake Burger, but Arenado beat it by a sliver of a step. If Vaughn is 6'2", the ball might've found mitt in time.
