Pedro Grifol called a painful but ordinary blown save to a decent Cubs team the "toughest loss of the season," but this one might register as the toughest for White Sox fans to watch.
Ostensible staff leader Dylan Cease gave up nine runs and five walks over 4⅓ innings to the worst team in baseball. Four of those runs scored after two outs in the second, thanks in part to two errors in left field by Andrew Benintendi. He gave up an extra base when he awkwardly played a bouncing ball in the gap, then bounced a throw past cutoff man Yoán Moncada on a grounder down the line that Moncada flopped strangely at -- more of a stabbing dive than a diving stab.
Then in the fifth, Grifol then left him in long enough to walk the bases loaded and five up a two-run single over the course of five batters. Tanner Banks relieved him and induced what looked like an inning-ending double-play ball, except Tim Anderson slipped after fielding the ball before taking the ball to second. Lenyn Sosa peeled away from second instead of staying on the bag for a flip, and Anderson's attempt at turning a 6-3 double play sailed into the first-base dugout, allowing another run to score.
Banks then loaded the bases to start the sixth, and just when it looked like the Sox fans might have a legitimate reason for coming to the park besides the postgame concert featuring Vanilla Ice, Rob Base and Tone Loc, a tailor-made 5-4-3 triple play was reduced to a 5-4 double play because Sosa couldn't find the ears on the turn.
(This was all before the postgame concert was cancelled due to a shooting in the left-field bleachers during the game. More details as they emerge.)
Banks then gave up back-to-back homers in the seventh, including one to Nick Allen. Allen entered the game hitting .195/.244/.257, then went 4-for-5 with five RBIs from the ninth spot.
It was a pathetic effort pretty much all the way around. The Sox did hit a pair of homers -- Sosa a two-run shot the opposite way, and Eloy Jiménez a smoked solo sizzler to left -- but they tallied just four other hits. The White Sox were outchanced with runners in scoring position 19-5.
Bullet points:
*Korey Lee made his second start and drew two of the White Sox's four walks.
*Cease's ERA rose to 4.87.
