With Michael Kopech out for the year, it was Garrett Crochet's turn to see if a handful of effective outings out of the White Sox bullpen could allow him to finish a tough year on a high note.
Instead, Crochet took the loss in his first appearance since June 15, and the White Sox dropped to 5-15 in September after taking a lead into the eighth inning.
With a 2-1 White Sox lead hanging in the balance, Crochet entered with a runner on and nobody out in the eighth after Bryan Shaw plunked the leadoff man on the 10th pitch of the battle. Crochet immediately gave up a bloop single off the end of the bat to Rafael Devers, which put runners on the corners.
Crochet got Justin Turner to chase a full-count fastball out of the zone for the first out, but he went full to Alex Verdugo and walked him with a slider in the dirt to load the bases. He fell behind 3-0 to Adam Duvall, and while he was able to get strike one on a pitch on the corner, Duvall was ready for a second fastball there and redirected it to the right-field warning track for a game-tying sac fly.
Crochet finally got ahead of a batter 1-2 on Masataka Yoshida, but his attempt at a putaway slider hung inside, and Yoshida slapped it through the right side for a go-ahead single that stood as the game-tying run.
Crochet took the loss in his return to the majors, and it spoiled a win for Touki Toussaint.
Toussaint pitched beautifully for 6⅓, allowing only one run that should've been unearned. Trevor Story led off with a routine grounder to short that Tim Anderson handled in a routine fashion, but Anderson then took about two or three steps to make the throw. Maybe he assumed everybody runs as hard down the line on near-certain outs as he does, but Story was hustling all the way and beat Anderson's throw by plenty. Somehow it was scored a hit.
He then advanced to second on a single, both runners moved to third on Connor Wong's sac bunt, and then Ceddanne Rafaela's sacrifice fly to right scored him for the first run of the game.
Toussaint only allowed two other singles and two walks the rest of the way, and one of those runners was erased by Korey Lee on a thwarted stolen base attempt. Grifol let him work into the seventh, but after a well-struck Masataka Yoshida lineout and a solid single by Story to start the inning, Grifol went to Shaw.
Shaw stranded those runners with help from Trayce Thompson, who pulled a ball out of the first row down the right-field line for the second out. That allowed Toussaint to finish with his best start of the year in terms of stinginess and outs covered, so at least he came out of it with something.
Thompson also had a nice day at the plate, putting the White Sox ahead in the seventh inning in a rally Luis Robert Jr. started.
Robert singled off Garrett Whitlock with one out in the seventh, then stole second. After Eloy Jiménez walked, Robert stole third, and that mattered when Devers could only knock down Andrew Vaughn's grounder to the left side. A better third baseman -- or a third baseman who didn't have to draw toward third base with Robert there -- might've been able to start an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play with his sliding attempt, but Vaughn ended up with an RBI single. After Elvis Andrus lined out, Thompson came through with a double to the left-center gap to make it a 2-1 game.
That kept Chris Sale from getting the win for his five shutout innings. Sale flummoxed the White Sox, allowing just three singles and a walk while striking out seven. The White Sox lineup tried to sit on his slower stuff, but Sale realized that, and his 93-95 mph fastball was enough to upset the scouting report.
Bullet points:
*Toussaint only got three whiffs all game, but he did rack up 18 called strikes to compensate.
*Yohan Ramirez made his White Sox debut and closed out the eighth inning with a lineout.
*Three different hitters took at-bats in the eighth spot. Zach Remillard started in left and went 0-for-1 with a sac bunt. Gavin Sheets pinch-hit for him and grounded out, after which he was replaced by Andrew Benintendi, who hit for himself.
