Sure, it would've been nice if the White Sox managed to finish the job after roaring back from a 9-0 deficit. It would've tied the biggest comeback in White Sox history, last achieved in 1978.
But once the Sox climbed out of that nine-run hole with an eight-run sixth inning, I was pretty much content with the evening.
I suppose you could say the same about the White Sox, because they struggled to recapture the magic afterward. Deivi García gave up a run in the top of the seventh and took a memorable loss in his White Sox debut, while Michael Kopech yielded a key insurance run in the top of the ninth due to his stolen-base problem. The White Sox were able to get one run back when Andrew Vaughn doubled home Andrew Benintendi, but Luis Robert Jr. and Eloy Jiménez both bounced into fielder's choices to end the game.
Still, it ranks as one of the most successful ways to split a doubleheader, because while both teams won one game, the White Sox demoralized the Royals in the process of securing their half.
And that's kinda what you want from a mid-September food fight between an 88-loss team and a 100-loss team: some excitement, but not so much excitement that one team can puff out its chest.
The most striking thing to me was the Jordan Lyles experience. Lyles came into this game 4-16 with a 6.24 ERA, and I come away with a better understanding of how. He was perfect through four innings, and while a Jiménez solo shot cost him the perfect game, no-hitter and shutout to open the fifth, he still qualified for a rare win an eight-run lead.
By the next inning, it was all gone. He couldn't even console himself with a better ERA, because it actually rose two-tenths of a run.
The first seven batters of the inning all reached, and despite Lyles' record and ERA, Mat Quatraro left him in to face six of them.
- Lenyn Sosa single.
- Zach Remillard RBI double.
- Yoán Moncada RBI single.
- Andrew Vaughn RBI double.
- Luis Robert Jr. RBI single.
- Eloy Jiménez single.--- Matt Quatraro finally lifts Lyles for Taylor Clarke ---
- Carlos Pérez walk.
Trayce Thompson then struck out for the first out, and with the Royals still leading 9-5, they could see the light at the end of the tunnel.
But Gavin Sheets came to the plate with the bases loaded, which always gives me hope, as I wrote back in June:
There’s probably no White Sox hitter I trust more Gavin Sheets with the bases loaded, especially with fewer than two outs. It’s not because he’s great — he might or might not be, I wrote that sentence without looking at the numbers — but because he provides the best combination of swing decisions and fly balls.
Now I’m going to look at the numbers, and fortunately, I don’t look like an idiot. He’s .286/.333/.429 over 24 such situations, with five strikeouts and no double plays. He came through with a sac fly here. Again, nothing spectacular, but his at-bats seem to work.
We saw it in the first inning of Game 1, when Sheets picked up Vaughn after a bases-loaded strikeout by slipped a single through the middle to double the White Sox's lead. And we saw it here, because Sheets came within a few feet of a game-tying grand slam, settling instead for a bases-clearing double, which then effectively became a triple thanks to a panicked throw in from center. That mistake loomed large, because Sosa's fly to left scored Sheets to tie the game at 9.
From that point, I got what I wanted from the game.
So did Touki Toussaint, because in a zero-sum game, he ends up with the exhilarating no-decision. I missed his start while putting my son to bed, and I didn't go back and watch any of it. He trailed 4-0 after one, then opened the second inning with a single, walk, single and a Michael Massey three-run homer that made it an 8-0 game.
Luis Patiño took over from there, and while he allowed a leadoff double to come around to score in the third, that managed to be all the damage he allowed over three innings, and Tanner Banks carried it through six with two perfect innings.
García's inning was immediately imperfect, as he plunked Logan Porter to open the inning, walked Dairon Blanco two batters later, then gave up a go-ahead single to Maikel Garcia that gave the Royals the lead.
Grifol tried to do Kopech a favor by bringing him in with the bases empty and one out after Aaron Bummer struck out four of the five batters he faced. He immediately gave up a single to Blanco, who stole second and third before Garcia walked. That became a sac fly, and then Garcia took second and third when Carlos Pérez's throw bounced into center field. His knack for turning walks into triples is a major obstacle in turning into a reliever of note.
Bullet points:
*Sheets is 6-for-8 with the bases loaded this season.
*Pérez was charged with a second error in the ninth, catcher interference on Salvador Perez.
*The win probability chart was a fun one:
