The portion of the 23,522 fans who paid $1 for their ticket today certainly got their money's worth. In fact, they picked the rare day to underpay.
Andrew Vaughn hit a two-run homer, Yoán Moncada added a solo shot, and it was enough for Touki Toussaint and four White Sox relievers to carry the lead the rest of the way.
Both teams tallied just three hits, and all the extra-base hits came around to score. The White Sox just had the good fortune to maximize theirs.
Vaughn's third-inning homer off Bryce Jarvis happened to follow the only White Sox walk of the afternoon, drawn by Moncada. That gave the Sox a 2-0 lead, and while Corbin Carroll cut it in half the following inning by tripling to the right-center gap and scoring on a sac fly, Moncada negated it in the fourth. He jumped on Kyle Nelson's first pitch of the inning and got it to clear the left-center wall by the smallest of margins to restore the two-run lead.
Toussaint, who stranded runners in scoring position in the first inning on a nice catch near the netting by Andrew Benintendi, found more trouble all after two outs in the fourth. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. singled to keep the inning alive, followed by walks to Gabriel Moreno and Emmanuel Rivera to load the bases. Had Toussaint not retired ninth-hitting Geraldo Perdomo, Tanner Banks probably would've taken over for the start of Arizona's third time through. But Toussaint pitched Perdomo beautifully, throwing an array of non-fastballs that clipped the edges of the zone away, and he locked him up with a curveball to end the threat.
Pedro Grifol still ended Toussaint's day there, because he'd thrown 85 pitches over four innings, but the bullpen was up to the challenge. Banks pitched a perfect fifth, Declan Cronin did so in the sixth, and although he walked the leadoff man in the seventh, Aaron Bummer retired the final two batters of the inning to strand the inherited runner. Bummer then handled the eighth inning with no issues, setting up Bryan Shaw's perfect ninth for his fourth save.
Bullet points:
*Benintendi also made a nice catch at the wall to spare Shaw extra bases, so he had a nice day defensively.
*The Diamondbacks outwalked the White Sox 4-1, but they went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. The White Sox did not have an at-bat in such a situation, and only stranded one.
*The White Sox went 0-for-16 over the last four lineup spots and the top of the order.
