The White Sox picked up their first division win and snapped a five-game skid. It wasn't easy, and it doesn't figure to get any easier after suffering another costly injury in the process.
The Sox blew a first-inning 5-0 lead, but Dominic Fletcher two-run double in the eighth inning put the White Sox back on top, and two dominant innings by Michael Kopech closed it out. Along the way, however, Yoán Moncada joined Eloy Jiménez and Luis Robert Jr. in the Hurt Himself Running Again Club by falling to the ground in front of first base with a strained adductor.
The lineup already failed to impress, even with Moncada in it. The lineup card had Lenyn Sosa batting third, and Korey Lee batting fifth ... as a DH.
It worked, at least for one inning. The White Sox nearly doubled their season total of hits with runners in scoring position against Logan Allen in the first. After Robbie Grossman walked and Moncada singled, Lenyn Sosa doubled in a run, Andrew Vaughn shot an RBI single to right field, and Korey Lee did the same to make it 3-0. Andrew Benintendi interrupted the streak with a flyout, albeit a productive one. After both runners tagged, Kevin Pillar brought them both home for a 5-0 lead.
Michael Soroka couldn't respond with a shutdown inning, surrendering a two-run homer to Josh Naylor, and that foreshadowed a rough evening ahead. He didn't get through four, and Tim Hill couldn't spare his line. Soroka plunked Ramón Laureano, and while Soroka struck out Bo Naylor and Gabriel Arias, Laureano was able to steal second on Soroka, and then third on Hill. Hill then lost a pair of lefty-lefty battles with an RBI single by Steven Kwan, and another base hit by Andrés Giménez, before José Ramírez lined a single to right to tie the game at 5.
The good news is that the more trustworthy pocket of White Sox relievers continued to build credibility. Jordan Leasure pitched his first two-inning outing of his MLB career, and while Steven Wilson had to throw 24 pitches in the seventh, he had enough to strike out the side and strand two.
Kopech had been warming in the bullpen at the top of the eighth, so he would've entered the game regardless, but Fletcher turned it into a save situation. The Sox lucked into a rally when Korey Lee's broken bat gave Scott Barlow two comebackers to handle, and the tumbling barrel prevented him from fielding the ball, resulting in an infield single. Benintendi then worked an eight-pitch walk in front of Fletcher, who scorched an elevated slider into the right-center gap to score both runners. He was cut down trying to stretch into a triple, but Kopech didn't require additional insurance. He struck out four of the six batters he faced, spending most of his two innings in triple digits.
Fletcher also made up for a confusing call by Pedro Grifol in his previous at-bat. After Benintendi notched his first 100-mph exit velocity with a leadoff double against Nick Sandlin, Grifol chose to play for a run by having Fletcher bunt. Fletcher executed, but that created a situation where he needed contact from Paul DeJong in a righty-right situation, or a clutch hit by Martín Maldonado. DeJong struck out -- he's now fanned eight times in 15 plate appearances -- and so did Maldonado.
As for Moncada, he left the game with assistance after pulling up sharply running down the first base line, and tumbling to the ground in front of the bag, where he was comforted by Josh Naylor of all people after Naylor caught the ball for the 5-3 putout. More will be known about Moncada's status Wednesday, but the initial reviews aren't positive.
Grifol on Moncada: "Won't know exactly till tomorrow how he wakes up and sees the docs when we get the scans in. He was in some severe pain out there."
— Daryl Van Schouwen (@CST_soxvan) April 10, 2024
Bullet points
*Vaughn went 2-for-4, coming up with a clutch hit and an extra-base hit while raising his OPS above .500. It has to start somewhere.
*Grossman reached base three times from teh leadoff spot.
*Leasure erased his lone walk by picking off Ramon Laureano.
