Pedro Grifol took a risk in assailing his team's effort after Kyle Bradish and the Orioles nearly no-hit the White Sox on Sunday -- and then doubling down on it -- because although today was a new day, the lineup that was 1-9 through the first 10 games of this brutal stretch was largely the same.
Sure enough, the White Sox ended up losing by a larger margin this afternoon, following up the 4-1 loss to Baltimore with a 5-1 loss to Toronto, which makes it six in a row. The lone run once again scored on an eighth inning solo shot, this one by Gavin Sheets.
The White Sox had chances. They outhit the Blue Jays 11-6, and had a 14-12 edge in baserunners, but Toronto held a 3-1 edge in home runs, and that made the difference.
Nick Nastrini gave up two of those homers on misplaced fastballs, but otherwise fared better in his second crack at the Jays after a miserable evening last week. He gave up three runs on three hits and four walks over five innings, but at least he recorded a strikeout this time -- five of them, actually -- and lowered his ERA to single digits (9.92).
Strike-throwing was still a problem (44 of 82 pitches), but he mostly dodged consequences for it, save a couple of costly mistakes. In the second, he walked Daulton Varsho with two outs on a pair of non-competitive pitches on 2-2 and 3-2, then piped a 92.6 mph fastball to George Springer, who sent it out to left for a 2-0 Toronto lead.
In the fourth, he started Bo Bichette with a good slider that Bichette nearly fell over chasing, only to throw another middle-middle fastball. While it had a couple ticks more on it (94.6), that just meant it went 23 feet farther, and the 419-foot solo shot gave the Jays a 3-0 lead.
John Brebbia ended up serving up the backbreaker, although he made Davis Schneider work harder for it. He gave up a leadoff single to Springer, but then retired the next two to turn over the lineup for Schneider. Brebbia got ahead 0-2, but two non-competitive pitches evened the count. He fouled off a four-seamer in the shadow of the zone up and away, ducked away from one up and in, then fouled off another fastball away.
Brebbia then tried to go with a slider, but he hung it, and Schneider got just enough of it, sending it barely over the left-field wall for the 5-1 lead.
The White Sox were briefly feisty, putting the first two aboard on a Korey Lee single and Tommy Pham walk. Grifol then pinch-hit Bryan Ramos for Nicky Lopez, and Ramos grounded into a 5-4-3 double play that snuffed out the final rally.
The Sox had other uprisings that ended quietly. They loaded the bases on Chris Bassitt with three singles in the first, but Paul DeJong flied out to right, and that started another unsuccessful day with runners in scoring position. Benintendi's single that inning was the only hit with RISP, but it didn't score a run, and the Sox went 1-for-7 with 11 stranded on the day. The Blue Jays weren't any better (0-for-5), but three homers covers for a lot.
Bullet points:
*Jared Shuster bounced back from his illness-altered outing with three scoreless innings, so he and Nastrini both saved some face.
*Andrew Benintendi went 3-for-4, so his OPS is back over .500 (.501 to be exact).
*Martín Maldonado went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts before Lee pinch-hit for him in the ninth. He's batting .083 with a .266 OPS.
