ST. LOUIS -- A 8-26 record in the present compels you to think an awful lot about the future. And outside sizing up half the lineup as potential deadline trade assets, a certain type of White Sox viewer (probably a 10 WAR Patreon subscriber) could view Sunday's rubber match 5-1 victory against the Cardinals solely through the lens of "What did Garrett Crochet and Bryan Ramos do?"
And perhaps, once Crochet's left ankle took an 91 mph smash off the bat of Lars Nootbaar in the third inning, it shifted to "Should Crochet still be in this game?"
"Immediately it felt pretty brutal," said Crochet, whose foot was wrapped postgame. "In my mind, when I was doing the warmup pitches I was like, ‘I’m just buying time for someone in the bullpen to get hot.’ But I was able to find my footing there after a couple of throws, felt like I had some stability. Just kind of off the bone, so it was just that immediate reaction that really felt painful."
But even viewing through a developmental standpoint, the White Sox might counter that, by playing through pain and trying to pitch his team to their first road series win a day after the bullpen was taxed by extra innings and the elements, they learned critical information about Crochet as he paced through the dugout to keep his sore ankle from stiffening.
After lamenting not being able to save the bullpen when he was pulled after five innings and 77 pitches in his last start, Crochet would not easily relent after the same group had thrown 5⅔ scoreless innings the day before. Ultimately, Crochet was feeling well enough postgame that he didn't think his ankle even required an X-ray, but in the moment it was as much about determination as the diagnosis.
Crochet recorded 10 more outs after that Nootbaar liner, shrugging off a Willson Contreras solo shot to complete six innings of one-run ball. For all the flashes of front-of-the-rotation stuff, and a sterling strikeout-to-walk ratio he only boosted with six punchouts and no free passes on Sunday, it was his first time completing six innings and recording a quality start in over a month. For all the concern of managing Crochet's workload, he found 98.7 mph on his last pitch of the afternoon to strike out Paul Goldschmidt, and roared in satisfaction.
"It was very meaningful," Crochet said of completing six innings. "That was part of the ankle dilemma as well. I can’t come out of this game. They’re going to have to tell me that it looks like crap for me to come out of the game."
"It was a gutty, gutty performance by him," said Pedro Grifol. "It sounded ... I thought it hit meat. He’s a big dude and he’s strong. I mean, he’s really strong. So, it sounded like it hit him in the thigh or something. But then when we got out there it hit him in the ankle. When I put together where it hit him and the way it sounded, I thought we might be in a little bit of trouble there. But to his credit, he took his time and threw his three or four warmup pitches."
Grinning uncontrollably at his corner locker, Ramos enjoyed an environment that was not supposed to be easily available to him on a White Sox team struggling this deeply. The postgame clubhouse had loud music and jubilant teammates that had just completed a series win that felt meaningful, half of them jokingly offering to be the interpreter they knew Ramos didn't actually need.
"I feel like there's nothing better than this," Ramos said. "I've been dreaming of this since I was a kid playing baseball in Cuba and then was trying to sign in the Dominican. Since then, that was my dream to get to the big leagues and get a hit and all this, it's like, I'm way too happy right now."
And for what has been the worst offense in baseball all year, Ramos got over the nerves of his first major league at-bats because he was put in positions to succeed. His first major league plate appearance came with Paul DeJong waiting on third with one out, and after watching an 0-1 slider from lefty Matthew Liberatore bounce at his feet, Ramos spotted an elevated hanging curve and lifted a sacrifice fly to deep left-center for his first big league RBI.
Ramos' second breakthrough came similarly, lining an 103.7 mph rope back up the middle because he was able to square his focus down to try to push the ball to the right side of the field.
"Man on second and I say, 'I'm going to try to hit the ball the other way' because I want the runner to move and I get a base hit, perfect," Ramos said. "I don't want to try to be the hero, I want to work for the team. My goal was to get the ball to the other side of the field, but I get a base hit so I'll take that."
With the keepsake baseball in his possession, Ramos is off to Tampa having never known defeat in the major leagues. His developmental trajectory means more for future seasons, but the joy of his debut is a lift right now, for the people entrenched in the work of trying to wrench this season out of the pit of despair in which it began.
"It reminded me of me in '19 when I first came up: He was very anxious but doing well," said Eloy Jiménez, whose homer to right-center conjured memories of his best moments. "It’s a privilege to come to the big leagues and especially when you are Latin. We have the opportunity, but not too many guys make it. But to be one of them is good."
"Last week we had the Tommy Pham effect," said Crochet. "Right now we have the Bryan Ramos effect. So let’s keep it rolling."
