That's three in a row, both for White Sox and Garrett Crochet.
The White Sox picked up their third consecutive win with another victory over Cleveland, while Crochet posted his third consecutive strong start since realizing the value of pitching glove-side. He struck out 11 while allowing just five hits over six shutout innings, and he saved his nastiest sequences for runners on base.
Another way you could spin it: He neutralized the top of Cleveland's lineup, and the Guardians who did reach safely only set up scoring opportunities for Austin Hedges, who rivals Martín Maldonado for questioning the limits of catcher intangibles.
For instance, Will Brennan notched the first hit off Crochet with a leadoff triple in the third, but Crochet froze him there by striking out Gabriel Arias and Hedges before getting Brayan Rocchio to ground out. Two innings later, a pair of singles three batters apart put runners on the corners with two outs, but Crochet eradicated Hedges on three pitches, including a slider well in off the plate that brought to mind vintage Chris Sale.
The same sequence largely replayed itself in the sixth, as Crochet gave up back-to-back two-out singles to José Ramírez and Josh Naylor to put runners on first and third, only to spin Ramon Laureano into the ground.
Crochet needed to be that good for an extended amount of time, because it took the White Sox until the fifth inning to figure out Carlos Carrasco, who barely needed 40 pitches to cover the first four.
The most dangerous part of the order eventually solved the puzzle. Korey Lee singled, and Paul DeJong's flare to left escaped a diving Will Brennan to put runners on second and third with nobody out. Up came Nicky Lopez, still in search for his first RBI of the year. And after he hit a grounder to second that scored two runs, he was still seeking his first RBI of the year, because it was fairly ruled E4 when a drawn-in Arias pulled a Drawn-In Tim Anderson and started throwing home before securing the ball in his glove.
Lopez advanced to second and scored on Tommy Pham's single to make it a 3-0 lead.
The White Sox offense made sure that lead remained intact, because they had an answer for every Cleveland attack. When Tyler Freeman greeted Steven Wilson with a leadoff homer to start the seventh, Lee and DeJong answered with back-to-back homers in the bottom of the inning. And when José Ramírez hit his second meaningless eighth-inning homer in as many games to make it a 5-3 game, Andrew Vaughn finally ended his home-run drought with a solo shot to right center.
The Guardians are now only a half-game ahead of the Twins for first-place in the AL Central, partially because when it comes to playing the White Sox, they're already three losses in the hole compared to Minnesota. When you hear the White Sox potentially deciding the division, this is how it could happen.
Bullet points:
*Crochet threw 72 of 97 pitches for strikes, topped out at 99 and got 21 whiffs, including three on seven changeups. That's the definition of the phrase in the headline.
*Jordan Leasure picked up his second career save by retiring the last four batters.
*Bryan Ramos went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in his first unproductive game at the plate, but his defense was solid, including picking a Ramírez liner before it hit the dirt.
*The White Sox were 1-for-2 with runners in scoring position, but considering the hitless at-bat was Lopez's E-4, they maxed out all opportunities.
*Lopez is now up to 120 plate appearances without an RBI to start the season, which challenges Herb Adams' record of 125, set back in 1950.
