MILWAUKEE -- Even in the major leagues, losing 10 games in a row isn't easy, and the White Sox have made it look like hard living every step of the way.
Saturday in Milwaukee managed to combine the White Sox offense's first multi-home run effort since May 14 and six more strong innings from the team's biggest individual bright spot in Garrett Crochet. But the two homers were undercut by only one hit from the offense after the fifth inning, when Brewers starter Robert Gasser departed. An already shallow bullpen was undercut by more leaky defense, and the White Sox demonstrated how to create consistent disappointment even amid their best performances.
"The guys in here really rally around each other, as opposed to teams I’ve been on in the past," said Crochet. "This is a good group, we come in every day trying to win games. We’re all playing hard, we’re all grinding together. Right now the ball is not falling our way."
But a lot has to fall the Sox way to win tight games against good teams, and falling off the tightrope they attempted to dance along Saturday felt more inevitable than a one-run loss in 10 innings would indicate. Pressed into duty to try to finish off a second scoreless inning of work even with the free runner, Michael Kopech fell behind Christian Yelich before an intentional walk. A wild pitch to the backstop made it so that all Willy Adames needed was a hard grounder than caromed away from Zach Remillard's diving grasp at short to end it.
It has not been the biggest focal point for good reason, but with Steven Wilson injured and John Brebbia's 7.71 ERA, the Sox are a few stable rungs short of a high-leverage ladder in the bullpen. Case-in-point would be Justin Anderson being tabbed to cover the seventh inning of a 3-1 game for what would have been his first major league hold in five years, and falling short against a top-five offense in the sport. In fairness to Anderson, his prospects looked better before the Sox defense removed his margin for error.
"Everybody was available I wanted to use in this game and used them," Pedro Grifol said postgame. "The right guys were in the game. There wasn’t anybody who wasn’t available that I would have used in this game."
Having a rough time spelling Paul DeJong at short for the day, Remillard couldn't get the tag down on Brice Turang to complete what would have been a nifty 3-6 inning-ending double play started by Gavin Sheets at first, extending the frame into the teeth of the Brewers lineup.
"I thought I got the tag down and I do think he was out," Remillard said on a cal. "They didn’t confirm it. The call stood."
A two-out walk to William Contreras ended Anderson's afternoon and handed things over to the Jordan Leasure-Kopech back end of the pen. But as Leasure is still a proto-version of the shutdown reliever he looks on track to become, he walked Yelich to load the bases before a hard grounder from Adames eluded Danny Mendick's diving grasp to tie the game. Leasure recovered to strike out a pair in scoreless eighth, but the rookie needing to be spotless across a four-out appearance is a flaw in the current design.
"It's the beautiful and terrible thing about baseball," Sheets said. "Couple inches here and there and we get out of that inning. It's tough."
A breakthrough burst of power, both from the Sox and Sheets personally once again threatened to carry the day until the bottom of the seventh. Sheets' second-deck two-run no-doubter to right off Gasser in the fourth--at least somewhat enabled by Andrew Vaughn being sidelined by a sprained finger--was his first homer off a southpaw out of the 41 in his career. And he only missed his second in the sixth inning by feet off Jared Koenig, suggesting there's more yet where that came from.
The same is unlikely to be said about Andrew Benintendi golfing an 0-2 sweeper from Gasser to a similar spot in the third. Circling the bases after his first lefty-on-lefty home run of the season was the last Benintendi was seen on the field, as he was out of the game by the bottom half of the frame due to what the White Sox said was left Achilles tendinitis. An IL stint sounds imminent, and discussion of whether nagging pain contributed to his slow start is likely to follow.
"It wasn’t the home run that flared it up," Grifol said, indicating Benintendi's Achilles had bothered him before. "Off and on. It’s something that we didn’t feel like was going to hinder him long-term."
The biggest Sox power output in weeks lined up with their hottest starter trying his level best to drag his club to the promised land (of winning a game). Garrett Crochet started the afternoon sitting in the 95-96 mph band and another day of laborious Brewers at-bats had him at 86 pitches at the end of the fifth; neither of which suggested this was a day his work capacity would be stretched.
But Crochet took the favor of a sixth inning of work and paid it back by striking out the side around a flared Rhys Hoskins single, using nothing but heaters to finish off Blake Perkins at a career-high 103 pitches. A whopping 95 of those offerings were fastballs or cutters, which is just who he is now.
"I had a feeling it was getting up there but I felt good," Crochet said of his pitch count. "Felt like I was able to rip the heater, that’s what I was able to live and die with there at the end."
Crochet has a 1.35 ERA in his last seven starts, but the Sox have managed to lose three of them, which is just who they are now too.
Bullet points:
*Benintendi's blast off Gasser was not only his first home run off a lefty this season, but just his second extra-base hit and lifted him to 4-for-40 against southpaws on the season. That's likely where he'll stay with an IL stint looming, with reinforcements already on the way.
*Anderson had made seven appearances in a White Sox uniform, none have come in victories.
*Remillard made himself too conspicuous. He collected an error on a rushed high throw to Sheets in the fourth, couldn't corral a Contreras grounder to the hole in the fifth, on top of the crucial late tag in the seventh. He also went 0-for-4, and struck out on a bunt attempt in the 10th in an at-bat where he also was tagged with a pitch clock violation.
"It’s a tough one to swallow, especially for me," Remillard said. "I take a lot of pride in my defense."
*Sox pitching has walked 55 hitters in 89 innings during this 10-game losing streak. That's too many.
*Sox fan presence in Milwaukee was felt, and much appreciated.
"We try to feed off anything we can get, to be honest with you," Sheets said. "The ones that are out supporting us right now, we appreciate immensely."
