Did the White Sox break a streak of 12 series without a victory on Thursday, when they won the makeup finale of a three-game April set with a jetlagged Braves team? Or did they do it Saturday afternoon with a four-pack of homers and 11 unanswered runs against a Rockies club that very much seems like their equal?
A voicemail left at the Smithsonian Institute seeking clarification is awaiting a reply. Actually it's just a White Sox PR staffer sending an email to the Elias Sports Bureau, but similar vibes.
(UPDATE: Elias responded tepidly, saying they wouldn't consider Thursday's makeup game part of the April series against the Braves, nor would they consider one game a series in itself. But also, they have no official designation for what constitutes a series. Oh brother.)
Exiled from the Cleveland pitching machine this past offseason, Rockies starter Cal Quantrill seemed to be entering the sort of advanced stages of "Figuring It Out" over the last two months that usually foreshadows a dominant outing against the White Sox. Riding a newfound splitter, the 29-year-old Canadian entered with a 2.48 ERA and just three homers allowed since the beginning of May. For four scoreless innings, Quantrill looked the part while protecting a 3-0 lead, before Sox hitters responded to a compact sequence of "hit me" pitches to match that home run total before he could complete the sixth.
Lenyn Sosa got a 2-1 splitter markedly close to the precise epicenter of the strike zone (right after Nicky Lopez doubled on a sinker in the same spot) and lifted his third home run of the season just over the wall to right-center to narrow the gap in the fifth. When Quantrill returned to face the heart of the order in the sixth, his command had already departed to beat the traffic. He hung a first-pitch curve to Luis Robert Jr. that was lucky to complete its 470-foot journey intact, and striking out Gavin Sheets right afterward only inspired false hope that he could keep the game tied.
Quantrill proceeded to hit Andrew Vaughn in the back with a 1-1 splitter that sprayed wildly enough that he never returned to the pitch. And turning to a center-cut sinker as a full count offering to Paul DeJong proved to be the moment that put the White Sox up for good, as the shortstop deposited his team-leading 15th blast into the left field seats.
In his comeback outing after last weekend's debacle in Detroit, Jonathan Cannon split the difference between generating concern and elation. He allowed four baserunners while coming an out shy of a quality start, but neither missed bats (three strikeouts) nor generated grounders (three again) to any defining degree. Two low liners off the bats of Brendan Rodgers and Nolan Jones accounted for all the damage, but also felt like the culmination of plenty of hard, air-driven contact that found gloves before it.
In sum, Cannon threw lots of strikes and let the Rockies offense figure out the rest, and sure enough that put his team in a position to win.
Tanner Banks and the best Steven Wilson appearance since returning from the injured list delivered a 5-3 game to the eighth inning. But with Michael Kopech and John Brebbia both having been pressed into the rare service of securing wins each of the last two days, Justin Anderson was warming for his first save in five years.
Instead the Sox embraced the spirit of Saturday's Sporcle quiz against lefty Jalen Beeks, who must love pitching here, and batted around for an eighth-inning six-spot centered around Korey Lee's three-run shot to left. The 11 runs scored are a season-high. The 10 runs scored the Sox were sitting at before Sosa scored from third on a two-out, two-strike wild pitch would have also been a season-high. The six runs scored in the eighth inning were, yes, a season-high.
Bullet points:
*Of Robert's nine home runs, six have come with the bases empty. In disparate action due to injury, he's hitting at an MVP level with the bases empty, and with runners on is closer to what the White Sox probably hoped to get from Martín Maldonado's bat this year. If you're not in a position to be enraged by it, it's kind of funny.
"Leverage at-bats for Robert, seventh inning on, up by two, down by two," said Pedro Grifol. "Robert's got a 1.020-1.030 OPS in the last couple of years. When the game’s on the line and he’s facing their best, he’s really good."
*DeJong had not homered in his previous 12 games, but the names behind him in the MLB home run standings are still amusing: Cal Raleigh, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Fernando Tatis Jr., Elly De La Cruz, Salvador Perez.
*Beeks has now allowed 10 earned runs in 6 2/3 innings at Guaranteed Rate Field. Buddy...I don't know what to say.
*Sosa said he made a small mechanical fix a couple days ago offensively. Grifol said it was an adjustment with his hands in his setup, geared toward creating more separation.
*Garrett Crochet takes the mound Sunday with a chance to match the team's longest winning streak of the season: four games.
