There's somewhat of a professional bromance brewing between starter Jonathan Cannon and senior advisor to pitching Brian Bannister. The former's trust in the latter has only been heightened by a recent grip change that only has given Cannon's changeup more sinking action, but allows him to throw it at regular effort without having to be so conscious of his arm speed. A similar modification has allowed him to regularly get more velocity on his sinker.
And it turns out an Astros lineup missing Yordan Alvarez (personal matter), Kyle Tucker (shin contusion) and José Abreu (Father Time's merciless wrath) provided a good test kitchen for what the pair has been cooking. Though absent so much of their best left-handed thump, what the Astros really bought was a front row seats to see Cannon's sweeper.
"It’s an aggressive team over there, they like to hit fastballs," said Korey Lee, who would know. "I can [call] whatever I want in any count. He has full confidence in all his pitches. Like I said, they are a good fastball hitting team. That’s when changeup and slider all comes into play. He did a good job of controlling the count."
The biggest criticism you could mount toward Cannon's 8 2/3 scoreless innings is that they passed along in too orderly of a fashion to deliver much catharsis. Early count groundouts pay the bills, but don't fill the highlight reels. The Astros did not get a runner to third until Victor Caratini's soft liner escaped the infield in the seventh to put men on the corners with two outs. One first-pitch sweeper and rollover later, Cannon was out of it.
"This kid went stronger as the night went on" said Pedro Grifol. "He threw 19 pitches in the first inning and never hit that mark again."
Filling the need for drama, Grifol brought Cannon out for the ninth at 93 pitches after a pair of deep fly outs got him out of the eighth. A quick two of Cannon's 12 induced groundouts for the night had him on the precipice of a complete game, but Jon Singleton's excuse-me check-swing roller up an unoccupied third base line was followed by Mauricio Dubón's more legitimate hard bouncer up the middle to put the tying runs aboard. John Brebbia, who quietly has been rolling for all of June, got Victor Caratini to chop a high fastball down to Andrew Vaughn to close things up cleanly.
"They told me to go finish it, I wanted to finish it," Cannon said afterward. "It’s funny like that sometimes, to pitch a game like that, and the two little bleeders find some holes and they get on base. But you know what? My defense played a great game behind me all game, Korey called a great game back there. It was fun to be a part of."
Having Framber Valdez's uncharacteristic control outage serve as the primary source of offense would normally be a short answer to the question "Why did the Sox lose?" But after the plate discipline of the last few years, it's just as eye-opening to see Sox hitting draw five walks from an opposing starter in six innings as it is to see them fail to record a hit with runners in scoring position.
Vaughn might not have heartily celebrated his pair of RBIs, but you can't say he didn't work for them. He outran a potential inning-ending bases loaded double play ball in the third, aided by Jeremy Peña's loopy flip to second. Two innings later with the bases juiced and no one out, Vaughn chopped a ball slowly enough to not require any additional assistance to beat out the play. And Luis Robert Jr. following Vaughn with a routine inning-ending double play ball immediately reminded that there are multiple levels of failure to fear.
A season like this one almost encourages the idea of not wasting any runs, and with the night Cannon had, the Sox had all they needed and more.
Bullet points:
*Cannon has allowed one run in 18.2 IP since being recalled, lowering his ERA from 7.24 to 3.32 in the process. His changeup generated five whiffs on nine swings.
*Vaughn also had one of just two Sox hits on the evening and flew out to the wall in the eighth, so it's not like anyone else looked like more of a match for the big moments.
*Lee and Corey Julks got their first chance at revenge against their old club, and combined for three walks and two runs scored. Lee also threw out Trey Cabbage trying to steal second to end the fifth.
*Astros manager Joe Espada got ejected in the bottom of the third inning. A borderline ball at the top of the strike zone to Danny Mendick set him off, but José Altuve getting rung up on a high sinker from Cannon in the top of the frame got the pot simmering.
