Tonight's first bout of rain was a nuisance, delaying the start of the game by 2 hours and 9 minutes, and jeopardizing the postgame Jordan Davis concert that drew a pretty healthy crowd to a meeting of the two worst teams in baseball under unfriendly skies.
The second bout of rain was a blessing.
It showed up after Luis Robert Jr.'s leadoff double off Dakota Hudson in the sixth inning, with the White Sox trailing 2-1. That gave the Sox their first runner in scoring position since the second inning, and up came Eloy Jiménez, who had grounded into double plays in each of his first two plate appearances.
That's when they sky temporarily opened up. Hudson couldn't throw a strike to Jiménez, who chased one pitch outside the zone but otherwise drew a five-pitch walk. He also walked Andrew Vaughn on five pitches to load the bases, bringing Paul DeJong to the plate. DeJong was the first batter to see two strikes, and he stayed down on a Hudson sinker and muscled it into left-center field for a game-tying RBI single.
Jiménez had to hold up to make sure it cleared the shortstop, and could only advance to third. That should've mattered when Nicky Lopez's fly ball to center was too shallow, and Korey Lee followed with an excuse-me bouncer to first base. Michael Toglia didn't seem to have a sense of how poorly Jiménez is moving these days, because although it was a slow-developing play, Jiménez is a slow-developing runner. A brisk exchange and a decent throw home would've recorded the force and kept the game tied, and maybe resulted in a double play since Lee stopped running to not bring an easy tag into the equation.
Instead, Toglia hesitated, and because he hesitated, he had to settle for the out at first. Tommy Pham followed with a single through the right side that scored two more, and while Pham was cut down at second on an ill-advised steal attempt to end the rally, the Sox still scored all the runs they needed for their first consecutive wins in nearly three weeks.
It also gave consecutive wins to Drew Thorpe, who deserved it. He was briefly in line for the loss when he hung a full-count changeup to Brenton Doyle with one out in the sixth inning, and Doyle crushed it out to left for a two-run shot that gave the Rockies the aforementioned two-run lead.
That was the only mistake he paid for, and he was able to get away with other mistakes because he was able to get to his changeup in ideal counts. And because he was able to establish his changeup, he was also able to surprise with his fastball, which had a little more punch than in previous outings. He only allowed two hits and a walk, which had the misfortune of preceding Doyle's homer for maximum pain.
While Thorpe retired 15 batters in a row at one point, Doyle's homer didn't exactly come out of nowhere. Pham flagged down a Ryan McMahon fly on the warning track, not too different from his fine catch on Marcell Ozuna the day before, and he and Luis Robert Jr. also caught a pair of well-struck line drives in the middle innings. But nothing forced Thorpe to deviate from his pretty simple binary formula, especially since the odd slider was efficient at generating results (eight pitches, six swings, five balls in play, four outs).
He just didn't get much in the way of run support until that crooked number in the sixth inning. The White Sox had a chance to create a cushion in the first when Hudson walked the first two batters he faced, but Robert struck out and Jiménez grounded into the first of his twin killings. They had a better opportunity in the second when the first three batters reached on hits, including a Nicky Lopez RBI single that put runners on first and second with nobody out. But Lee struck out, Lenyn Sosa flied out, and Pham grounded out, and Hudson soon reached the rare state of settled in.
But when all was said and done, the White Sox were finally able to further frustrate a struggling pitcher. Hudson came into this one leading the league in losses at 2-10, and with a 5.63 ERA. That ERA rose to 5.84, and he's now 2-11.
Bullet points:
*Tanner Banks gave up a solo shot to Toglia to start the seventh, but otherwise the bullpen got the job done for a second straight night, going to John Brebbia and then Michael Kopech.
*DeJong helped Brebbia find his footing after a leadoff walk by making a nice ranging play and flip to Lopez, who beat Jake Cave to second base for an important force-out.
*Gavin Sheets came off the bench to draw an intentional walk, his first action since bruising his heel on Wednesday. Danny Mendick immediately pinch-ran for him.
*The postgame concert was actually allowed to take place this time.
