The White Sox came into this game holding the on-paper pitching advantage with Erick Fedde versus an opener, and eventually the disparity in confidence bore out.
Fedde walked a few different tightropes, but eventually he was able to complete six innings for a quality start. On the other side, the White Sox ran out an all-righty lineup against right-handed opener Scott McGough in anticipation of left-handed bulk boy Tommy Henry, and while Arizona manager Torey Lovullo was able to avoid Henry's entry for longer than anticipated, the White Sox's strategy ultimately prevailed, setting season highs for homers, runs, and margin of victory in the process.
It's not often you can say this, but the White Sox had the better thought process throughout. Andrew Vaughn contributed two of the White Sox's first four runs on decision that played to his strengths.
In the third, he came to the plate against old friend Thyago Vieira with two outs and Martín Maldonado on second(!) after a double (!!). He fouled back a first-pitch fastball, then took two sliders low. Lovullo then made a mound visit, after which Vieira balked by dropping the ball. Compounding problems, Vieira then returned to his fastball, and Vaughn shot it back through the middle to tie the game at 1.
(After the game, Lovullo said that Maldonado had been seeing Vieira spinning the ball in his glove before breaking pitches, which explains the mound visit, the balk, and then the fastball.)
With the Sox leading 2-1 in the fifth after a Paul DeJong homer an inning prior, Vaughn came to the plate after a Tommy Pham walk that led to Vieira's departure. In came Bryce Harley Jarvis, and on his first pitch of the evening, he gave up two runs. He threw Vaughn a fastball, and it ended up over the right-center wall for a 4-1 White Sox lead.
The Sox threatened to blow the game open with three singles that loaded the bases after Vaughn's homer, and they had runners on second and third with one out in the sixth and couldn't convert, but Lenyn Sosa finally put the Sox ahead comfortably with a three-run shot off the left-field foul pole, and Korey Lee's two-run shot in the ninth turned it into a laugher.
All the while, Fedde did his part, even if it wasn't pretty. He gave up a run two batters into the game to fall behind 1-0, then loaded the bases on three singles by the first four Arizona batters in the second. Fortunately, he benefited from a large strike zone at the most critical time. On a 3-2 count to Corbin Carroll with the bases loaded, he threw his fifth high cutter of the at-bat, and home plate umpire Nick Mahrley gave him the second called strike above the zone for a huge backwards K. Ketel Marte then grounded out to first, and Fedde dodged his biggest threat.
Smaller ones didn't really register. He worked around Jake McCarthy's leadoff double in the fourth, and while he couldn't do the same with Carroll's leadoff double in the fifth, he compartmentalized effectively. Marte dropped a perfect drag bunt, and his dive beat Vaughn's dive to first while Fedde jumped over the bag to put runners on the corners in a very dramatic fashion. Working with a 4-1 lead, Fedde was happy to take three flyouts afterward, which narrowed the margin but allowed Fedde to pitch a sixth inning, which he completed with his 108th pitch.
Fedde only got six whiffs on those 108 pitches, but he didn't walk anybody and kept the ball in the park, so he won the majority of the true outcomes. He improved to 5-1 for a 19-win team, and lowered his ERA ever so slightly to 3.09.
Bullet points:
*Lenyn Sosa came a triple shy of the cycle during a 3-for-5 night. He also gave up an infield single by cutting off DeJong on a bouncer. DeJong was set up for a direct dart, but Sosa ended up having to pirouette, and his throw was late. It's easier to take the mistakes when the bat shows up.
*Maldonado raised his average to .086, and his OPS to .268.
*Every White Sox reached base at least once.
