At some point, the White Sox should win another road series in 2024, just like Michael Soroka should end up on the winning side of a decision at some point this season.
Today was not the day for either, even though everything lined up for it. Garrett Crochet labored through four innings, and while Soroka started the fifth with a one-run lead, a two-run homer by Dane Myers in the seventh put him on the other side of the ledger.
Of course, more offense could've helped out either pitcher. The White Sox jumped out to a 3-0 lead through their first three innings at the plate, and didn't manage a hit over the last six innings. Nicky Lopez's one-out walk in the seventh accounted for the only baserunner over the final two-thirds of the game, and it was followed by a pair of strikeouts.
Crochet's start took a turn after Vidal Bruján leaned into an 0-2 fastball that might've actually been a strike to open the third inning. Up until that point, Crochet had completed the first two innings on 22 pitches.
The next two innings would consume 71 pitches. He threw 26 pitches in the third inning, and then matched his uniform number with 45 in the fourth, which included a whopping 17 foul balls. This is the kind of outing that shows why a third pitch would be nice, because he couldn't find the ears on an effective cutter location, either missing up in the zone, or well below the knees as the start trudged on. He issued three walks over four innings, which was the first time he'd walked more than two batters since May 15.
He did gamely limit the Marlins to two runs, stranding the bases loaded in the fourth by striking out Bryan De La Cruz and winning a 10-pitch battle against Jake Burger, but given that the Sox are already negotiating the ongoing concern about Crochet's unprecedented workload, they were not going to send him out for a fifth inning on 93 pitches.
Soroka pitched decently in relief, but a two-batter sequence in the seventh spoiled his evening. He walked Jake Burger with a couple of non-competitive pitches after evening the count 2-2, and then hung a 1-1 slider to Myers, who would've hit the old Red Grooms home run sculpture left of center had Derek Jeter not removed it.
That's how Soroka went from in line for his first win to 0-9 on the season, and the White Sox offense was in no shape to bail him out. They lay dormant after a productive first three innings against Yonny Chirinos.
At one point it looked promising. Tommy Pham and Andrew Benintendi opened the first with singles, with the former scoring on a Luis Robert Jr. fielder's choice. Robert was doubled off on a Gavin Sheets lineout to second, but the Sox resumed threatening in the second when Paul DeJong walked and moved to third on a Lenyn Sosa single with one out.
Up came Lopez, who took a couple of sliders high in the zone to get ahead 2-0, then took it upon himself to bunt a third elevated breaking ball. The move was intended to confuse the Marlins, but it instead confused DeJong, who got caught between third and home. It also confused Pedro Grifol, who was shown making a sustained "what the hell..." gesture in the dugout. Korey Lee then grounded out to finish the rally.
Three hits and two runs in the third inning appeared to overwrite Lopez's blunder, as Sheets and Andrew Vaughn strung together a pair of two-out RBI doubles to put the Sox ahead 3-0, but it turns out the Sox really could've used that fourth run.
Record: 26-65 | Box score | Statcast
