Time and time again, the 2024 White Sox have proven to be amazing losers, and in the most literal sense. Not only do they lose more games than any other team in Major League Baseball, but they often pick the most convoluted, ridiculous, self-parodying form to accomplish the lack of accomplishment.
The White Sox had a chance to sweep the Marlins in Miami, but instead were denied even a mere road series victory, which would only be their second of the season. They held a 4-1 lead through six thanks to an effective start by Jonathan Cannon, only to watch it crumble into the sea over the final few innings.
Tanner Banks gave up a pair of runs in the seventh, but in a conventional sense. He issued a leadoff walk, followed by an RBI double and a pair of productive outs. That kind of sequence happens all the time, and the White Sox still held a one-run lead, which John Brebbia preserved in the eighth.
In came Michael Kopech, and while you can see from the final score that he gave up four runs in the bottom of the ninth, and you'd know that it'd have to involve a homer for the Marlins to win by more than one, you'd have no real sense of the journey.
The leadoff walk to Vidal Bruján, sure. Banks just did the same thing two innings earlier, except it was followed by a sac bunt this time.
But what if I told you it was a two-base sacrifice bunt because Korey Lee didn't cover third, and Bruján kept running? And Bruján was almost able to pull an A.J. Pierzynski, but Gavin Sheets got home just as he saw Bruján's mental wheels turning. Kopech got Jazz Chisholm Jr. to fly out to too-shallow left on the first pitch, which nearly undermined Bruján's derring-do.
Josh Bell then strode to the plate as the last man standing, and he bore an 0-for-24 hitless streak on his shoulders. Except Kopech fell behind 3-0 on high fastballs, before loading the count on two more fastballs. A sixth fastball was up and just off the plate, but Bell was prepared to take it in that direction and launched a 101-mph drive toward left field. Tommy Pham raced after it and leaped at the wall ...
... but too early. The ball cleared his glove as Pham was on the way down, then got hung up between the wall and Pham's person, creating the illusion of a catch until the ball fell to the warning track. Bruján scored, Bell took second with his slump now reading "1-for-25." Extra innings beckoned.
Until they didn't. Kopech never actually recorded the third out. He fell behind 2-1 to Jesus Sánchez before Pedro Grifol called for the intentional walk to bring old friend Jake Burger to the plate. Burger swung through one fastball at the top of the zone, then then took a borderline fastball at the knees called a ball.
The third pitch was delayed, because in the process of his first attempt, he caught a spike and lost his balance for the second time in a week, resulting in a balk that put two runners in scoring position. That created the possibility of a walk-off single, but Burger made it moot, for when Kopech threw a third fastball, this one back to the top of the zone, Burger crushed a no-doubt, 431-foot blast out to left center for the walk-off homer instead.
The White Sox and Marlins leave the series in the same way they found it. The White Sox are still the worst team, and the Marlins are the second-worst team, trailing the Rockies by a half-game. The only difference is that the White Sox were six games worse than Miami, and now they're seven.
As for how the White Sox managed to lead this game, that, too, was a little bit mystifying. Danny Mendick launched a two-run homer off Edward Cabrera in the fourth inning for a 2-0 lead, which only made everybody wonder why he bunted with runners on the corners and two outs against Cabrera two innings earlier (he popped out, snuffing the rally).
Cannon gave up half of the lead when he walked two batters for the second consecutive inning and paid for it on a Bruján RBI double, but that was the only damage he incurred over six. By the time his day was done, the White Sox enhanced their lead with two runs in the sixth. Korey Lee tripled into the right field corner to score Mendick, and then came home on a dramatic Andrew Vaughn sac fly. Nick Gordon made an incredible diving catch, even though the ball nearly broke through the webbing of his glove. The White Sox challenged the call, putting the first of two losses on Grifol's tab.
Bullet points:
*Grifol is just 2-for-12 on challenges this year. He has more ejections than overturned calls.
*Kopech now has as many losses as saves. He's 8-for-13 in the latter category.
