The White Sox lost to the Cubs for the third time in three chances, and with a score of 7-6 in all three games, but at least they picked a far more enjoyable way to do it.
The Cubs rocked Garrett Crochet for four homers over 2⅓ innings to dig a 7-0 hole, but a stout bullpen effort led by Touki Toussaint kept the Cubs off the board over the final six innings, during which time the Sox scored six runs themselves.
Unfortunately, the seventh proved elusive. The Sox loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth against Hector Neris, but Andrew Vaughn flied out to center to quell the threat. The Cubs avoided what would've been their most humiliating loss of the season, while the White Sox picked the most exciting way to lose their 90th game before their 30th win.
One game into the Grady Sizemore Era, the biggest difference seems to be that Crochet's innings are the ones to skip. Ian Happ started the game with a solo shot on a 1-2 cutter, and that set the tone for Crochet's evening. Three of the four homers he allowed came on the cutter, and while predictability might've been a problem, the location of all four pitches was pretty lousy.
Cody Bellinger crushed the right-most cutter out to right field for a two-run shot in the second inning, and it was the first homer Crochet allowed a lefty all year. In his next plate appearance, Crochet threw a pitch behind him. It could've been accidental -- it was 95 with a sink, so it truly could've come off his fingers funny -- but Bellinger still had questions for Korey Lee afterward.
It was that kind of night for Crochet, and it dug too deep a hole despite what might literally be the White Sox's best efforts afterward.
Jameson Taillon had gotten away with a handful of mistakes over three scoreless innings, but Andrew Vaughn opened the fourth with a solo shot, and the offense started to flow afterward. Gavin Sheets, Korey Lee and Dominic Fletcher singled over the course of four batters to make it a 7-2 game, followed by a Brooks Baldwin RBI groundout to first and another single by Nicky Lopez that made it 7-4, and negated the Cubs' four-run third.
Andrew Benintendi accounted for the remainder of the offense, with solo shots in the fifth and seventh and carried over the wall in right field. Neither ball was smoked -- one was 95 mph, the other was 99.7 -- but this was the kind of batted ball that Guaranteed Rate Field was supposed to regularly assist with when the Sox signed Benintendi, and tonight made up for lost time.
He came to the plate in the ninth inning with runners on the corners and two outs after Fletcher singled, Baldwin dropped a sac bunt and turned into a hit when Christian Bethancourt couldn't find the ears on it, and Fletcher took third on the second of flyouts. He couldn't turn around any of Neris' fastballs, fouling off four of them, but that just meant he was in OK position to lay off a Neris splitter when he tried one on the eight pitch of the battle. Benintendi took his walk to load the bases, but it took a little juice out of a potential Andrew Benintendi Game narrative.
Bullet points:
*Speaking of which, Benintendi cut down Pete Crow-Armstrong at the plate on Miguel Amaya's single to left. Crow-Armstrong hadn't touched third when Benintendi collected the ball, so it should've been an out all the way, but Benintendi has seldom made it look so simple.
*Korey Lee threw out Nico Hoerner with a perfect throw, capped off by what I imagine is a Ric Flair "Woo!", based on Dansby Swanson's reaction.
*Lee and Corey Julks were caught stealing on Miguel Amaya's watch, so it wasn't all perfect. Both looked to the dugout for reviews, but Sizemore lost his first challenge when his hopes of getting Crow-Armstrong at first base on an aggressive turn lacked clear video evidence. Perhaps he's not all that different from Grifol after all.
*Luis Robert Jr. still can't get it going, as he went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts, with a couple flyouts on pitches he should've hammered.
*Lenyn Sosa made his second career appearance at first base -- not his first, John Schriffen and Steven Stone -- and took care of two outs himself, including a flare chased down behind the bag.
*A capacity crowd of 38,127 saw a game worth showing up for.
