Losing a Garrett Crochet start to dodgy radar readings in favor of Chris Flexen, who has literally not been involved in a White Sox victory since the second week of May, looked like a straightforward tragedy at first.
Set up with a 2-2 count to Marcus Semien, the diminished starting pitcher quality quickly made itself known as Flexen walked the Rangers leadoff man. The plight worsened two batters later with a sharp single from old friend Robbie Grossman, and Flexen demonstrated the importance of pure stuff when his slow curveball properly fooled Adolis García, only to see the Rangers right fielder still flick a ground ball perfectly down the left field line for an RBI double to put the Sox in an early hole.
A less expected tragedy played out instead, where Flexen pitched through the sixth with no further damage in what looked like his best outing of the year at times, only for larger failings of the worst team in baseball to undercut him. An unreliable bullpen that also will have to pick up the tab for the second game Wednesday night meant that Grady Sizemore had Flexen--at 87 pitches through six--face four hitters in the seventh. And the Sox offense not improving upon the fourth-worst run support in baseball that Flexen receives (Crochet receives the second-worst, FYI) meant that Flexen found himself hitting a wall in 1-1 game.
After back-to-back singles led off the Rangers seventh, a routine Ezequiel Duran fly out signaled not a respite but the Texas lineup turning over. Semien ripped a middle-middle cutter over Corey Julks' head in left to put Flexen in line for the loss as he hit the showers, and Corey Seager greeted Fraser Ellard by clubbing a sinker through the right side of the field to lend the afternoon that classic insurmountable feeling.
Refreshingly, Miguel Vargas did a thing, temporarily evening the score in the third. Offered a first-pitch 90 mph plate-splitter from Rangers starter Andrew Heaney, Vargas cranked a drive off the top of the left field wall. After a round of uncertain high-fives in the dugout, replay review determined it bounced up and back in off the yellow line for a leadoff double. But a Brooks Baldwin bunt and a soft Julks single to right through a drawn-in infield were enough to provoke more sincere dugout high-fives for Vargas, and keep us from updating the season count of shutout losses.
Julks' single probably wouldn't get pulled over speeding on a Texas highway (76.3 mph), but it was the only White Sox hit with runners in scoring position out of six tries. Appreciation for it certainly bloomed as Julks and Luis Robert Jr. struck out against José Leclerc to strand a pair of runners in the seventh. Vargas' double was the only White Sox extra-base hit.
Bullet points:
*Korey Lee helped limit the damage in the first by making both tags on an inning-ending double play. Miguel Vargas fired home on a Josh Jung grounder to third, and Lee chased Grossman back up the baseline for the first out before making a sliding tag at third on an advancing Adolis García for the second.
*Prelander Berroa hit 100 mph and struck out the side in a scoreless eighth. Just when you count Chris Getz's bullpen construction out, it turns around and marginally redeems itself.
*It was a hastily rescheduled first pitch for suspended game that started at 4:10pm on a Wednesday at the home park from likely the worst MLB team ever built. So no, not many fans were in attendance.
*Flexen contains multitudes, but he definitely cares.
"Excited Grady let me go out there and have a shot at the bottom [of the lineup] there, it's on me for fucking it up," he said postgame.
