Thanks to Korey Lee, Grady Sizemore avoided his first three-game sweep as manager of the White Sox, and maybe his first serious second-guessing session, too.
With the game tied at 2 in the ninth, Lee stood at the plate with the bases loaded, two outs, and down 0-2 to a right-handed reliever in Spencer Bivens who was brought in to face him. Lee took two sweepers to even the count, and when Bivens went back to his sinker, he left it elevated over the middle of the plate, and Lee spanked it back through the middle for a two-run single that made it a 4-2 game.
Better yet, he took second because Grant McCray's throw to third hit Corey Julks and bounced against the dugout wall, which allowed Lenyn Sosa's ensuing single to score two more, putting the margin out of a save situation. John Brebbia gave up a leadoff double and nothing more, and the White Sox ended their four-game losing streak.
It could've ended differently, because prior to Lee's at-bat, Sizemore let Gavin Sheets face lefty Erik Miller with the bases loaded and one out. Perhaps the thinking was that Miller was struggling so much that giving Bob Melvin a reason to lift him would be doing him a favor, as Miller walked Luis Robert Jr. and Andrew Benintendi before Andrew Vaughn loaded the bases with an infield single that Tyler Fitzgerald's diving stop minimized. If so, the thinking backfired, because Sheets swung over three sliders out of five pitches for an easy-looking strikeout.
But all's well that ends well, and the White Sox can leave San Francisco with some pride intact, particularly from the bullpen. Chad Kuhl relieved Garrett Crochet after four decent innings and threw two scoreless, and Justin Anderson, Fraser Ellard and Brebbia followed with an inning apiece. Ellard picked up his first career win by striking out two in a perfect eighth. It's particularly impressive since Logan Webb was able to handle eight innings by himself, and the White Sox bullpen still proved superior.
Webb gave up single runs in the first and fourth when leadoff extra-base hits -- a Nicky Lopez triple and a Robert double -- came home to score on productive outs, but once the Giants knotted it up in the fourth, Webb retired 12 of the last 13 batters he faced. The lone exception was a Robert single in the sixth, but while he stole his way into scoring position, Curt Casali gunned him down at third, foiling Robert's attempt to make a Benintendi RBI easier to come by .
As for Crochet, it was smooth sailing until the fourth, when Mark Canha doubled, and Heliot Ramos did the same. Robert nearly caught it with a leap on the warning track, and the uncertainty kept Canha from making it all the way home, but eventually both runners would finish the job. Crochet struck out Matt Chapman, but a Jerar Encarnacion groundout scored Canha, and Thairo Estrada poked a single through the right side to score Ramos.
Just like Webb, however, White Sox pitching was able to shut it down afterward. It just took four pitchers instead of one, but the quantity also delivered quality.
