It took until the end of his second series in charge, but Grady Sizemore finally presided over a thoroughly 2024 White Sox Game.
You know, the kind where the final score gives no indication that the White Sox held a lead in the second half of the game, and the inflection point featured multiple brain-breaking moments before the flimsy foundation collapsed and everything came tumbling down. The White Sox already earned their MFA in Creative Losing months ago, and now they're just piling up extra discredit.
In tonight's case, the White Sox led 2-1 entering the seventh, but Oswaldo Cabrera reached base on a leadoff single off Justin Anderson, and his legs caused the White Sox to stumble.
First, he stole second when he should've been out twice over. Chuckie Robinson's throw beat Cabrera to the spot, even though it forced Brooks Baldwin to cross over well into the first-base side of the bag. Perhaps that distance pressed Baldwin into thinking that he needed to get the tag down as quickly as possible, and the ball glanced off his glove. But Cabrera should've been out regardless of Baldwin's mistake, because DJ LeMahieu crossed into Robinson's path as he threw to second, and Robinson's throwing hand punched LeMahieu's shoulder. Alas, he did nothing to sell the call during or after, so Cabrera remained safe.
LeMahieu eventually struck out, which could've reset the inning two outs and nobody on. Instead, there was only one out with Cabrera on second, and that mattered when Alex Verdugo lofted a fly to deep right center off new reliever Dominic Leone. Both Luis Robert Jr. and Dominic Fletcher had to book it. Fletcher ended up catching it in full stride, and while Robert tried to slide out of his way, Fletcher's foot clipped Robert's thigh on his leaping attempt, and he tumbled down to the warning track.
Cabrera tagged up to third, and third-base coach Luis Sojo told him to keep going. Fletcher's relay throw missed the first cutoff man, and the backup couldn't get the throw home in time. That tied the game at 2, but the horrors were somehow only beginning.
With the bases empty and two outs, Leone walked Juan Soto (who'd homered in the first inning to make it four consecutive at-bats with one). He then gave up a double to Aaron Judge, and although he got ahead of Austin Wells 0-2, he couldn't put him away. He threw a four-seam fastball above the knees on the outside corner, and Wells lined it to left for a two-run single that gave the Yankees a 4-2 lead.
Sizemore eventually had to use a third pitcher to get out of the inning because Leone hurt himself with a wrong step on a full-count pitch to Gleyber Torres. Chad Kuhl struck out Trent Grisham to stop the bleeding, until the elevator doors from The Shining opened in the eighth. There's no point in going through the sequence, but Kuhl and Steven Wilson combined to give up six runs. Five were on the former's watch, with Aaron Judge's 300th homer following an intentional walk to Soto that made it a 9-2 game. Wilson entered, and Wells made it back-to-back to put New York in double digits. It was a fitting final stamp for yet another entry into the White Sox's portfolio for their MFA in Creative Losing.
The carnage overshadowed a pleasant first six innings. Davis Martin threw 5⅔ strong innings that were only tarnished by Soto, who homered in the first, then drew the first of his three walks to lead off the sixth. Martin then walked Judge, and later issued a two-out walk to Grisham that prevented him from finishing six, but Anderson struck out Anthony Volpe to strand the bases loaded and preserve The Dart's line. The changeup continued to be a revelation, as it was his second-most frequent pitch behind his fastball, and was his most effective pitch in terms of strikes swinging and looking. He didn't walk a batter until the sixth, when he walked three.
He received enough to support to leave with the lead. Gavin Sheets led off the second by ending his 47-game homerless streak, which answered Soto's solo shot and tied the game at 1. He struck again two innings later, following Andrew Vaughn's one-out double with a single through the right side that put the Sox ahead.
Sheets went from first to third on Fletcher's single with two outs to bring Robinson to the plate. After Robinson swung through a fastball to make it a 2-2 count, Sizemore tried to make something happen by trying to bait the Yankees into a double steal. The problem was that Sheets isn't the kind of presence on third that makes opponents afraid to throw through, and Fletcher pulled up well short of second in a hopeless attempt to bait the Yankees into a rundown, so neither end was successful, and Sheets ended up getting tagged out in front of home, even without the prettiest set of throws.
The White Sox did not score again, and Baldwin's double leading off the eighth represented the only real scoring threat. It didn't register.
Bullet points:
*Fletcher made three outstanding catches besides the grab on the warning track that inadvertently still allowed the tying run to score. He made a great sliding catch in front of the side wall to end the fourth, then hauled in a deep drive by Grisham to bring the eighth to a merciful close.
*Andrew Benintendi notched his 1,000th career hit with a double in the first.
*The Yankees went 5-for-11 with runners in scoring position, so they regressed to the mean before the end of the series.
*The White Sox have lost 12 series in a row.
