Over the course of setbacks and shutdowns, Yoán Moncada's return to the White Sox went from "anticipated" to "long-awaited" to ... something that just happened for reasons that aren't exactly clear. The White Sox didn't start him in any of the three games of his first series back, preferring to play Miguel Vargas and Byran Ramos at third. That's understandable and admirable; it just raises the question of why they didn't just designated him for assignment. Then again, if Moncada's inability to post is one of the reasons why the contention window slammed shut, maybe they think that finishing out the season with the team that's on track to achieve MLB infamy is no less than he deserves.
At any rate, Moncada made the least ceremonious of possible returns: as the pinch-runner for Andrew Vaughn in the 12th inning of a game between two last-place teams in September. He did not score.
Then he came to the plate in the top of the 13th, after José Quijada alternated between strikeouts and walks to the first four batters. Quijada had started striking strange poses after pitches as he attempted to find his control, and he did that well enough to retire Moncada with a swinging strike on a fourth straight high fastball, returning to the dugout with a multi-stage celebration.
He did end up getting the win, while Jairo Iriarte was tagged with the least deserving first MLB loss. He opened the inning with a flyout to right that advanced the Zombie Runner to third, and then a chopper with the infield in eluded Miguel Vargas' sliding attempt and deflected behind shortstop to end the game, and the White Sox's bid for a second consecutive series victory. They're instead just four losses away from owning the modern MLB record for losses in a season.
The offense will wear the blame. They were shut out on Tuesday, then tried to win with the bare minimum output this afternoon, as Andrew Vaughn's fourth-inning solo shot off Jack Kochanowicz produced the only run in regulation.
A White Sox bullpen game did what it could. Jared Shuster completed three innings on 39 pitches as the starter, setting up the rest of the afternoon as favorably as he could. Gus Varland and Prelander Berrora followed suit with two scoreless innings and four strikeouts apiece.
Alas, Justin Anderson walked the first batter he faced, pinch-hitting Zach Neto, on five pitches. Neto stole second, advanced to third, and scored on a Taylor Ward single that grazed Nicky Lopez's glove on its way into the outfield to tie the game at 1.
After Fraser Ellard stranded Anderson's runner and pitched a scoreless ninth himself, Chad Kuhl, who's allowed 15 baserunners over 4⅔ innings in September, couldn't deliver the clean inning he needed. When the Sox scored their Manfred Man on a sac bunt and a sac fly in the top of the 10th off old friend Carson Fulmer, Kuhl allowed the tying run to come home on a sac bunt and a soft single to left field. When Andrew Benintendi delivered a two-out single that put the Sox back ahead 3-2 in the bottom of the 11th, Kuhl immediately surrendered an RBI single to Eric Wagaman.
Grady Sizemore played for one run in three of the four innings, and the strategy in the 11th and 13th innings were defeated by popped up bunts. In the 12th inning, Gavin Sheets was allowed to swing away, but his groundout to second served the same purpose. The White Sox ended up going 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position.
Bullet points:
*Jake Eder was the only reliever Sizemore didn't use, but he threw 45 pitches the day before.
*Luis Robert Jr. somehow got a true day off despite all the changes, which makes me wonder if he would've pitched. Zach DeLoach manned center field the entire game.
*Bryan Ramos drew a walk as a pinch hitter with help of a pitch-clock violation from Fulmer, but then Fulmer picked him off.
*Enyel De Los Santos walked Charles LeBlanc in the 12th inning on a full-count pitch-clock violation, but ended up stranding the bases loaded on a flyout to the warning track.
