Nick Nastrini was moved to the bullpen in an effort to afford him a smoother entry than his disastrous first inning last week in Baltimore.
To sum up how that effort, and Monday night's loss to the Guardians went, Nastrini entered the game in the fifth inning with the bases loaded and the White Sox already trailing 5-0.
Even with a bullpen game in the offing, the White Sox were assumed to not be outclassed in the pitching matchup because the Guardians were calling up 24-year-old rookie Joey Cantillo for the start; a finesse lefty who had been roughed up to the tune of a 7.71 ERA in five major league appearances.
Well, you know what they say about what happens when you assume.
Writers grouse about the White Sox moving the press box out from behind the plate to along the first base line. But shoutout to Jerry Reinsdorf, there's few better angles from which to clearly see an offense swinging way out in front of Cantillo's changeup, and recalibrating just in time to be late on a low-90s heater. Cantillo rode this method to 10 strikeouts over seven innings, doubling his previous career-high.
Still, you can't throw a perfect game against the 2024 White Sox without subduing the Andrews three times apiece, and Benintendi broke up the troublingly serious effort with a guided ground ball single through the right side, before a wild pitch and Vaughn bloop to short right broke up the shutout a moment later. The White Sox will be getting national write-ups plenty in the coming weeks, so there's no need to force in an extra one.
Better yet, Bryan Ramos turning-and-incinerating on a full count Nick Sandlin fastball on his hands for a two-run homer in the eighth--his first in the majors--jolted the Guardians pitching plan from sitting back and watching their ninth starter shred, to using Hunter Gaddis and Emmanuel Clase to close things out. Like they always say, if you can't beat 'em, mildly inconvenience 'em.
Jared Shuster was tabbed with starting off the Sox bullpen game, and line drives from Steven Kwan and Lane Thomas sandwiched a two-out RBI bloop single from Josh Naylor to greet a modest Sox Park crowd with the feeling of normalcy and a 2-0 Sox deficit mere minutes after first pitch.
Thomas' liner rattled hard enough in the left field corner to make for a bang-bang play at the plate, even with more size than speed on the basepaths. With Naylor barreling toward home and Jacob Amaya's relay throw dragging him into the baseline, catcher Korey Lee was faced with the choice of playing with his grandkids in 40 years or being memorialized in the "Some Gave All" section of a summary of the worst MLB season ever. Thomas wound up taking third as the throw flew to the backstop, but was stranded there.
A David Fry solo shot to center ended Shuster's efforts to complete three innings, and Bo Naylor sent one to the same spot off Enyel De Los Santos in the following frame to round out the 20-second highlight package this game will get.
Jairo Iriarte walked three in the fifth, including a free pass with the bases loaded, and left after recording two outs on 30 pitches. But Jacob Amaya booting a tailor-made double play ball behind him shrunk Iriarte's room to operate. Case in point: Nastrini walked the first three hitters in the sixth, and four overall, while three bases were stolen behind him in 3 1/3 scoreless innings of work. That's a man making use of his surroundings.
Bullet points:
*Ramos' 395-foot blast to left was his 11th of the season across all levels. He has hit 13 home runs or more in every season he's played stateside.
*Vaughn is the White Sox nominee for the Roberto Clemente award in recognition of his community outreach work. Andrew and his wife Lexi have thrown their efforts behind numerous charitable causes, but my ears perked up when Vaughn cited an early life event that instilled the importance of pro athletes spreading joy.
"I still remember the day Nick Swisher showed up to my school camp when I was seven, I still have the glove he signed," Vaughn said. "He was so high energy. I'm pretty sure it was nine o'clock with a bunch of 10-year-olds running around. I know we had a big water slide. He probably went down it a couple of times.
*Iriarte was working two days removed from his last outing for probably the first time in forever, and looked worse for it. Three walks in two-thirds of an inning probably doesn't shock anyone, but velocity on all his pitches was down a tick, and he averaged 92.7 mph on his fastball.
*13 consecutive home losses is a White Sox franchise record. Liviiiiiing in historyyyyyyyyy!
*You always wind up missing baseball when it's gone, but also, just 17 more games to go.
