Garrett Crochet pitching out of the starting rotation at an All-Star level was one of the big victories of a 2024 White Sox season notably devoid of them. Where as Andrew Vaughn and Andrew Benintendi's painfully slow starts were the early warning sirens that the Sox offense was built upon the flimsiest foundations.
It's important to write out and remember that, because much evidence of Crochet's brilliance is getting smacked out of his surface-level numbers over a series of turgid, shortened starts being made for their own sake. And because homers Saturday night from both Vaughn and Benintendi represent a fourth of the long balls the White Sox have hit over their last 20 games, and the five runs those two blasts plated at least briefly allowed them to dream of not falling to 0-71 when trailing after six innings.
The Sox were trailing 7-2 after six innings, in part because five of the first six hitters Crochet faced on the night put the ball in play at 93 mph or harder. The one hitter who failed to hit that benchmark in a four-run Red Sox first was Rafael Devers, who doubled to right off an ankle-high sweeper. Even if all the other contact was blooped, Tyler O'Neill's 110 mph three-run missile over the monster would have spoken volumes to how opposing right-handed hitters are gearing up for the inner-third against the Sox All-Star.
Even pitching over a two-out walk for a scoreless second meant that Crochet's night ended after two innings and 51 pitches, giving him a 7.09 ERA since the All-Star break over 26 1/3 innings.
Chances are Gus Varland's electric first eight outings in a White Sox uniform didn't build up as much goodwill as Crochet's first half, but he too was hit hard in a two-run Red Sox third that tilted the battle sharply uphill for the vening. A Dominic Fletcher-Lenyn Sosa relay had O'Neill dead-to-rights at home after a Romy Gonzalez double into the right field corner, but Chuckie Robinson lost hold of the ball on a whiparound tag. That, and O'Neill second homer of the night, off Enyel De Los Santos to lead off the fifth, wound up looming large.
Red Sox starter Cooper Criswell had 'don't let him face the order a third time' stuff Saturday night, striking out no one and generating just one swinging strike on 79 pitches. But beyond the rolling slider Vaughn deposited over The Green Monster, none of it cracked the box score over his five innings.
Benintendi worked a two-out walk in the third before Vaughn rifled a liner down the first base line to set up runners at the corners for Gavin Sheets, who saw his hard grounder corralled Gonzalez to end the threat. Miguel Vargas and Vaughn--otherwise brilliant on a three-hit night--rapped into deflating double plays in each of the following two innings, with the former diffusing the thrill of back-to-back singles by the Sosa and Fletcher tandem to lead off the fourth. Sheets led off the sixth with a single to left, giving him a good vantage point of the two strikeouts and infield popup that followed.
Vargas laboring valiantly with two outs in the sixth to work the count full against Red Sox reliever Chase Shugart, only to get blown away by 96 mph on the outer half is both a good summary of where his game is at right now, and what it's like to watch the White Sox offense try to come from behind these days.
Torrential rainfall made Shugart vulnerable in his second inning of work. After allowing Robinson and Nicky Lopez to reach, he followed up his unsuccessful efforts to hang a three-run homer of a slider to Luis Robert Jr. by splitting the plate with a letter-high cutter that Benintendi lifted out to right-center. He trotted calmly to first on contact like someone who knew Fenway Park's dimensions, or like someone who knew he shouldn't overrun the man on first on a high fly ball. Or like a guy playing on a 111-loss team that was still down two runs after ball cleared the fence.
Vaughn tried to keep the momentum rolling right afterward with a line drive single right up the middle to bring the tying run to the plate, and well, he failed to keep the momentum rolling. Sox hitters made eight-straight outs from there on to end it and seal up their 19th-straight series loss.
Bullet points:
*Crochet was flirting with a 6.00 ERA at the end of April because righties kept hitting his backfoot sliders out of the yard, and he yielded seven homers in 34 2/3 innings. Since the break, he's allowed eight homers in 26 1/3 innings.
*Gonzalez both chased out of the zone and swung-and-missed inside the zone too much to be the X-factor the White Sox relentlessly sold him to be. But his 3-for-4 night with two runs scored reminds he's substantially improved both in Boston to become a 109 wRC+ hitter while manning six different positions for the Red Sox, after being designated for assignment in January to clear 40-man roster room for John Brebbia. He also stole three bases. Who knew?!
*Jairo Iriarte was handed the sixth in a 7-2 game and it was pretty fun! He jumped ahead 0-2 on Danny Jansen before missing badly on four-straight chase pitches, and then he started cooking. The front door slider he started Ceddanne Rafaela with was the only pitch he threw in the zone, but he struck him out all the same. Iriarte never showed Jarren Duran a fastball at all, but the third changeup of the at-bat had the All-Star Game MVP trying to break his bat on the way back to the dugout. Devers just grounded into a fielder's choice, but not before swinging at a first-pitch slider that hit him in the foot.
*Chad Kuhl and Justin Anderson recorded the last six outs for the White Sox all via strikeout.
*Vaughn and Benintendi not only combined for two homers, but for six of the team's 10 hits, and seven of their 13 times reaching base.
