The core of the 2005 White Sox team played together for several years, so at least the mistake-filled loss to Cleveland that followed their pregame ceremony should have felt familiar.
Jordan Leasure's new splitter is too rarely used to be familiar to much of anyone, but he left it high and middle enough for Kyle Manzardo to recognize it as a hanger, banging a go-ahead solo shot to right in the sixth that proved to be the decisive run. Austin Hedges of all people provided insurance by leading off the top of the seventh by doubling a Tyler Gilbert fastball off the top of the wall. After Brayan Rocchio bunted the backup catcher over to third, Steven Kwan lifted a medium distance fly ball of a speed and trajectory that any left fielder would be well set to charge into.
Stoppable force met movable object as Hedges launched off of third base and Andrew Benintendi loaded up for a throw home. Without identifying which players identifies as which, Hedges is probably out easily with an on-target throw, but Benintendi's delivery required Kyle Teel to backhanded a bouncer and then quickly sweep the tag back to the baseline. Instead, the rookie backstop lost hold of the ball in that Yasmani Grandal style where it's not clear if it was flung loose as he yanked the glove across the plate, or if he simply never had it at all, and the Guardians locked up a 4-2 advantage that seem against a White Sox lineup that did not manage an extra-base hit.
"We've got to do a better job," said Will Venable on the team's defense. "That's not all the Guardians putting pressure on us and certainly they do a good job of that. But we've got to handle the baseball and make plays that we know we should make."
What offense the Sox managed was also facilitated by elevated levels of goofing, which served to unnaturally place their runners in scoring position. Kyle Teel's soft two-run, game-tying single in the fourth was preceded by sharper base knocks from Benintendi and Lenyn Sosa. But initially Will Venable tried to stoke the fire by calling what looked like some form of double steal, where it's hard to tell his true intent because the Guardians both sniffed it out enough to have Benintendi picked off, but threw the ball away such that both runners advanced.
After Teel's single, Luis Robert Jr. hit a grounder to José Ramírez that the All-Star third baseman couldn't handle cleanly on two separate attempts. Neither play was ruled an error, but Colson Montgomery struck out before Josh Rojas grounded into a threat-ending double play, which discouraged putting any further thought into the fourth inning's accounting.
Back-to-back two-out walks from Sean Burke in the first inning seemed to infect Saturday's game with a virus from which it never truly recovered, and after Carlos Santana blooped a middle-away heater for a two-out RBI single, the Guardians never trailed. Burke actually rebounded from a 30-pitch first to deliver a solid five innings with plenty of promising moments.
"The rest is coming at a good time," said Burke, whose fastball was down a tick. "I’m not necessarily hurting or anything, it’s just a little bit fatigue. First full big-league season, you feel it a little bit. Just trying to use this break and give myself the rest and recovery I need."
But all he could hope for was a no-decision after Santana led off the fourth with another single, and was followed by Daniel Schneemann hunting slow breaking balls for the umpteenth time this weekend. The Guardians utilityman scooped a 1-2 curve below the zone for a double that set up an Angel Martínez sacrifice fly to give the Guardians a 2-0 lead, and the White Sox weren't up to matching that level of offensive execution at any point.
Steven Wilson striking out Martínez to lead off the ninth, only for the Cleveland center fielder to miss on a dropped third strike was a nice nod to the 2005 ALCS, and also the sort of misplay that marked the afternoon. Also, Martínez came around to score on a two-out seeing-eye single from Kwan, who himself came around when Ramírez insisted on his presence being felt with an RBI single of his own. Having an internally developed long-term franchise player looks pretty cool.
Bullet points:
*Ramírez stole three of the four bases the Guardians snagged on the afternoon.
"I need to talk to [pitchers] in the dugout beforehand and let them know they are stealing bags," Teel said. "That comes with the gameplanning from my aspect. I don’t mind taking accountability for those stolen bases because I feel like it falls on me."
*A day after homering twice, Sosa picked up his 10th error of the season by whiffing on the end of a double play turn at first base. He also was part of an unconvincing pursuit of a foul pop down the right field line alongside Miguel Vargas, after shifting over to second. Sosa leads MLB with eight errors at second, despite only starting 58 games there.
*Will Robertson is 0-for-5 with four strikeouts in a White Sox uniform, which is not the best way to stake a claim. But Rojas also went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and he's a regular.
*All four Sox pitchers who appeared were scored upon, which is sort of neat if you like symmetry.
