Somehow, despite at last check this was a Spring Training game, the White Sox were held to one hit, a Brooks Baldwin single, through seven innings. But then, given the state of Chicago pitching tonight, the lack of offense wasn’t the major concern, just an embarrassing one.
The game opened with three straight doubles cracked by Cleveland, and it was 2-0 before starter Sean Burke recorded an out. After one more, Triple-A first baseman CJ Clayfus destroyed a center-cut curveball for a two-run homer, and before the White Sox picked up a bat, they were down, 4-0.
The good news was that Burke settled down and finished his outing with dignity, giving up just one hit over his final two frames. And even better was Erick Fedde, coming on in relief (are we witnessing the fifth-starter battle right here?) and throwing three scoreless, giving up two hits and punching out one.
In the third inning, Baldwin singled to center. That was it for the White Sox offense through two-thirds of the game.
Heading into the seventh, this was still mostly anyone’s game, at 4-0, Cleveland.
Then Jedixson Paez entered. And if the fact that he’s thrown in just two of the first 14 Cactus League games isn’t its own vote of no-confidence, the young righty’s surrender of six runs on six hits (to be fair, some cheap, some not) is making it look much harder to imagine the 2-for-2 the White Sox went on Rule 5s in 2025 is going to repeat itself.
With the game at 9-0, Jake Palisch came in to put out the fire and surrendered a first-pitch, two-run homer to Carter Kieboom to put the game, as they say, out of reach.
JUST THEN the White Sox offense awakened — if in fact you call Dru Baker hitting a Little League home run (triple, scoring on shortstop Milan Tolentino’s throwing error) an awakening. From there, at 11-1, Cleveland scored once more (sad trombone, a rally against Hagen Smith in his Cactus League debut) and the South Siders rallied furiously for two, courtesy of three singles and a walk.
Yes, Sean Burke may have fallen behind in the race for the rotation. Sure, Jedixson Paez may have punched his ticket back to Boston with a dog-awful outing. Yeppers, the White Sox were suffocated to one hit over the first seven innings, while coughing up 16 to Cleveland batters for the game. And indeed, the Chicago offense mustered just one extra-base hit and three walks against 11 Ks in the contest. But at least no one but the 3,933 dear souls at Camelback Ranch was able to see any of it.
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