If you overlook a four-hour rain delay and miserable fall football weather that lasted throughout the three-hour game, Sunday’s 8-1 crushing of the Detroit Tigers was unqualified joy from first pitch to final out.
In beating Detroit in three of four games, the White Sox remained just one game behind Cleveland heading into a significant matchup advantage in the penultimate series of the season: The Guardians travel to 84-win Boston, Chicago to 67-win Kansas City. Cleveland swept the Athletics over the weekend, widening its lead on the White Sox by a half-game.
Battling the rough conditions of soggy grounds and drizzle, the White Sox grinded out an opening tally after a walk from Colson Montgomery, a fielder’s choice out at second base off the bat of Chase Meidroth, and Meidroth turning a pickoff into a stolen base. Up came Braden Montgomery, who smashed a 102 mph grounder past nonplussed Tigers first baseman Spencer Torkelson that the soggy field grounded to a halt before it could be picked up:
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Or, perhaps you would like the Japanese call of the eventual game-winning RBI?
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For a brief time, given the fall mist it appeared that the single run would have to hold up, with a nod to the low-scoring affair just north at Soldier Field this afternoon. But at just about the time the Good Guys accepted the fact that they’d be running around in soggy underwear for a couple more hours, they took their discomfort out on the baseball.
In the fourth inning, the runs came via more grinding: ANOTHER Colson base on balls and a two-out single from Brenton Doyle put runners on the corners. Screamin’ Sam Antonacci stepped to the plate, fresh off of a dogged fly ball pursuit that lured him almost to the infield, and the wild man took a two-strike slider off his toes and onto the scoreboard:
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Kyle Teel added an RBI single from there, and the rout was on. One inning later, the White Sox piled on with a two-run shot from Meidroth into the teeth of a wind biting in from left field.
Now, just because this played out as an easy win doesn’t mean there weren’t some head-scratching moves from melting manager Will Venable. Caring not for the fact that his bullpen is absolutely gassed while starter Davis Martin is relatively fresh after a few-week vacation in August, Will trotted out after a Martin K to start the fifth, summoning Hagen Smith for what, at this juncture, was garbage-time work. Smith rose to the unnecessary occasion, you might say, by walking two to hand Detroit a rally. Thankfully, the lefty phenom bounced back with a nail-biting whiff of hot Bengals rookie Hao-Yu Lee and a broken-bat tapper to first from Riley Greene.
Huascar Brazobán, Trevor Richards and Luis Castillo held things down well enough to end it, while the White Sox piled on even more in the eighth, as two singles and a walk packed the sacks and another free pass and a sac fly brought two more scores in to arrive at the 8-1 finals.
Another head-scratcher came at the start of the Sox eighth, as Tommy Pham (his suiting up for the White Sox in an of itself, a head-scratcher) slapped a pinch-hit single to start the inning and was replaced on the bases by … injured center fielder Tristan Peters, for some reason pressed into action up five rather than enjoying a full day of rest and off-day Monday to rev up for the final six contests. And sure, why not insert Peters into left field to finish out the game?
But, all’s well that ends, and this one ended 8-1, landing the White Sox one win from their first non-losing season in three years and two wins from their first winning campaign in four.
After Monday’s off-day, it’s three games in Kansas City and three back home to take on the MLB-worst Colorado Rockies. Don’t forget to scoreboard watch the jagbag Guardians tomorrow, as they are ready to be overwhelmed by the Boston Red Sox.
MVP
Davis Martin: 4 ⅓ IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 6 K, removed from the game at 70 pitches, 18.1% WPA; he gonna start on three days’ rest from here?
Runners-Up
Sam Antonacci: 2-for-4, R, 2 RBI, 2B, SB, 17.1% WPA
Braden Montgomery: 2-for-4, RBI, 2B, 8.4% WPA
Colson Montgomery: 1-for-3, 2 R, 2 BB
Miguel Vargas: 1-for-2, R, 3 BB, K
Munetaka Murakami: 0-for-2, RBI, BB, K
Cold Cat
Will Venable: Goofy choices in a win, but hey at least it’s a win
Runners-Up
Brenton Doyle: 1-for-4, R, K
Andrew Benintendi: 0-for-2, K
Randal Grichuk: 0-for-2, RBI, SF
Hagen Smith: ⅔ IP, 2 BB, K, 8-of-18 strikes
Trevor Richards: 2 IP, 2 H, ER, BB, K
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