White Sox screw up an unconscionable number of times
By James Fegan
The White Sox did it all wrong. Everything. They lost 7-5 in 10 innings to the Blue Jays, because that’s a typical consequence for errors like these.
Alexei Ramirez booted a grounder in the second inning leading to two unearned runs and ran into a double play to end a bases loaded threat in the fifth inning.
Dayan Viciedo was thrown out by a mile trying to advance on a wild pitch in the second inning, Alejandro De Aza got picked off by a mile to end the third inning, Gordon Beckham got thrown out trying to advance to third to end the third inning. One of those unearned runs in the second was a Tyler Flowers passed ball.
Dayan Viciedo had an easy outfield assist at second base but launched it over Ramirez’s head, Conor Gillaspie short-armed a ball to first that Adam Dunn couldn’t pick, Matt Thornton ignored Rajai Davis in the eighth as he stole third base while representing the potential tying run, Alexei Ramirez whiffed on a throw to second as Rajai Davis slid in representing the go-ahead run in the tenth.
Davis would later score on a wild pitch by Ramon Troncoso, Tyler Flowers’ desperate throw back to the plate would amusingly fly past Troncoso outstretched glove.
Staying in the game, Troncoso would allow a single to Maicer Itzuris, who would come around to score on a Munenori Kawasaki double into the corner. The throw beat Itzuris handily, but the sprightly infielder managed to knock it out of Flowers’ glove in a collision. Flowers and Troncoso should probably be kept away from each other.
I might have forgotten a few of the screw-ups. There were a lot.
Oh yes, there was one more. The White Sox were bad, ba-ba-bad, ba-ba-bad bad bad. Yet they led most of the game. It’s almost like offense covers up mistakes, and they went into the ninth with a 5-4 lead in spite of themselves and thanks to dingers. At which point Addison Reed entered the game for his fourth outing in as many days, got the first two outs, got 0-2 on Jose Bautista, nearly painted the corner with an outside slider, then allowed a game-tying home run.
It was brutal and unfair to Addison–and Jose Quintana too, if he counts his wins–but plenty just for everyone else.
Facing a rehabbing Chien-Ming Wang, Adam Dunn continued his efforts to redeem his season over the course of a week. He started the White Sox scoring off with a high fly ball out to right for a solo shot, and crossed the plate in a four-run fourth inning that was wrapped up by a Conor Gillaspie three-run homer to right field. With the Sox down 7-5 in the bottom of the tenth, he strode to the plate representing the go-ahead run against a wild Casey Janssen, but let’s not get crazy–he grounded out to short.
Despite all the fireworks, Wang steadied himself and lasted into the eighth inning without any further damage. Given his 3:3 strikeout-to-walk ratio, that’s probably an indictment of an otherwise sufficient offensive performance.
With his sloppy second inning all chalked up to unearned runs and only a crushed Edwin Encarnacion two-run bomb added to his tab, Jose Quintana came out of the night with a nice line of two earned runs in 6.1 innings, with five strikeouts to one walk.
Tyler Flowers added to his two-error night with two hits, for what it’s worth. Alex Rios had three hits, because he’s better.
Team Record: 28-35
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