Jun 26, 2013; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago White Sox catcher Tyler Flowers (21) attempts to catch a foul ball against the New York Mets during the sixth inning at U.S. Cellular Field. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports
Welp, no runs. That’s the game.
There were a lot of ideas that bursted forward from this game and I will certainly get to them, but this is still the lede, and in this lede we will discuss the primary determining events of the contest. Shaun Marcum threw eight shutout innings, allowing just four hits before Bobby Parnell worked a perfect ninth for the save. In the glorious fourth inning, the Sox had two runners reach base at the same time–like some sort of drunken, indulgent Roman noble, Alexei Ramirez got all the way to third–but the Sox were all tired out from pulling that trick for the rest of the night.
So, they lost.
For a lineup that had Jeff Keppinger in the designated hitter slot and Brent Morel called up to play third base, this was hardly the most unforeseeable result. Shaun Marcum being 0-9 and having a 5.76 ERA was the inspiration for a lot of wailing about this ofneisve performance, but his 3.27 FIP suggests a lot of his problems could be chalked up to “playing for the Mets.”
A pitcher who has been solid throughout his career dominated an awful White Sox lineup that was more handicapped than usual. It was bad, for sure, but this situation did not change while you were at work during the day.
Alexei Ramirez had a fun day of not being the scapegoat Tuesday, but saw fit to bring those good feelings to an end in the fifth. With runners on second and third after Dayan Viciedo had thrown to the wrong base on an Andrew Brown single, a hot grounder off the bat of Juan Lagares skipped past Ramirez, who opted to snatch it–perhaps with the intention of spinning and firing it home–over a less athletic and safer block play. Josh Satin, coming from third, was probably already scoring, but Brown came around as well on the error, no thanks to Morel cutting off the throw home.
Lagares, wrongly on base already, became the second unearned run of the inning when he scored on a subsequent Eric Young single.
And that was it for offense!
For all other intents and purposes, this was the second really sharp outing for Danks since his return from shoulder surgery. Since it came in honorable defeat, this was really a more familiar Danks effort too. He struck out seven and walked none and left with an out in the eighth inning and 109 pitches to his name, after starting the game out with three perfect innings. He averaged nearly 90 mph on his fastball–this hot weather is something else, man.
Perhaps most importantly, there were no home runs or even extra-base hit struck against Danks, after he struggled with his mistakes being punished over his first six starts. Multiple articles written about Danks’ performance tonight will make strong mention of him dropping to 1-5 on the season. I am sighing just thinking about it.
Alexei Ramirez had the only multi-hit game the White Sox had on the evening. Maybe he’s turning over a new leaf as an offense-only player.
Team Record: 32-43
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