White Sox: Pitching duel keeps hits to minimum vs. Mariners
After scoring 10 runs against the Mariners on Monday night, the White Sox bats went quiet on Tuesday.
Both the White Sox and the Mariners had only five hits each on the night as Chris Volstad pitched against Marco Gonzalez. The final score was 0-1.
Even though Volstad earned the loss on the night, he only gave up one run in the duel. This was his first start of the 2018 season and despite the loss, his outing wasn’t bad.
Volstad’s strong spot start
Volstad went 4.1 innings. The Mariners had three hits against him and scored one run. He struck out three batters. He had good movement on his pitches. Most of his outs were ground balls. His spot start was one of the few highlights of the game.
Changes in the lineup
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Offensively, the Sox were quiet. Rick Renteria moved the lineup around a bit, giving Tim Anderson the lead-off spot. Yoan Moncada moved down to the sixth spot. Anderson proved that he could handle the lead-off spot as he went two for four. Unfortunately, no one could convert his hits into runs.
Yolmer Sanchez and Welington Castillo each had singles and Yoan Moncada hit a double. That was it. Five hits. No home runs. No RBIs. It was a quiet Tuesday.
With one exception.
Rick Renteria earned his first game ejection of the 2018 season. During the sixth inning, Matt Davidson was called out on a questionable strike. At the time, Anderson was on third and Castillo was on first. The strike looked more like a ball outside, but since Renteria argued the call, he was immediately ejected. The bad call left the two runners on base and ended the inning.
Bright spots in the bullpen
The other bright spot of the game was the bullpen, which did not give up any runs. The veterans toed the rubber today. Hector Santiago pitched 3.1 innings striking out one, walking one, and giving up two hits. Then, Nate Jones pitched 1.1 innings putting up goose eggs with one strikeout.
With such good pitching, it’s a shame that the Sox couldn’t provide run support for their veteran arms. But, that’s baseball.
Next: No more straws at Guaranteed Rate Field
On Wednesday, the Sox and Mariners face off for an afternoon game at Guaranteed Rate Field. James Shields faces Felix Hernandez in the rubber match. King Felix will enter the game with a 5.06 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 26.2 innings. Shields has 23.1 innings with a 6.17 ERA and 11 strikeouts. It should be an interesting game watching the two veterans face off.