The Chicago White Sox played a very important game on Monday night. After a very long stretch against bad teams in the American League, they faced off against the Houston Astros who might be the best team in the AL.
Everyone knew that it was going to be a hard game going into it and that proved to be true about ten pitches into the ball game. Due to some good hitting and an error, the Houston Astros would get two runs off of Johnny Cueto. Only one of them was earned.
It felt from there like it was going to be a disaster. However, Cueto settled in and had one of the best performances he has had in a long time. Cueto ended up throwing 8.0 innings and that first inning would be the only frame where he allowed the Astros to score.
For most of it, the White Sox offense was nowhere to be found. He came out of the 8th inning with three outs and trailing 2-0. The White Sox offense would have to tie it there for him to avoid a loss and they would have to take a lead to get him the win.
The Chicago White Sox needed a clutch inning to get Johnny Cueto the win.
Well, they were clutch and scored four runs thanks to some help from guys like AJ Pollock, Eloy Jimenez, Yoan Moncada, and Andrew Vaughn. It was a magnificent inning that might have saved the White Sox’s season. They needed to get the lead in this game and win it.
Liam Hendriks came in the 9th inning to shut things down and he did just that. The White Sox came back and beat the Astros thanks to an explosive 8th inning combined with the dominance of Johnny Cueto. If the White Sox make the playoffs, a lot of people will look back at this game.
Being resilient enough to make moves like this against the best team in your league is how you gain confidence when you’re in a spot like the White Sox are in. Cueto was so brilliant all game long and waited patiently for the offense to come through. They did and it was glorious.
This was just one of many times going forward that the offense needs to get after it. They have a huge matchup on Tuesday now as Dylan Cease will face Justin Verlander.
If the White Sox can get to Verlander early, they will be able to help Cease get closer to the Cy Young and pull out another impressive win. Hopefully, they don’t wait as long this time.