Cardinals 14, White Sox 2: At least the Sox scored

For three innings, tonight was entertaining baseball. For the next six innings, it was just downright embarrassing. The St. Louis Cardinals scored seven runs in the sixth on their way to a blowout victory, 14-2, and helping extend the White Sox losing streak to six games.

Based on how the first two innings went one may have thought that tonight would be a pitchers duel. Dylan Covey struck out four Cardinals in relatively easy fashion, and St. Louis starter Miles Mikolas struck out five out of his first six outs recorded.

After recording two quick outs in the third, Covey began to unravel. Marcell Ozuna, Jose Martinez, Paul DeJong, and Matt Carpenter all hit consecutive singles off Covey to strike first with two runs. That would be a sign of bad things to come, but Rick Renteria is not in a position to pull starters after three innings at the moment.

Lucky for Covey, the Sox tied the game in the bottom of the third. Omar Narvaez led it off with a single, and Tim Anderson hit his 11th double to set it up nicely for Charlie Tilson. Initially, Tilson showed bunt which is a curiously lousy decision because it would have to take an excellent bunt just to score Narvaez. Not a given, and hitting the ball to the outfield would at least achieve the same result of driving in a run but giving yourself an opportunity to score multiple runs. That’s how major league offenses should work.

Tilson couldn’t get the bunt down, and wouldn’t you know it, he’d finish the at-bat with a single that slithered through the 3-4 hole scoring both Narvaez and Anderson to tie the game, 2-2. That’s all the offense Covey would receive in support. Hitters 1-5 in the lineup combined 1-for-19 with one walk and eight strikeouts against Cardinals pitching.

While the offense disappeared, boy, so did good bullpen performances. After allowing runs in the fourth and fifth, St. Louis had a comfortable 4-2 lead into the sixth. That’s when the wheels came off the bus as Covey was replaced by Jace Fry (pitching change #1) after allowing a leadoff single to Yairo Munoz. On Fry’s first pitch, Kolten Wong singled on a well-placed bunt to put runners on the corners. Compounding the issue further, Fry walked Matt Carpenter to load the bases with no outs.

Fry would strike out DeJong for the first out and was lifted for Bruce Rondon (pitching change #2). Jose Martinez flew out to right field for the second out. Just when it seemed that maybe the Sox would avoid total disaster the bus caught on fire and was about to fall off the cliff.

Against Marcell Ozuna, Rondon threw a wild pitch that was scored as a passed ball scoring Munoz making it a 5-2 game. Ozuna would walk to load the bases again for Yadier Molina. Again, Rondon threw a wild pitch to allow Wong to score and it was 6-2. Of course, Rondon would walk Molina to keep the bases loaded.

After a mound visit, Rondon walked Gyorko on four straight pitches, and it was now 7-2 St. Louis with the bases still loaded. Out came Renteria to replace Rondon with Hector Santiago (pitching change #3) to face Dexter Fowler. On a 1-0 pitch, Fowler belted a grand slam to left center, and the rout was on as St. Louis now leads 11-2. Mercifully, Munoz in his second at-bat of the inning flew out to center ending the mess. A total of seven runs were scored on three hits, four walks, a passed ball, a wild pitch, and four different pitchers appeared for the Sox. A beautiful disaster.

St. Louis would score three more runs just for fun. Hector Santiago gutted out 3.1 innings allowing six hits, four earned runs on two home runs, two walks, and three strikeouts. Dylan Covey’s night was 5 IP allowing five runs (four of them earned), two walks, and five strikeouts.

After the game, White Sox beat reporters were tweeting that a roster move was impending for Bruce Rondon.

Nothing at all official but appears a roster move could be coming soon involving Bruce Rondon

— Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) July 11, 2018

Record: 30-61 | Box Score

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