White Sox 5, Angels 3: Six relievers preserve rare win in Anaheim

I watched a lot of this game on the flight from Chicago to Albany. I also caught some of it on the ride home from the airport. I also apparently missed a lot of non-action, so here’s a bullet-point recap of a three-hour, 36-minute long affair:

*The White Sox had lost 14 of their last 15 games at Angel Stadium, so they’ll take a win however it comes. In this case, Rick Renteria used six White Sox relievers to hold the lead, with Joakim Soria stranding the tying runs to end it.

*Lucas Giolito will also take a win however it comes. He met the minimum for a quality start, and he pitched … OK. It felt like a two-earned-run night, as the Angels’ two-run third started with a bad hop over Tim Anderson’s glove, followed by a legit double and eventually a sac fly. He also gave up a resounding solo shot to Shohei Ohtani on a fastball outer-half and up. But his two-seamer got weak contact when he needed it, and while he issued four walks, two of them were to Mike Trout (one intentional) as part of a greater aversion strategy.

*No, seriously: Trout went 0-for-0 with four walks and the aforementioned sac fly.

*While the Sox used more relievers than the Angels — including four over five batters in the eighth — Mike Scioscia’s corps is the one that cracked. It couldn’t stop the bleeding after Jaime Barria opened the inning with two easy walks.

*First, Jose Abreu shot a single through the left side against Hansel Robles to score Yoan Moncada, which tied the game at 3. The Sox then scored two more runs on non-hits. Matt Davidson walked two batters later to load the bases, Leury Garcia punched the go-ahead run home with a sac fly, and after an Anderson uh-oh swing resulted in an infield single, Kevan Smith got plunked to make it a 5-3 game.

*Renteria managed this one like a postseason game. After Juan Minaya gave up a single to Albert Pujols to start the eighth, Renteria went to Jace Fry. When Fry struck out Ohtani, Renteria went to Jeanmar Gomez. When Gomez got Ian Kinsler to pop out on his second pitch, Scioscia went to Luis Valbuena. And when Valbuena came up, Renteria called for Avilan. Scioscia countered with Jefry Marte, who was frozen by a fastball for the final out. It’s not a sustainable kind of managing, but coming out of the All-Star break in a house of horrors, I can kinda understand it once.

*Abreu had the kind of game he needed, belting a solo shot in the first inning to open the scoring, then ripping the single through the left.

*Both teams stole three bases, and both teams had issues with Ryan Additon’s strike zone.

*Giolito committed an error when his pickoff throw at second went into the runner, but he pitched around it.

*Avisail Garcia didn’t start due to illness, but he entered as a defensive replacement.

Record: 35-64 | Box score

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madridsox

Get some rest Jim!
But thank you for the recap. Those of us overseas really apreciate it.

ParisSox

Avisail Garcia as defensive replacement.  LOL

lil jimmy

“ABD”- anything but Delmonico.
One big reason for the long game. Mike Scioscia, Arguing strikes, that were strikes. Arguing Balks, that were Balks. Calling for reviews, when the runner was clearly safe. The man is an obfuscating turd.