Pitchers who only manage one strikeout in more than five innings of work usually doesn’t bold well in today’s baseball, but it worked for Dylan Covey and the White Sox as small ball prevailed in a 4-2 victory.
Covey pitched 5.2 innings and should have made it through six innings if not for Yoan Moncada’s throwing error. It was one of the better outings for Covey as he only allowed two hits, two runs, one earned run, walking two to the one strikeout, but he induced eight groundouts which really aided his cause. The Blue Jays did make hard contact, but BABIP Gods were not on their side this night.
The White Sox in the first inning grabbed an early lead when Leury Garcia singled and got himself into scoring position stealing second base. Yonder Alonso with two outs hit a slow chopper toward shortstop Freddy Galvis. With how slow Alonso moves down the first base line, Galvis had plenty of time to field the grounder and complete the play cleanly. Instead, Galvis misplayed the grounder committing an error keeping the inning alive.
Welington Castillo made the Blue Jays pay by hitting a worm burner hard enough to get through the infield into center field scoring Garcia. Up 1-0 in the second inning, Galvis redeemed himself by tying the game with a solo home run.
Tied heading into the fourth inning, Yolmer Sanchez hit a deep fly to left field with Nicky Delmonico on first base. It appeared briefly that the fly ball had a chance to be Sanchez’s second home run of the season, but Blue Jays outfielder Billy McKinney made a great catch and went face first into the chain fence.
Delmonico would eventually come around to score as Charlie Tilson singled to right field, and Ryan Cordell singled to center giving the Sox a 2-1 lead.
In the sixth inning, Toronto would tie it up as Covey walked Eric Sogard to start things off. Facing Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Covey caught the young slugger looking on an inside slider, and Castillo tried to complete the double play with a throw to second base. Sanchez had a tough time corralling the throw, and Sogard swiped second.
That misplay would hurt later on another defensive miscue. With two outs and Sogard on third advancing on Justin Smoak’s groundout to first base, Randal Grichuk hit a grounder to Yoan Moncada at third. Fielding it cleanly, Moncada’s throw was off target resulting in his fifth error of the season and allowing Sogard to score to tie the game, 2-2.
There was a good chance for the White Sox to go ahead in the seventh inning. Cordell reached on an infield single on a chopper back at the pitcher, Joe Biagini, and Garcia singled to left field putting runners on first and second with no outs. Moncada would pop up for the infield fly rule leaving it up to Abreu to push the Sox ahead.
Abreu could only manage to hit a high chopper towards third base where Brandon Drury made a nice barehanded grab and throw to first base. With the call on the field being out at first, on replay, Abreu did beat out the throw and it should have been bases loaded with one out. However, manager Rick Renteria used his challenge earlier in the game to dispute a foul tip strikeout on Castillo and wasn’t granted another review to reverse the call. After intentionally walking Alonso, the Blue Jays ended the threat striking out Castillo.
They had better luck in the eighth inning as the White Sox finally took the lead for good. Sanchez walked, and Tilson singled to put runners on the corners for Ryan Cordell. On a 2-1 pitch, Cordell laid down a squeeze bunt towards the first base side. Pitcher Derek Law was able to field the bunt and make a toss to home plate, but it didn’t matter because Sanchez had a terrific jump and was easily safe to make it 3-2. Cordell would reach first as catcher Danny Jansen’s throw was not in time.
Later in the inning, Law bounced a breaking pitch that Jansen couldn’t handle, and it moved Tilson and Cordell into scoring position. Garcia was able to lift a pitch to medium depth in left field, and Tilson decided to test McKinney. The throw was in time but high, and Tilson was initially called out at home. On replay, the high throw allowed Tilson to slide underneath the tag leading the call at home plate to reverse giving the White Sox another run leading 4-2.
Alex Colome did quick work in the ninth inning going 1-2-3 ending on a strikeout for his ninth save of 2019.
Game Notes:
- Leury Garcia, Nicky Delmonico, Charlie Tilson, and Ryan Cordell all had two hits for the game.
- Evan Marshall threw 1.1 scoreless innings in relief pushing his season total to 6.2 scoreless innings.
- With the victory, the White Sox are now two games ahead of Detroit for third place in the AL Central.
Record: 20-22 | Box Score | Highlights
