White Sox 5, Indians 2: Four home runs power another win against Cleveland
The Chicago White Sox needed a good night after general manager Rick Hahn delivered the devastating news that Carlos Rodon, Nate Jones, and Micker Adolfo would miss the rest of 2019 with significant injuries. Thanks to a stellar night from Reynaldo Lopez, and four home runs from the offense, the White Sox continue to play well against the Indians winning 5-2.
It wasn’t the best start to the night for Lopez. Facing Francisco Lindor to start the game, Lopez’s 97-mph fastball found its way in the bleachers a row short of hitting the goose head in Goose Island for a monster solo shot.
Quickly down 1-0, Jose Abreu evened up the score in the bottom half crushing Shane Bieber’s hanging slider to deep center for his 10th home run of the season. That blast set the tone this evening for the White Sox offense.
Welington Castillo would turn up the beef in the second inning smashing a solo home run to give the Sox a 2-1 lead. That early advantage Castillo provided was erased by his throwing error in the third inning. After a leadoff walk to Leonys Martin, Castillo’s error allowed an extra base. With Martin at third base, Lindor picked up his second RBI of the night with a sacrifice fly to tie the game, 2-2.
Then it was Yoan Moncada’s turn to continue hurting Cleveland pitching. In the third inning, Moncada somehow found a way to stay on top of an inside 94-mph fastball and pull it straight down the right-field line. Just sneaking inside the foul pole and the White Sox were ahead 3-2.
The night is dark and full of dingers. pic.twitter.com/4uVgbXtUcQ
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) May 14, 2019
Three innings later, Moncada added another home run for his evening total going oppo taco hitting a floating changeup into the White Sox bullpen. In seven games, Moncada has already hit three doubles and four home runs against Cleveland.
Later in the seventh inning, Castillo hit a ground rule double to left field and would score on Sanchez’s bloop double down the left field line to make it 5-2. That was enough offense for Lopez, who outside of Lindor, was able to keep the Indians offense at bay. Over 7.2 innings, Lopez allowed 2 H 2 R 1 ER with 6 K and 2 BB. The productive outing helped lower Lopez’s season ERA to 5.58.
Aaron Bummer continued his scoreless streak just recording one out and giving way to Alex Colome in the ninth inning. After a loud fly out from Carlos Santana to deep center, Colome induced weak grounders from Carlos Gonzalez and Jose Ramirez to Abreu for a clean save.
Game Notes:
- The White Sox are 4-3 against Cleveland in 2019.
- Tonight was Moncada’s second multi-home run game of his career. For the season, Moncada has nine home runs and 28 RBI.
- Charlie Tilson made a nice catch:
Not today. pic.twitter.com/h1ZDg1ID5S
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) May 14, 2019
Record: 19-21 | Box Score | Highlights
Author
I went to the game. Lopez sneakily pitched really well. I’m not sure exactly what he did, but he got a lot of weak contact, and the outfield played pretty well. Tilson is good at getting back then finding the ball. Moncada and Castillo were able to evaluate some ok pitches. I didn’t think the ball would carry well, but it did.
I was a row behind where Castillo’s home run landed. I felt ok making a stab at it. Before that the only home run I was close to was a Melky Cabrera 100mph screamer that just made it over the right field wall that I wanted absolutely nothing to do with.
Self-preservation is a virtue.
Did the guys wearing the shark outfits for Tilson keep them on the whole game?
Castillo wasn’t going to have a .205 BABIP all year. Time for some positive regression.
Moncada looks to have taken a legitimate step forward in development.
It’s been quite nice watching starters cruise through 7+. Feels like it’s been awhile
After not having a single player reach the 30 HR mark in 2018, we have three players (Anderson, Abreu, and Moncada) on pace to surpass it this season. We haven’t had more than one 30-homer player in a season since 2008, when Thome (34), Dye (34), and Quentin (36) all surpassed it. To be fair, five players in 2012 hit 25+. Awesome to see this and makes me pissed the FO hasn’t done more to give these guys more support.
Being pissed in response to good things happening seems to be a thing among some.
Grief isn’t a linear process. The stages can occur in any order. Or recur.
I eat the snark, but good things happening is exactly why a lot of ya wanted to see more effort by the FO to improve the team in the offseason. If you’d said in October that Anderson and Moncada would put up 4-5 win seasons, Abreu would pound the ball, Giolito (and possibly Lopez) would solidify their places, and Omar Narvaez and Kevan Smith would collectively pound the ball, you’d certainly think that a couple big moves would at least make the division title chase interesting.
Random observation but Jason Benetti gets tricked into big swings that look like home runs but aren’t even close with the best of them. TA’s 8th inning “THAT BALL IS DRILLED!” fly out shy of the warning track made me laugh.
It’s a weird quirk and I really like the guy but it makes me miss Hawk’s reads on homers. “That ball hit deep!” was one of the most exciting things you could hear watching a game. Likewise, hearing the crowd start to erupt only to hear Hawk say “That’s a can of corn into left” made you feel like he’d seen it all and knew better.
Again, love Benetti. Just amused.
Ha was going to post this is no one else did. Benetti is quickly becoming Harry Caray on any fly ball, the 8th inning 280 foot Tim Anderson pop out you would of thought was a 450 foot homer. Be better Jason!
How many times did Hawk yell STRETCH! on 350 foot fly outs? I don’t think Benetti is getting fooled any more often than he did. Especially in Ken’s last 10 years.
Hawk really didnt get bad til he was like 70 years old and couldnt see or function much anymore and the Stretch call actually insinuates he knew the ball may not have enough to be a homer, Benetti is pretty young and needs to be better. The one last night was about as bad as it gets I think he just really was hoping Timmy got one. I bet today he will mention it during the broadcast that he got a little too excited.
I’ve noticed that Anderson’s “I’m gonna toss this bat” body language on no-doubters looks pretty similar to his “I really wanted to toss this bat” reaction on flyouts from the center field cam.
I can’t remember exactly what he said, but it seemed he sort of acknowledged that he botched the call immediately after it happened. He was awkwardly talking to Stone all the way into the commercial break, which he doesn’t normal do.
He knows, like I was saying I am sure he will mention it today and have a laugh about it. Got a little too excited.
WS Twitter seems to love them GoT quotes
FTFY – “Twitter seems to love them GoT quotes”
Adam Engel, or most MLB CFs really, wouldn’t have made Tilson’s catch look so difficult. That play wasn’t all that tough. I’m glad we have Tilson instead of Engel but he does weird stuff in the outfield.