On the 10th anniversary of Mark Buehrle's perfect game, it was only fitting that an unassuming lefty made a run at perfection at 35th and Shields.
Unfortunately, the White Sox didn't have one of those this time. Instead, it was Miami's Caleb Smith who retired the first 17 he faced. Dylan Covey once again proved unable to survive two trips through the order, and so tonight was about as anticlimactic as it gets.
Smith created the only tension by flirting with history. He gained speed crossing the halfway point, striking out the side looking in the fifth and starting the sixth with two K's of the swinging variety. But then he walked the No. 9 hitter, Adam Engel, on five pitches to lose the perfecto, and followed up by walking Leury García after getting ahead 1-2. Up came Jon Jay, who took one slider out of the zone, then pulled a second one through the right side to spoil the no-hitter and the shutout.
Alas, Jose Abreu popped out to first to end that roll, and A.J. Reed's single was the only other hit the Sox tallied the rest of the game.
On the other side, Dylan Covey temporarily bounced back from a first-inning disaster in his last start against Oakland by retiring nine of the first 10 he faced, including four strikeouts.
When the heart of the lineup came up the second time, he folded. Brian Anderson roped a double to left, after which he advanced on a groundout and scored when Neil Walker shot a line drive over the drawn-in infield. Starlin Castro then smoked a double just inside third base and into the left fielder corner to make it 2-0.
Covey briefly recovered to strike out Jorge Alfaro, but after getting ahead of Curtis Granderson with a first-pitch curveball, he left a two-seamer up in the zone, and Granderson lifted it up and just over the fence in right for a two-run homer.
Covey then gave up a solo shot in the fifth for good measure. He lasted six innings, but that's not the same accomplishment against the Marlins offense. The White Sox bullpen proved by getting three scoreless, hitless innings from Jace Fry, Jimmy Cordero and Ross Detwiler. A Yoan Moncada error kept it from being a perfect three innings, but Cordero induced a 5-4-3 double play to keep the minimum intact.
Record: 45-53 | Box score | Highlights
