Braves 11, White Sox 5: Wiped-out bullpen wipes out

For the fourth consecutive game, the White Sox bullpen was forced to cover at least half of the ballgame.

For the second consecutive game, the Sox crumbled just when they made a game of it.

This game was a little different, in that Reynaldo López couldn’t even get out of the first. His start went from bad to worse, when, after immediately surrendering a 1-0 lead through two batters, a prolonged two-out battle with Tyler Flowers forced him to throw his 30th pitch of the frame. Flowers hit a weak bouncer to third that should’ve been the third out, but it kicked off the bag for an infield single and a 2-1 lead.

López didn’t retire another batter. Rafael Ortega floated a single to right, Billy Hamilton hit a ground-rule double over everybody, and Dallas Keuchel shot a single through the middle to send López packing.

That left an already tired bullpen scrambling to cover 7⅓ innings, and the dam broke in the seventh.

The Sox had struck for three in the top of the seventh, even though Josh Donaldson made a sweet sliding pick to start a 5-4-3 double play in the middle of it. Matt Joyce dropped Adam Engel’s slicing fly with two outs to make it a 7-5 game.

Ross Detwiler and Kelvin Herrera teamed up to hand those runs right back.

Detwiler started by walking Flowers with one out, giving up a shanked single to Ortega, then walking Billy Hamilton to load the bases with pinch-hitting Ronald Acuña Jr. on deck. In came Herrera, who limited Acuña to a sacrifice fly, making it an 8-5 game.

But just when it appeared that Herrera could be commended, he tried to appeal Flowers’ tagging-up job at third … and balked both runners up 90 feet. That prompted an intentional walk of Ozzie Albies, which set up an unintentional run-scoring walk of Dansby Swanson, followed by a fastball that bounced past Welington Castillo to make it an 10-5 game.

Josh Donaldson then capped it off with a stinging solo shot in the eighth. After all that, Herrera still managed to lower his ERA to 7.07.

The hope is that Lucas Giolito and expanded rosters restore some sanity to the proceedings, because this game was a weird and painful one.

The White Sox actually outhit the Braves 13-12. Unfortunately, only two of those hits went for extra bases, and three of them were infield singles, including two by Eloy Jiménez. (Yoan Moncada should’ve had another one, but it was for some reason changed to an E1 even though he beat the off-target throw.)

And hits aren’t everything. The Braves outwalked the White Sox 7-0. If you include HBPs, Atlanta only held an 8-2 advantage. Jimmy Cordero plunked Freddie Freeman on the foot, while Dallas Keuchel drilled Jose Abreu on the elbow twice.

(It seemed like Josh Osich tried to avenge the second plunking, but he missed inside on Dansby Swanson before walking him. To his credit, he only took one obvious shot, and he recovered to throw two scoreless innings.)

Bullet points:

*The White Sox threw 185 pitches on the night, although at least they made the Braves throw 156.

*It could’ve been worse, because the White Sox had thrown 78 pitches before recording the fourth out of the game. By 82 pitches, they were out of the second inning.

*Every White Sox position player starter had at least one hit, including three by Jiménez and two by Yolmer Sánchez, who also made a nice pick on a hot one-hopper to second.

*Moncada required an on-field trainer visit after his infield single-turned-error, but remained in the game.

Record: 60-75 | Box score | Highlights

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