The White Sox are now 3-5 in games that were tied entering the ninth inning, and in the last four of those, the White Sox's best reliever has been absent when the stakes were the highest.
Instead of turning to Liam Hendriks on two days' rest to get the game into extra innings, Tony La Russa handed the ball to Garrett Crochet for the ninth. Crochet promptly showed how impressive Carlos Rodon's seven innings were, giving up a lineout to Michael Brantley, a sharp single to center by Yuli Gurriel, and a walk-off double into the right-field corner by Yordan Alvarez.
Crochet wasn't an illogical call, what with Brantley and Alvarez being lefties. Crochet's breaking ball just failed him tonight. All three batted balls came on the slider, and they all had dangerous expected batting averages (.370, .650 and .810 on Alvarez's game-winner).
Still, it'd be nice to see Hendriks occasionally be allowed to open a ninth, especially when rested. He's only had one such opportunity this year, when he struck out two batters in a perfect frame on April 13. La Russa then saw Crochet and Matt Foster falter in the 10th, and that seems to have scarred him.
But just getting to the 10th is preferable, especially in a game where the White Sox offense might've looked different when spotted a runner in scoring position, because it only had one of those over the game's final six innings. The Sox were stymied for a second straight night by a decent right-hander, with Luis Garcia followed José Urquidy's impressive outing on Thursday with seven strong innings of his own tonight.
Garcia scattered seven hits and a walk over eight innings, but he limited the damage to one run. He survived a smattering of hits early on, with six hits through three innings only leading to one first-inning run. Brian Goodwin doubled with one out as the game's second batter, which turned out to be the lone White Sox extra-base hit. Goodwin needed a pair of singles to score, and the lineup turned over in a similarly labored fashion the rest of the way.
After getting Andrew Vaughn to line out to end the third, Garcia retired nine consecutive batters until Vaughn doubled with two outs. The throw into second bounced and hit Vaughn in the face, and he eventually left the game with bruising, robbing the Sox of maybe their only potent bat. José Abreu's one-out walk off Ryne Stanek in the eighth was the only other baserunner the rest of the way, which is why starting the 10th with a runner on second might've been a godsend.
Rodón did what he could, pitching seven innings of one-run ball. Rodón lowered his ERA to 1.83 on the season, and it's a testament to his season that an outing like tonight's was a little disappointing. Houston's only run scored because Rodón lost the thread in the fifth.
Once again, Rodón carried a no-hitter well into a game. This perfect game bid lasted into the fifth, when Alvarez shanked a grounder through a vacated left side for the game's first hit. Rodón had to pitch from the stretch for the first time, and he lost his ability to locate. He walked Carlos Correa, gave up a bases-loading single to Abraham Toro, and when he struck out Myles Straw to get within one batter of an escape, he walked ninth-hitting Martín Maldonado on four pitches for the only run he allowed.
Rodón rallied to strike out the red-hot Jose Altuve for the final out, and he more or less resembled his 2021 form the rest of the way. He faced a crisis in the seventh with two on, one out and a pitch count of 103, but he induced a 6-4-3 double play from Straw to close out seven.
Codi Heuer then breezed through the 9-1-2 part of Houston's order with two strikeouts and a broken-bat lineout in the kind of outing that hopefully foreshadows a return to above-averageness.
Bullet points:
*Zack Collins was caught stealing on his first-ever attempt, although it's because Danny Mendick whiffed on an attempted hit-and-run. Mendick ended up walking and Tim Anderson singled after him, so the Sox had an inning with three baserunners and no runs.
*Rodón only got 14 whiffs on 106 pitches, which shows Houston's ability to make contact.
*Tim Anderson robbed Michael Brantley of a single in the hole, thanks to a pick by Abreu on the other end.
