White Sox 3, Rays 0: Dallas Keuchel keeps Tampa’s bats silent
Before tonight’s MLB slate, teams that hit a home run had a winning percentage of .594 this season. Teams that didn’t homer saw a significant drop in winning percentage to .304. Ball go far, the team goes far still holds in 2021.
Last night, the Tampa Bay Rays provided the power smashing three homers off Lance Lynn. Tonight, Adam Engel turned on the fireworks, and Dallas Keuchel kept Tampa off the scoreboard as the White Sox won 3-0.
Danny Mendick drove in the White Sox first pair of runs in the fourth inning with a bit of lousy defense luck. Facing Rays starter Shane McClanahan, Mendick poked a single on a slider up the middle for a single. Third base coach Joe McEwing made an aggressive send trying to get Andrew Vaughn home safely.
Rays left fielder Randy Arozarena made an excellent throw to home plate that beat Vaughn by plenty. However, catcher Francisco Mejia got five-holed on the bounce as the ball rolled to the backstop. Vaughn scored, and coming around behind him was Leury Garcia. McClanahan made a toss to home that would have gotten Garcia out by at least five feet, but once again, Mejia couldn’t corral the throw. Garcia scored, and the White Sox were ahead 2-0.
Next inning, McClanahan tried to sneak a fastball down the middle, but Engel did not miss. Smashing his third home run of the season 402 feet with an exit velocity of 107.1 mph.
Even though it was just three runs, Dallas Keuchel made it feel like a 10-run lead with how he pitched. Sticking with the cutter, sinker, and changeup, Tampa’s hitters could only muster four hits off Keuchel. In the first inning, Austin Meadows doubled but was stranded as Keuchel got Yandy Diaz looking at strike three on an inside cutter.
Diaz and Mike Brosseau hit back-to-back singles in the fourth inning but didn’t advance as Keuchel escaped that jam getting Mejia and Joey Wendle to fly out. Then in the sixth inning, Diaz grounded into the 5-4-3 double play erasing Arozarena’s leadoff single. Keuchel stretched out to 102 pitches as he tossed seven scoreless innings while only allowing four hits and one walk while striking out five.
Aaron Bummer walked the leadoff hitter in the eighth inning but quickly recovered and ended the inning, striking out Arozarena on three pitches.
The ninth inning wasn’t a breeze for Liam Hendriks. After a first-pitch pop out by Meadows, Hendriks was on the other end of BABIP luck as Diaz reached first on a swinging bunt to third base. The pinch-hitter, Ji-Man Choi, singled to right field, and suddenly the Rays had the tying run batting with just one out.
Manager Kevin Cash went back to the bench having Brandon Lowe pinch-hit. After a couple of mighty hacks intending to tie the game, Hendriks won the battle getting Lowe to whiff on a high heater. Next was Wendle, and he too whiffed on Hendriks curveball that spiked around home plate. Grandal completed the strikeout with a throw to first base, and Hendriks picked up his 18th save of the season, leading the American League.
Game Notes:
- BABIP Gods were kind to Tim Anderson, who recorded three hits: a deflected comebacker off McClanahan for an infield single, another infield single off a bounced pitch, and a bloop single to right field. Anderson also recorded his 13th steal.
- Leury Garcia was 2-for-3
- Brian Goodwin continues to hit as he went 1-for-3.
- The Chicago White Sox are now 36-6 in 2021 when they hit at least one home run in a game.
Record: 42-25 | Box Score | StatCast
3 games in the past several days – keuchel twice and the lynn game yesterday, one in the upper deck, one in the mezzanine, and one in the bowl. Life is good. Last week was still a bit on the down-low with restrictions, yesterday was a September game in June. Tonight was quieter but got pumped up at the end. It’s just awesome to see the city come back to life again.
Will the guys who were crawling out on the ledge after Monday’s game please climb back in now? And close the window behind you?
Thanks.
Keuchel’s last 3 starts have been very impressive, particularly because two of them have come against the Blue Jays and Rays, who have potent offenses.
Given that, at the present moment, I don’t think there’s any question the Sox have the best starting 5 in all of baseball.
Every statistical measure seems to agree. The Sox rotation is #1 in baseball in fWAR and is 2nd or 3rd in ERA, xERA, FIP,xFIP, SIERA and a bunch of other ratings only to a couple of NL teams that face a pitcher (The Mets usually)
What a performance by Dallas, the staff is having a special year if they can get just a little more pop in the lineup…. look out. 36-6 when they homer is insane basically unbeatable when they knock one out.
It was nice to see Bummer recover and get out of the 8th.
Also, I love McEwing’s more aggressive approach at 3rd these last few weeks. It’s a young team and defenses aren’t what they used to be – force the opponent to make the play.
I remember hating the aggressive sends of Nick Capra last couple seasons. I don’t know if McEwing has a better instinct for this or he’s just lucky.
Burning Phoenix, I hear you! I can imagine feeling differently about the aggressiveness when we have a lineup that features more hitters…but for now, I don’t think you can count on the next at bat to produce a run in a lineup this thin and we have a relatively fast/athletic group of guys playing most days. So, you force the D to make a play.
We may have gotten lucky last night because the throw was on the money…on the other hand Mejia has never been known for his D and perhaps that was part of McEwing’s calculation.
It seems like the weaker links in the lineup have provided the wins on many occasions this year. I mean Engel homered again! Go Engel!
In regards to being in the Central Division:
The good news is, we get a lot of wins playing teams we should beat.
The bad news is that they cannot prove to themselves that they belong in the playoffs beating teams with losing records.
Being swept by the Yankees did not help build that confidence. They need more games like last night and hope we at least break even between the Rays and Astros.
Engel with his 3rd homer in less than a week, looking just like he did in the spring. Is it too much to ask to dispense with the lefty/righty platoon nonsense, and play Engel full time vs righties (1.2 OPS against them so far by the way), and not sit him for the hapless, helpless, and happiness-less Eaton with an OPS under .500 for June?