We've seen it a few times this year: The White Sox suffer a debilitating loss, they don't play that well, and when they smoke clears, they've won two out of three and improved their position in the AL Central.
This time, with the aftermath of Nick Madrigal's severe hamstring still working itself out, the White Sox pounced on Hyun-Jin Ryu for three runs on three extra-base hits in the first inning, then went quiet for an uncomfortable amount of time while White Sox pitching had to deal with some mental locks from the defense. A couple of insurance runs the final two times the Sox came to bat made it an easier final leg to the finish line.
It's nice when "Dallas Keuchel deserved better" can be said in the same game as "Dallas Keuchel picked up the win." He allowed two runs over six innings, and both runs scored thanks to some spaced-out moments from the infield corners.
In the fifth inning, Joe Panik reached on a one-out chopper off the plate because José Abreu fielded it without a plan to flip it to Keuchel. Another chopper off the plate put runners on first and second, and Marcus Semien singled a run home to cut the White Sox's lead to 3-1.
An inning later, Keuchel had a runner on first when he coaxed Randal Grichuk into a routine grounder to third. Yoán Moncada collected it and fired calmly to first ... not knowing there was one out instead of two, and he really should've gone to second for a 5-4-3 double play. Even just cutting down the lead runner would've helped, because he ended up scoring on a single by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to make it a 3-2 game.
Keuchel threw more pitches than necessary, but he still completed a strong six, including a season-high eight strikeouts. Evan Marshall, Codi Heuer and Liam Hendriks all handled scoreless innings the rest of the way. Marshall induced an actual double-play ball from Semien to erase a leadoff single, and it was smooth sailing from there.
The White Sox blitzed Ryu early. Yermín Mercedes, batting second against a lefty with Madrigal out, doubled with one out, scored on José Abreu's opposite-field double with two outs. Yasmani Grandal then went the same way, but over the right-field wall for a two-run homer and a 3-0 lead.
Ryu settled in from there, but the Sox had better luck when he left the game. Adam Engel turned around a 2-2 Anthony Castro fastball for his first homer of the season, a solo shot that made it a 4-2 game in the seventh. An inning later, Tim Anderson drew a leadoff walk from Joel Payamps, then came around on Abreu's second RBI double of the game three batters later.
Bullet points:
*Mercedes went 2-for-4 from the second spot. Facing a lefty with less-than-stellar velocity made him a sensible play.
*The Sox extended their AL Central lead to 4½ games with Cleveland idle.
