Carlos Rodón's five innings weren't dominant, but they were easy.
He allowed just a double and two walks while striking out four, and Luis Robert will probably say he should've made the play on the lone hit. He ran down the slicing liner on the warning track, but it clanked off the heel of his glove during his sliding attempt. He only needed 69 pitches, topping out at 19 in the fifth, so Hard Karl could take the night off.
The only thing that wasn't good was his velocity, which topped out at 92.7 and averaged 90.9 on the evening. That's not necessarily fatal in and of itself, because Rodón's had a number of starts that show that his fastball doesn't need to be high-90s to get unsuccessful swings, and the Reds' efforts resulted in seven flyouts to Luis Robert over the first four innings before testing Eloy Jiménez and Adam Engel over the second half of the game. It's just not a great indicator of his ability to make a next start.
But that can't be determined right now. Of the business that could be settled, the White Sox handled all of it, taking both games from Cincinnati with convincing victories to improve to a season-best 23 games over .500.
This one featured a nice showing against credible right-handed starter Sonny Gray, thanks in large part to an attempt to go away from Gavin Sheets' scouting report. After Leury García reached on an infield single to open the third -- Max Schrock probably ranged too far away from first given the defensive alignment -- Sheets took three curveballs and fell behind 1-2 as a result. The book says to stay low and slow with Sheets, but Gray instead tried to surprise him with a sinker. It stayed up -- groin-high, inner half -- and Sheets swatted it out to right for a 2-0 White Sox lead.
The same thing happened an inning later. With runners on first and second and two outs, Leury García ambushed a first-pitch fastball to score José Abreu and make it a 3-0 game. Up came Sheets, and Gray tried going by the book. He got ahead 0-2 on a look and a swing, but his next two secondary pitches -- a curve and a changeup -- bounced for easy takes. On 2-2, he came at Sheets with a fastball, and once again Sheets got the better of him, rifling a single to left to score Yoán Moncada for the White Sox's fourth run.
Luis Robert generated a run by himself in the fifth, reaching on a single, stealing second, taking third on a tapper and scoring via #WILDPITCHOFFENSE. Tim Anderson then capped the scoring with the more traditional form of one-man offense, an opposite-field homer off Jeff Hoffman in the seventh for his 17th homer of the year.
Ironically, Mike Wright was the only part of this game that went wrong. He was tasked with preserving the shutout after Michael Kopech threw three scoreless innings in relief, but he alternated outs with hits, the second of which was a two-out double by Delino DeShields that scored Kyle Farmer to spoil the shutout. Tony La Russa then came out to make a pitching change out of spite, using Garrett Crochet to get Aristides Aquino to ground out to third despite being up five, and Wright having a pitch count of 15.
Bullet points:
*Abreu was plunked on the elbow again, his 22nd hit by pitch of the season. He shoved a single to right field in his final at-bat as he tries to work his way out of a slump.
*Engel went 0-for-3 with a strikeout in his first game back. He's in the same position as Rodón, where we'll have to wait and see whether he can answer the bell.
*The Sox only had four at-bats with runners in scoring position, but they went 2-for-4.
*The Sox are now within 1½ games of Houston, although two back in the loss column, which makes overcoming Houston's tiebreaker edge harder.
